Movies like The Purple Ball (1988)
The best movies like The Purple Ball (1988) are Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1999), Earth to Echo (2014) and Guest from the Future (2024). If The Purple Ball hooked you with its family and science fiction, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedDoctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (2013)8.2/10 from 794 votes
- NewestMomo (2025)Released 2025
Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1999)
Zenon Kar, a 13-year-old girl who lives on a space station in the year 2049, gets into some trouble and is banished to Earth. With help from some Earth friends she must find her way back.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEarth to Echo (2014)
After a construction project begins digging in their neighbourhood, best friends Tuck, Munch and Alex inexplicably begin to receive strange, encoded messages on their cell phones. Convinced something bigger is going on, they go to their parents and the authorities. The three embark on a secret adventure to crack the code and follow it to its source, and discover a mysterious being from another world who desperately needs their help. The journey that follows will change all their lives forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisGuest from the Future (2024)
Kolya is an ordinary guy: video games, rap and friends. The last thing he cares about is the future. Until one day, he gets into the future himself. And everything is not easy there. The Earth coalition won the intergalactic war and lives quite happily, only the leaders of the defeated pirate forces are secretly preparing a new offensive. To do so, they need to go back in time and change the course of history, and Kolya unwittingly becomes their tool. But most importantly, Kolya meets Alisa, a girl unlike anyone else.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisF.R.E.D.I. (2018)
An intelligent, lovable robot known as "F.R.E.D.I." is stolen from a secret research facility by the project's lead scientist. The robot is found by a 15 year old teenager, James. Soon the two begin to communicate and create a bond in which F.R.E.D.I. learns about teenage life and James learns about some new values.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & family
SnoozefestMovies like thisFlight of the Navigator (1986)
12-year-old David is accidentally knocked out in the forest near his home, but when he awakens eight years have passed. His family is overjoyed to have him back, but is just as perplexed as he is that he hasn't aged. When a NASA scientist discovers a UFO nearby, David gets the chance to unravel the mystery and recover the life he lost.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Secret of the Third Planet (1981)
At the end of the 22nd century Alisa Seleznyova, her father Professor Seleznyov and pilot Zelyony go on a space expedition to find rare animals for Moscow Zoo. On the way they seem to encounter a mysterious conspiracy led by Doctor Verhovtsev against legendary Two Captains Kim and Buran. The only clue is a talking bird Сhatterer [Govorun] that our heroes accidentally took possession of.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTitan A.E. (2000)
A young man finds out that he holds the key to restoring hope and ensuring survival for the human race, while an alien species called the Drej are bent on mankind's destruction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMira (2022)
Near future. Lera Arabova is a 15-year-old girl who lives with her family in Vladivostok. Lera's father has been working at the orbiting space station "Mira" for many years and has long lost contact with his daughter, turning only into a voice on the phone. After a meteor shower hits the city, Lera has only one chance to save her loved ones and the city from a new disaster. Her father helps her in this - through satellite surveillance systems and the telephone, he uses every opportunity to send a message to his daughter, watching from above from the station her every step.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Last Mimzy (2007)
Two siblings begin to develop special talents after they find a mysterious box of toys, and soon their parents and even their teacher are drawn into a strange new world – and find a task ahead of them that is far more important than any of them could imagine.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnastasia: Once Upon a Time (2020)
Anastasia Romanov escapes through a portal when her family is threatened by Vladimir Lenin, and she finds herself in the year 1988, befriended by a young American girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Adam Project (2022)
After accidentally crash-landing in 2022, time-traveling fighter pilot Adam Reed teams up with his 12-year-old self on a mission to save the future.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStargate: Continuum (2008)
Ba'al travels back in time and prevents the Stargate program from being started. SG-1 must somehow restore history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoctor Who: Deep Breath (2014)
The newly-regenerated Doctor arrives in Victorian London, and Clara Oswald struggles to embrace the man he has become. All the while, they reunite with the Paternoster Gang to investigate a series of combustions that have been occurring all around the city.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTimescape (1992)
Before they can complete renovations on their new country inn, a widowed father and his young daughter are visited by a strange group of tourists. He soon makes a chilling discovery: they are disaster junkies from the future who visit the past to witness history's greatest catastrophes—and his small town is their next stop.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExtinct (2021)
Op and Ed, two adorable donut-shaped animals - flummels - accidentally time-travel from 1835 to modern-day Shanghai. There they discover traffic, trans fats, and worst of all, that flummels are now extinct. It's up to this bumbling pair to save themselves and their species...and, just maybe, change the course of history.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabylon 5: The Legend of the Rangers - To Live and Die in Starlight (2002)
