Being fantasy has nothing to do with being consistent in worldbuilding, the godfather of the genre was VERY consistent.
If you’re talking about Tolkien, he wasn’t the originator of the fantasy genre. It existed long before him and was generally known for being very inconsistent in worldbuilding. His main innovation was inventing a style of fantasy worldbuilding which was actually realistic.
I disagree. Maybe aesthetically to some extent but the story and writing are more inspired by classical fantasy stories. It’s a story about a poor farmer who joins a wizard on a quest to become a knight, save a princess from a dark wizard who serves an evil king. That’s a fairy tale.
And it’s also the modern canonical example of the Hero’s Journey/Monomyth structure.