Colour is an important feature of fantasy films, this is because it can help the audience distinguish the good and the evil. It can also indicate whether this is a realistic setting or supernatural. Fantasy films tend to have very bright and very gloomy colours to help with the setting.
Pleasantville:
Pleasantville is a great example for the significance of colour in fantasy films. The movie cleverly uses colour to signify changes that is happening in the narrative. Going with an IMDb brief explanation of the film: “two 1990s teenagers find themselves in a 1950s sitcom where their influence begins to profoundly change that complacent world.” Their world in 1990’s is full of colour compared to the 1950’s world, which is completely in black and white, this symbolizes the ‘perfect’ American family life.
But as the film progresses, and the teenagers start to act as they were in reality, colour starts to gradually appear, this is effective because it is very subtly done. With red appearing on the car, pink bubblegum appearing and a symbolic red rose appearing after the sister seduces the captain of the basketball team, when he drives home he sees the red rose, which is a first sign of Pleasantville changing.
Alice in Wonderland:
The differences between the White queen and the Red queen is clear and important to the story. The colour of the queen’s wardrobe and castle is significant as it can clearly tell to the audience who is good and who is evil.
The White Queen’s Castle
The Red Queen’s Castle
The white queen’s castle and colour of costume is very light and mostly white, with some pale pink. This is a clear indicator that this is a ‘good’ character. Whereas the red queen’s castle and costume is mostly red and black, with some gold, this clearly indicates to the audience that she is ‘evil’ or ‘bad’ in this scenario but that she is also royalty, and can be stronger than the white queen.
The differences are clear to the audience and is very effective. Colour is significant in this film.
The Wizard of Oz:
The Wizard of Oz (1939) started off in black and white then when Dorothy had reached Oz, the film became colour. Colour was used as a storytelling device in the film to show the contrast between the two worlds. Kansas is shown as grey and lifeless, boring, whilst Oz was colourful, full of life, and definitely not boring.
Sources:
Nass's A2 Media Blog 