Fairies, Goblins, Dwarves, Nymphs, Elves, and Others of the Fae

Tag Area: Fictional Collective
Play

Anno 7603

After lovers Julie and Leander wonder how the world would be if each other had the better qualities of the opposite gender, the fairy Feen takes them forward in time to see the effects that raising children in just that way has had.

Although the play is universally reviled for a lack of literary aspirations, it has developed a bit of a cult following as perhaps the earliest example of social science fiction (don’t pay attention to the fairy behind the curtain) and human time travel! —Michael Main
Now my children! You wish to remake each other? Julie, you want your lover transformed into a more tender companion? And you Leander, you would rather that your Julie had a more aggressive bearing?
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  • Fantasy
  • Experimental
  • Definite Time Travel
Novel

The Worm Ouroboros

For the most part, the story is a high fantasy in which three chiefs of Demonland—Lord Juss, Spitfire, and Brandoch Daha—embark on a heroic quest to rescue the fourth lord from his imprisonment in the mountains of Impland. However, at the end, Queen Sophonisba undertakes a resolution to the final problem that could well involve time travel. —Michael Main
Lord, it is an Ambassador from Witchland and his train. He craveth present audience."
A black-and-white, diamond-speckled snake with hands and teeth winds around itself several times and eats its own tail.
  • Fantasy
  • Debatable Time Travel
Comic Book

Unusual Tales #9

The Day I Lived Over Again

While on the lam, hardened criminal Blackie Nelson gets a chance to live the day over—and this time he plans to evade the police and win the girl! —Michael Main
The day’s starting over again! This doll’s going to fall for me . . . Only this time I’m going to work things different!
In the large first panel, a man in a business suit stands in front of a larger version of himself as a caveman.
  • Fantasy
  • Weird Fiction
  • Mystery and Crime
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Time Bandits

A boy’s bedroom is invaded by six dwarves who have stolen The Supreme Being’s map, which naturally leads both boy and dwarves on adventures through time. —Michael Main
Is it all ready? Right. Come on then. Back to creation. We mustn’t waste any more time. They’ll think I’ve lost control again and put it all down to evolution.
Head shots of the film
  • Fantasy
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

7 Zwerge #2

7 Zwerge: Der Wald ist nicht genug

In this retelling of Rumpelstiltskin, an older Snow White is the distraught mother in danger of losing her child, and she enlists the help of her seven old friends who (among other things) travel through a magic mirror to modern-day Hamburg. Do they time travel? That depends on whether you consider their homeland to be a secondary world (which implies travel from one world or universe to another) or a part of old Germany (which implies actual time travel!). There is a case to be made for it being old Germany, given that the first movie in the 7 Zwerge series told us that they lived in a “sinister forest, deep in the heart of a country known as . . . Germany.” —based on Wikipedia
The seven dwarves pose in front of a giant stone image of the number seven in a giant red dwarf hat.
  • Fantasy
  • Comedy
  • Debatable Time Travel
Feature Film

The Santa Clause 3

The Escape Clause

Now that Santa and Mrs. Claus have the North Pole running smoothly, the Counsel of Legendary Figures has called an emergency meeting on Christmas Eve! The evil Jack Frost has been making trouble, looking to take over the holiday! So he launches a plan to sabotage the toy factory and compel Scott to invoke the little-known Escape Clause and wish he'd never become Santa. —from publicity material
This is the part where I’m transported through time and everything goes back to the way it was, like I’d never become Santa at all.
Tim Allen (as Santa) and Martin Short (as Jack Frost) smile out at us over a winter scene in a tiny town.
  • Fantasy
  • Comedy
  • Audience: Families
  • Definite Time Travel
Novel

Artemis Fowl, Book #6

Artemis Fowl and the Time Paradox

  • by Eoin Colfer
  • (Hyperion Books for Children, July 2008)
When fourteen-year-old genius Artemis Fowl realizes that the only cure for his mother’s case of Spelltropy lies in a species of lemur that Artemis made extinct eight years ago, there is only one solution: Grab your 80-year-old, elfin-police-captain-friend Holly Short and trick her into traveling back in time to stop your formerly evil, ten-year-old self from killing off the last of the all-cure lemurs.

Author Eoin Colfer does a masterful job presenting a single nonbranching, static timeline, complete with three consistent causal loops (further described in our tag notes for this story). But really, Eoin, you missed the shuttle on “the kiss”! With the help of N°1, Artemis can time travel, so if you're intent on his first romantic kiss coming from Holly Short, couldn’t N°1 have brought Holly’s actual fourteen-year-old self into the story? Might have even presented an opportunity for a fourth causal loop: Fourteen-year-old Holly kissees fourteen-year-old Artemis, but only because fifteen-year-old Artemis had already told thirteen-year-old Holly that they would enjoy it. —Michael Main
Oh, bless my bum-flap. You’re time travelers.
A boy clutching a lemur and followed by a smaller version of himself is blown out of the page by a yellow explosion.
  • Science Fiction
  • Fantasy
  • Audience: Young Adults
  • Definite Time Travel
Novelette

Magic Tree House: Merlin Mission 15*

Leprechaun in Late Winter

Jack and Annie travel back to nineteenth-century Ireland to inspire a young Augusta Gregory to share her love of Irish legends and folktales with the world. —based on fandom.com
Peeking over a rock wall in rolling green hills, young Jack and Annie are startled to see a marching leprechaun playing a tin whistle.
  • Fantasy
  • Audience: Children
  • Definite Time Travel
Novelette

Fortunately, the Milk

When Dad is late returning from a milk (not the fat-free kind) run, he has to explain to his two kids about how he’d been delayed by sundry trips through time. —Michael Main
I am slightly lost in space and time right now and need to get home in order to make sure my children get milk for their breakfast.
No image currently available.
  • Fantasy
  • Comedy
  • Audience: Children
  • Definite Time Travel
Feature Film

Marvel Cinematic Universe 19

Avengers: Infinity War

Given that the Time Stone is a key element to Thanos’s master plan, you’d think that time travel would play a major part in this movie, but not so. Doc Strange does use the stone to view a slew of possible futures, but we know that’s not actually time travel. So where does the time travel come into play? Pay close attention to the final thirteen minutes of the film, after Strange announces “We’re in the end game now,” and you’ll spot one definite time travel moment and a second possible moment. —Michael Main
Tony, there was no other way.
A giant Josh Brolin (as Thanos) stands proudly behind a determined Robert Downey Junior (as Iron Man) and the rest of the Avengers.
  • Superhero
  • Audience: YA and Up
  • Definite Time Travel