What is Fantasy?

In this context, people get very confused about what fantasy actually is. In my view fantasy, whether classic fantasy or modern fantasy, involves a world which is impossible to create in real life, for example the presence of magic or dragons. Yes, it's fine to have tough warriors (either male or female) fighting with swords - after all, this happened for real in our history, but introduce a wizard and it becomes fantasy.

Fantasy is not science fiction. Science fiction is also creating an imaginary world, but the sci-fi world is based (sometimes quite loosely) on science, e.g. starships, aliens etc and there is always the debate about whether science could advance enough to create starships and phasers and the oher things seen in science fiction.

I have always been a huge fan of fantasy films, particularly the classic swords and sorcery brand of fantasy. In the past this used to be seen as a little geeky, but now with Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, King Kong, Godzilla and the Tolkien films, to name a few, fantasy has gained a much broader audience. However, how can anyone look at a timeless classic fantasy film, like the pictue from One Million Years BC below, and not enjoy it on so many levels...