After 15 years, Disney is developing Disenchanted, a sequel to their popular fairytale satire Enchanted. Fans are divided on whether or not the company will be able to make a sequel on par with the original, fearing that messing with perfection could break it altogether. However, the parody genre has repeatedly shown itself capable of adapting to the new source material, which means there's no reason to believe a sequel couldn't be just as good.
While people often think of parody specifically within the comedic genre, there have been extremely successful parodies of every major genre out there. They dive deep into the iconic films of each genre, learning the rules and finding the best ways to critique and play with them. Many parodies are just as good as the movies they are spoofing. Ranker compiled the best of these, allowing their readers to vote on which parodies are most successful at creating iconic works within the genre they used as inspiration.
Note: Ranker lists are live and continue to accrue votes, so some rankings may have changed after this publishing.
Last Action Hero
Teenage Danny Madigan copes with his father's death by obsessing over action movies, watching them over and over until the fateful day he gets sucked into one. After pointing out the fictional parts of the movie, the hero and villain move in and out of the movie, trying to find a way to live beyond their scripted paths.
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Action movies can get a little crazy sometimes, and this movie mocks every bad trope they have. The inclusion of Arnold Schwarzenegger makes the movie feel authentic to the genre, and it successfully mocks other action movies while also giving its viewers the standard thrilling fight scenes they love.
Enchanted
Years before Once Upon A Time started playing with fairytale tropes, Enchanted came out as one of the best fairytale movies set in the modern-day. The movie follows Giselle as she is transported from an animated fairytale into the real world. She learns about the complexities of life and love, lessons that guide her as her fairytale past comes to call.
Technically speaking, this is Disney parodying itself, which should take away from its authenticity, but surprisingly doesn't. The film captures all of the splendors of a traditional fairytale movie, while also responding to the many critiques Disney has received for their more standard fare, leaving fans hesitantly hopeful about the upcoming sequel.
Kung Fu Hustle
After a disappointing life of trying to become a kung fu master, Sing and his friend Bone decide to join Brother Sum's Axe Gang, but they wind up getting caught in the middle of a dramatic battle between the owners and residents of a slum and the gang. After proving their skills to Brother Sum, Sing and Bone begin to question what they want out of life.
What's great about this movie is, that despite openly mocking the genre, it has better stunt choreography than a lot of the movies it's parodying. The film goes deeper than just referencing the genre as well, focusing on telling an engaging story in its own right, with strong characters and motivated betrayals.
The Cabin In The Woods
A group of college students decides to spend their vacation at a cabin in the woods, where they discover a hidden room filled with objects meant to launch a horror movie. They accidentally activate the zombie hillbilly story and have to fight for their lives despite the secret government agency controlling their actions and guiding them to their deaths.
Though the movie had an extremely misleading trailer, fans will agree that it was for the best this time. The supposed horror movie turned out to be a sci-fi thriller in disguise, where the callousness of horror directors and fans toward the violence on their screens was amplified by it happening to real people. These are protagonists the audience can root for, and the lampooning of the horror genre never gets in the way of the movie's message.
Scream
In a time when horror seemed to be dying, Scream came to bring it back to life through parody. As a masked killer works their way through the teens of Woodsboro, Sidney Prescott tries to cope with the anniversary of her mother's death, her pushy boyfriend, and an invasive reporter.
Scream is a movie famous for subverting typical horror tropes in the slasher genre, directed by A Nightmare On Elm Street's Wes Craven. It plays with characters who watch horror movies, and thus who don't make all the same dumb mistakes. While its meta-humor is unbeatable, it's also a solid horror movie in its own right, particularly with its terrifying opening sequence.
Clue
Inspired by the board game, Clue follows a group of party guests trying to solve a series of murders. As secrets are exposed and bodies pile up, characters and audiences alike have to guess who did it before they all take the fall. The trick is, that there were three different endings sent to different theatres, meaning no one ending was correct.
While the multiple endings were a fun twist, they led to several things that audiences can't make sense of. The evidence doesn't necessarily add up, and the characters can't be consistently understood. However, many fans hold that up as the movie's appeal, since its nonsensical twists and turns poke fun at the same plot twists present in more serious murder mysteries.
Galaxy Quest
Galaxy Quest is a modern classic that follows the cast of Galaxy Quest, a Star Trek analog, as they get transported to space to fight real alien battles. They encounter an alien species that has used their show as inspiration for their entire society and must enlist the help of the show's superfans to defeat a warlord intent on ending them and their influence.
While this film does mock Star Trek, it also praises it for the optimistic view of humanity and its future that the show presents. On top of that, it's a pretty fun space quest in its own right, using the genre conventions to give the fans everything they love most about sci-fi alongside the playful critiques.
Shrek
Shrek may have started as a punishment project, but it turned into a beloved comedy thanks to its stereotype-breaking characters. While the fairytale itself is pretty standard—the protagonist takes a journey to save his home, goes against a dragon, rescues a princess, and finds love—every other detail breaks the mold.
By subverting the idea of beauty and who deserves love, Shrek is inspirational to everyone who ever felt like they didn't deserve to hear their story told. The traditional narratives can be harmful, and the self-aware characters have the opportunity to point that out and show audiences a better way.
Hot Fuzz
After no-nonsense police sergeant Nicholas Angel is reassigned to a boring rural town, he jumps at the idea of a murderer to stop. Alongside his partner Danny Butterman (who loves buddy-cop movies), he tries to find the perpetrator as every suspect and witness is killed before their eyes. When they finally discover the truth, Angel must decide between his safety and his allegiance to his partner.
Although the plot feels more like a slasher film at times, Hot Fuzz captures all the heart of a good buddy-cop movie. The change in setting shows off some of the more absurd moments in standard buddy cop films and the fact that both men watched the movies together means they recognize every time their investigation mirrors one.
Shaun Of The Dead
When the zombie apocalypse first starts, Shaun doesn't notice, caught up in the repetitious drudgery of his everyday life. But when everything goes chaotic, he has to fight to keep his friends and family alive and fix the relationships between them that ordinary life broke.
This satire makes the argument of Dawn of the Dead explicit, looking into how capitalism and commercialism have made zombies of us all. The film manages to have touching family dynamics and plenty of humor, all while making a surprisingly effective zombie movie. Shaun of the Dead masters its genre while effortlessly critiquing it, making it a must-see film, even for those who would usually avoid zombie movies and the horror genre altogether.