Movies like Matilda (1996)
The best movies like Matilda (1996) are A Little Princess (1995), Ramona and Beezus (2010) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). If Matilda hooked you with its comedy and family, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedA Little Princess (1995)7.6/10 from 1,080 votes
- NewestFreakier Friday (2025)Released 2025
A Little Princess (1995)
When her father enlists to fight for the British in WWI, young Sara Crewe goes to New York to attend the same boarding school her late mother attended. She soon clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin, who attempts to stifle Sara's creativity and sense of self-worth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRamona and Beezus (2010)
Ramona is a little girl with a very big imagination and a nose for mischief. Her playful antics keep everyone in her loving family on their toes, including her older sister Beezus, who's just trying to survive her first year of high school. Through all the ups and downs of childhood, Ramona and Beezus learn that anything's possible when you believe in yourself and rely on each other.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMrs. Doubtfire (1993)
Loving but irresponsible dad Daniel Hillard, estranged from his exasperated spouse, is crushed by a court order allowing only weekly visits with his kids. When Daniel learns his ex needs a housekeeper, he gets the job -- disguised as a British nanny. Soon he becomes not only his children's best pal but the kind of parent he should have been from the start.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNanny McPhee (2005)
Widower Cedric Brown hires Nanny McPhee to care for his seven rambunctious children, who have chased away all previous nannies. Taunted by Simon and his siblings, Nanny McPhee uses mystical powers to instill discipline. And when the children's great-aunt and benefactor, Lady Adelaide Stitch, threatens to separate the kids, the family pulls together under the guidance of Nanny McPhee.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHoney, I Shrunk the Kids (1989)
The scientist father of a teenage girl and boy accidentally shrinks his and two other neighborhood teens to the size of insects. Now the teens must fight diminutive dangers as the father searches for them.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFreaky Friday (2003)
Mother and daughter bicker over everything -- what Anna wears, whom she likes and what she wants to do when she's older. In turn, Anna detests Tess's fiancé. When a magical fortune cookie switches their personalities, they each get a peek at how the other person feels, thinks and lives.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAddams Family Values (1993)
Siblings Wednesday and Pugsley Addams will stop at nothing to get rid of Pubert, the new baby boy adored by parents Gomez and Morticia. Things go from bad to worse when the new "black widow" nanny, Debbie Jellinsky, launches her plan to add Fester to her collection of dead husbands.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGhost Dad (1990)
Elliot Hopper, a widower with three children, is working on a business deal to get his family out of financial straits when he is suddenly killed in a taxi accident. With the aid of a paranormal researcher, Elliott attempts to complete the deal from the beyond, ensuring his family will be taken care of.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
SnoozefestMovies like thisCharlie and the Chocolate Factory (2005)
A young boy wins a tour through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, led by the world's most unusual candy maker.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHarriet the Spy (1996)
Harriet may only be in the sixth grade, but she's already found her calling: to be a spy. In a private journal she takes everywhere, Harriet records suspicious activity and keeps a running list of observations on virtually everyone she knows. It seems harmless enough until, one day, someone finds the journal and exposes Harriet's critical thoughts about her classmates. Suddenly, even her best friends are against her, and Harriet resolves to take revenge.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe School for Good and Evil (2022)
Best friends Sophie and Agatha navigate an enchanted school for young heroes and villains — and find themselves on opposing sides of the battle between good and evil.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSabrina the Teenage Witch (1996)
A girl, sent by her parents to live with her two eccentric aunts, finds out on her sixteenth birthday that she is a witch.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwitches (2005)
Twins separated at birth, Camryn and Alex meet by chance for the first time on their 21st birthday and discover they're witches with the power to save their homeland of Coventry from the evil that threatens it. But when Camryn leaves Alex to face the darkness alone, will Coventry be doomed? Or will the sisters multiply their magic by standing together?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHocus Pocus (1993)
After 300 years of slumber, three sister witches are accidentally resurrected in Salem on Halloween night, and it is up to three kids and their newfound feline friend to put an end to the witches' reign of terror once and for all.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Witches (1990)
While staying at a hotel in England with his grandmother, Helga, a young boy named Luke inadvertently spies on a convention of witches. The Grand High Witch reveals a plan to turn all children into mice via a magical formula. When they discover the eavesdropper, the witches test the formula on him. Now, with the help of Helga and hotel manager Mr Stringer, Luke the mouse must fight back against the witches.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBridge to Terabithia (2007)
Jesse Aarons trained all summer to become the fastest runner in school. So he's very upset when newcomer Leslie Burke outruns him and everyone else. Despite this and other differences including that she's rich, he's poor, she's a city girl, and he's a country boy the two become fast friends. Together they create Terabithia, a land of monsters, trolls, ogres, and giants where they rule as king and queen.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
Upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, along with their sister Mallory, find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries and other creatures.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoald Dahl's Matilda the Musical (2022)
An extraordinary young girl discovers her superpower and summons the remarkable courage, against all odds, to help others change their stories, whilst also taking charge of her own destiny. Standing up for what's right, she's met with miraculous results.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMary Poppins (1964)
In turn of the century London, a magical nanny employs music and adventure to help two neglected children become closer to their father.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCasper (1995)
Casper is a kind young ghost who peacefully haunts a mansion in Maine. When specialist James Harvey arrives to communicate with Casper and his fellow spirits, he brings along his teenage daughter, Kat. Casper quickly falls in love with Kat, but their budding relationship is complicated not only by his transparent state, but also by his troublemaking apparition uncles and their mischievous antics.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRoald Dahl's The Witches (2020)
In late 1967, a young orphaned boy goes to live with his loving grandma in the rural Alabama town of Demopolis. As the boy and his grandmother encounter some deceptively glamorous but thoroughly diabolical witches, she wisely whisks him away to a seaside resort. Regrettably, they arrive at precisely the same time that the world's Grand High Witch has gathered.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium (2007)
Molly Mahoney is the awkward and insecure manager of Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium—the strangest, most fantastic and most wonderful toy store in the world. After Mr. Magorium bequeaths the store to her, a dark and ominous change begins to take over the once-remarkable Emporium.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMadeline (1998)
Horrified at the prospect of her beloved school being sold, a young French girl named Madeline uses her wit and craftiness to attempt to save it, making an unlikely new friend in the process.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Flintstones (1994)
Modern Stone Age family the Flintstones hit the big screen in this live-action version of the classic cartoon. Fred helps Barney adopt a child. Barney sees an opportunity to repay him when Slate Mining tests its employees to find a new executive. But no good deed goes unpunished.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & comedy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Borrowers (1997)
The four-inch-tall Clock family secretly share a house with the normal-sized Lender family, "borrowing" such items as thread, safety pins, batteries and scraps of food. However, their peaceful co-existence is disturbed when evil lawyer Ocious P. Potter steals the will granting title to the house, which he plans to demolish in order to build apartments. The Lenders are forced to move, and the Clocks face the risk of being exposed to the normal-sized world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisStuart Little (1999)
When the Littles adopt Stuart, the mouse, George is initially unwelcoming to his new brother, and the family cat, Snowbell, is even less enthusiastic. Stuart resolves to face these difficulties with as much pluck and courage as he can muster.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010)
Nanny McPhee appears at the door of a harried young mother who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she’s arrived, Nanny discovers that the children are fighting a war of their own against two spoiled city cousins who have just moved in. Relying on everything from a flying motorcycle and a statue that comes to life to a tree-climbing piglet and a baby elephant, Nanny uses her magic to teach her mischievous charges five new lessons.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEloise at the Plaza (2003)
Eloise is a precocious but lovable six-year-old girl who lives in New York's Plaza Hotel. Her caretaker "Nanny" watches over her while her mom is away. Then one day, while trying to figure out how to get invited to a fancy ball as well as how to meet a visiting prince, Eloise makes a new friend around her age! So she decides to take him on a tour of the city - and all while plotting some matchmaking hijinks for her other friends too!
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLife-Size (2000)
Sad and lonely after the death of her mother, Casey would do anything to see her again. But when a series of mystic mishaps mistakenly brings her fashion doll “Eve” to life instead, it changes Casey’s world forever!
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFreakier Friday (2025)
Years after Tess and Anna endured an identity crisis, Anna now has a daughter of her own and a soon-to-be stepdaughter. As they navigate the myriad challenges that come when two families merge, Tess and Anna discover lightning might indeed strike twice.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both comedy & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Matilda?
The closest matches to Matilda are A Little Princess (1995), Ramona and Beezus (2010) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Matilda?
People who watched Matilda most often go on to A Little Princess (1995), Ramona and Beezus (2010) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993).
What is the highest-rated movie like Matilda?
A Little Princess (1995), rated 7.6/10 by 1,080 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Matilda?
Freakier Friday (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Matilda?
Yes: A Little Princess (1995), Ramona and Beezus (2010) and Mrs. Doubtfire (1993).
How are movies similar to Matilda chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Matilda, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.