A travel guide to imaginary realms

Time traveling adventurers in Time BanditsA travel guide to imaginary realms

How do you get to Narnia, Neverland, Oz, or Hogwarts? The way to these parallel other worlds that sometimes intersect with ours is not always obvious. All you need to know is the secret. Here is a brief guide to common tropes and modes of transportation. When in doubt, try a dash of fairy dust.

Natural (or Unnatural) Phenomena

In “Epic,” it’s a magic flower bud, or “pod,” as well as the spirit of a dying queen, that transports M.K. to the land of the Leafmen. Tornadoes also do the trick, as in “The Wizard of Oz.” Or a whack to the head works, too, like the one the kid in “The Pagemaster” suffers before the fantasy world of the library comes to life.

Tunnels, Caves, and Dark Spaces

Slither into a tunnel or cavern (“Pan’s Labyrinth”), fall down a hole (“Alice in Wonderland”), or explore the back of your closet (“The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”). By means of this reverse birth-womb experience through the darkness — paging Dr. Freud — you’ll reach that hidden world.

Portals and Hidden Places

Magic or hidden doors work well enough (“The Secret Garden”). But if you’re trying to protect the location of, say, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, you might devise a special train which departs only from Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross station on certain days during the year. Or, your secret world could be accessible through a time tunnel, like the one “Time Bandits” uses.

Books and Stories

“Tome-travel” gets us there and back again. Books equal bedtime stories, sleepy-time, dreamtime, and serve as our literary portal into the imagination. In movies ranging from “The Neverending Story” and “The Spiderwick Chronicles” to “Where the Wild Things Are,” books may contain secret instructions or actually draw the reader into their pages.

Miscellaneous Devices

Don’t touch that button! Don’t play that game! In “Jumanji,” kids playing a mysterious board game unleash all kinds of trouble; in “The Last Starfighter,” it’s an arcade game that opens a portal to a distant world that needs the help of a young video gamer. In “Last Action Hero,” it’s a magic movie ticket that’s the ticket to paradise.

ETHAN GILSDORF

Originally appeared in the Boston Globe

The best fantasy franchise is...

Harry Potter?

According to a poll conducted by the website Moviefone and Bebo, Harry Potter has been voted the Best Fantasy Franchise in a new Internet poll. The result are striking: Harry got 73 per cent of votes, Lord of the Rings got 16, Twilight eight and lowly Chronicles of Narnia nabbed just three percent of the votes. Of course, this is probably a classic case of short-term cultural memory loss. Because of the frenzy surrounding the Half-Blood Prince release, everyone has Harry on the mind. Had you asked folks at the height of Rings mania back in 2001-2003, you might have gotten a much different answer. And probably fewer teenage girls voting. The other issue being, none of the news reports of this poll stated how the data was gathered, how many or who was surveyed, or anything else about the methodology. Maybe only catholic girls schools were targeted in online banner ads showing a half-naked Daniel Radcliffe.

--- Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks