I recently picked Grimm up at my local shop and have been reading it cover to cover before coming up with our first adventure. As I've been reading it, it has reminded me of a number of different movies. I thought it would be fun to come up with a list of movies people should see to get in the 'Grimm' mood before playing. Here's a short list of what I've thought of so far.

Hook
Labyrinth
Neverending Story
Little Monsters ( Anyone else remember this totally crazy 80's movie with Fred Savage and Howie Mandel?)
Nightmare Before Christmas (the idea of a Christmas monsters vs Halloween monsters campaign has crossed my mind more than once)
Goonies
Alice in Wonderland (some versions more than others)
Return to Oz
The 10th Kingdom

Other than movies the first thing I thought of while reading Grimm was Terry Pratchett's Discworld book called Witched Abroad which I also highly recommend to anyone looking for messed up fairytale story ideas. It's also a really funny book anyway.

So what other movies can anyone think of that share the same atmosphere as Grimm?

Whoops I meant 'Witches Abroad'

Best inspiration you can ever have from movies: The Brothers Grimm (with Heath Ledger and Matt Daymond)

This movie depicts the exact mood and theme you should try to achieve in Grimm RPG

I can't believe I forgot that movie! I was just talking to someone about it a week ago because they liked Heath Ledger but had never seen it before.

Pan's Labyrinth.

Definetly Pan's Labyrinth.

I took inspiration from Sci Fi channels Tin Man, and the movie City of Lost Children.

Legend

Jim Henson's Storyteller Series

Willow

Dragonslayer

Bridge to Tarabitha

Narnia Chronicles both the BBC releases as well as the Hollywood releases.

Harry Potter series

Dungeons & Dragons Cartoon Series

Eragon

The Golden Compass

The Last Unicorn

Princess Bride

If only for that fairy tale feel and idears!

In addition to the movies mentioned here, you might consider the "Shrek" movies, "The Dark Crystal", "The Cell" (Yes, the J-Lo movie. The parts where she's in the psycho's mind are pretty kick ass), "The Nightmare before Christmas", "Beetlejuice", and "Charlie and the Chocolate factory".

Skudfisher: Heck, I used to have "Little Monsters" comic books. *smiles*

I think that The 10th Kingdom would be a great movie/series to watch before playing... just based on what I've read about Grimm (and what I've seen in the D20 version) it seems to be just the sort of mindset that you'd want to have. *smiles* And an upcoming movie that might be added to the list: The Power of the Dark Crystal, the sequel being directed by Henson's son and produced by his daughter (and bringing back a number of the people who worked on the original, if I remember correctly.)

A number of Hayao Miyazaki (Studio Ghibli) movies come to mind, of course most notably and directly Spirited Away , though Nausicaa or Mononoke are both inspiring in terms of a child who's gone 'feral.' Of course, most of these movies are significantly lighter in tone than Grimm.

Also worth considering is Akira Kurosawa's Dreams , particularly 'The Fox's Wedding.' It's the story of a young boy who sneaks out to see a marraige-train of fox-spirits in the woods, and when he returns home, his mother hands him a knife and says he must kill himself, or go ask the foxes for fogiveness. It's a really intriguing scene, and perfect for Grimm.

People already said most of the ones that came to mind, though I noticed Mirrormask was absent from among the Jim Henson and Neil Gaiman suggestions. Perhaps I'm breaking some taboo by mentioning it, but it certainly illustrates one possible fairytale world, and has it's share of horror and wonder.

But because I think good movies bear repeating:

• Pan's Labyrinth
• Labyrinth
• City of Lost Children
• The Nightmare Before Christmas

Coraline was released to theatres just a little while ago. It is another Neil Gaiman story, and worth seeing for inspiration.

Other that are not out yet, but might be worth keeping an eye out for:

2009 release of a movie called "9", by Tim Burton. The plot synopsis describes a group of sapient rag-dolls living in a post-apocalyptic world. Sounds like Grimm material to me.

2010 release of "Alice in Wonderland", also by Tim Burton. If Tim burton is involved, you know this version is going to be Grimm material.

They are making the "Alice" computer game into a movie?!?!?!

SOOOOO AAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWSSSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOMMEEEEEEEEEEEE!

PURE FRAKKING AWSOOOOOOOMEEEEEE!

Its seems a lot of these movies came out in the 80's, a golden age for fantasy films? I think the LotR trilogy is epic fantasy but not fairy tale and the fairy tale feel is more attuned with the Princess Bride, Krull, Legend (still am amazed by Dr. Frank-n-Furter- Tim Curry as the demon/satanic lord in that film and Tom Cruise is so imperfect from how he has Hollywoodized his appearance, that he actually makes the character more real).

The 80's were a golden era for Fairy Tale cinema... what about TV miniseries?

How about Where the WiLd Things Are? It will be coming out in Theatres Oct 16th 2009!

Check it out the trailer here: www.apple.com/trailers/wb/wherethewildthingsare/

I was thinking about this thread the other day and thought "Time Bandits" and "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen" by Terry Gilliam might also be good sources of inspiration.

I couldn't speak for the movies, but for books, Inkheart and The Thief of Always are great. So is the Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, who also wrote Coraline.

Talking it over with a few of my players the other night and we thought Monster Squad would be a good inspirational film, especially as we went over some general talents. "Wolfman's got nards!"

Mirrormask, Silent Hill, Forbidden Kingdom, Spiderwick Chronicles, Flushed Away.

I've just recently discovered Grimm and have been watching these to get some ideas as well as many of the previously mentioned ones.

I think MirrorMask gives me the most inspiration. Granted, I only just started devoloping my own ideas, but I think MirrorMask really fits into the same theme as Grimm.

It's just plain weird and off it's rocker.

True. But I think the Queen of Shadow would be an awesome villian in Grimm. And it would be cool to have a Valentine NPC that helps your party. Well, until he gets bribed by someone. Oh, and what if the kids that you are playing as in the Grimm Lands were replaced in the reral world by their anti-selves? I think that would make a cool subplot in Grimm.

And let's not forget The Wizard of Oz and The Forbidden Kingdom. Both fall into the same theme as Grimm and the afore mention MirrorMask. A child(ren) trying to return home from a crazy world.

Okay, call me crazy, but...

perhaps every single Walt Disney fairy tale themed animated movie. I know... there is singing, there are happy ends, there are cute talking animals... but there are also scenes that scared the crap out of me, when I was a child, like the Beast when he met Belle for the first time, Dschafar, when he turned into a Djeenie and the whole "boys changing to donkeys" thing in Pinocchio. There are some things that can be used in Grimm campaings.

You're right about that, Jiba. A few Disney films were adapted from the Grimm fairy tales. Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and, I think, Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. There could be others, but I can't think of any right now. Also, there are a few video games that give me inspiration.

The Kingdom Hearts series(granted, Disney does have something to do with those games), Legend of Dragoon, Legend of Legaia, and Wild ARMs just to name a few.

Yeah, Kingdom Hearts is definitily an inspiration for Grimm - it has children who use the purity of their hearts to defeat the villains, it has crazy fairy tale worlds... and it's just plain COOL...

Some video games I highly recommend:

- "Odin Sphere": While it has nothing to do with children or fairy tales, check it out - I think it's style is pretty grimmish...

- "American McGee's Alice" and "American McGee's Grimm": It should be obvious why...