After being punished for retreat from combat, Ranger David Martel is given command of the Liandra, a haunted 20-year old Minbari fighting ship. He's escorting ambassadors to a secret archaeological site, the oldest city on record and a clue to a dangerous ancient race.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMomo (2025)
Momo is a young orphan girl who lives in the ruins of an old Roman amphitheater and becomes friends with everybody in the neighborhood. But when a powerful international corporation starts stealing everybody’s time, nobody has any time left for her, let alone their friends or families. Momo, together with Master Hora, the custodian of time, are the only ones who can go up against the time thieves before all is lost forever.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWe Are from the Future (2008)
Four present-day Russian men dig for Nazi memorabilia at a WWII battlefield. A wormhole lake sends them back to a battle in 1942 USSR.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (2013)
In 2013, something terrible is awakening in London's National Gallery; in 1562, a murderous plot is afoot in Elizabethan England; and somewhere in space an ancient battle reaches its devastating conclusion. All of reality is at stake as the Doctor's own dangerous past comes back to haunt him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBabylon 5: The River of Souls (1998)
A group of Soul Hunters come to Babylon 5 demanding the return of something that was stolen from them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlash Gordon (1980)
A football player and his mates travel to the planet Mongo and find themselves fighting the tyranny of Ming the Merciless to save Earth.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisExplorers (1985)
Middle schooler Ben spends his free time watching sci-fi films, playing video games and reading comic books. Surprisingly, his affinity for all things fantastical yields a real result – when he has a vivid dream about technology, his prodigy best friend Wolfgang manages to create a working spacecraft. Joined by their buddy Darren, the boys take off into outer space and encounter some very odd extraterrestrial life.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisClockmaker (1998)
Fourteen-year-old Henry and his friends are about to change history. Sneaking into the apartment of an eccentric Clockmaker, the kids discover that the old man controls time for the entire world through an incredible array of magnificent timepieces and weird machines. When one of the curious kids accidentally pushes a wrong button and gets launched back in time, the space-time continuum is severely disrupted. As everything begins to change around them, the young adventurers must travel back in time to save their friend...and the future
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & science fiction
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (1979)
Capt. William "Buck" Rogers is a jovial space cowboy who is accidentally time-warped from 1987 to 2491. Earth is engaged in interplanetary war following a global holocaust, and Buck's piloting skills make him an ideal starfighter recruit for the Earth Defense Directorate.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlash Gordon: The Greatest Adventure of All (1982)
Flash Gordon, Dale Arden and Dr. Hans Zarkov travel to the planet Mongo to fight the evil emperor Ming the Merciless.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & adventure
A Sound of Thunder (2005)
When a hunter sent back to the prehistoric era runs off the path he must not leave, he causes a chain reaction that alters history in disastrous ways.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisMasters of the Universe (1987)
When He-Man is driven from Eternia after Skeletor seizes Castle Grayskull, a stolen portal device strands the fight on Earth, where a pair of teenagers become entangled in a war that spans worlds.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisDCW: THE MOVIE (2021)
In this epic remake of the 2016 film, based on the childhood card game of DCW, the characters of Donovan, Jash and Season Square go on a journey, exploring the crazy world of DCW but Jacky Joe Hunter is here to end the fun with a mysterious magical gem...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & science fiction
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
Four pals are stuck in a rut in adulthood: Adam has just been dumped, Lou is a hopeless party animal, Nick is a henpecked husband, and Jacob does nothing but play video games in his basement. But they get a chance to brighten their future by changing their past after a night of heavy drinking in a ski-resort hot tub results in their waking up in 1986.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man with the Objective Lens (1961)
A humorous and satirical comedy, which places a man from the year 2222 one day in the (then) present day life in GDR, East Germany under Communist regime. Using a crystal for mind reading he uncovers some improprieties and moral weaknesses in the "Beautiful future" professed by VEB ("Volkseigener Betrieb" – "State Owned Holdings").
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction
Like The Purple Ball and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Purple Ball?
The closest matches to The Purple Ball are Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1999), Earth to Echo (2014) and Guest from the Future (2024). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Purple Ball?
Start with Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century (1999), the closest match to The Purple Ball.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Purple Ball?
Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor (2013), rated 8.2/10 by 794 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Purple Ball?
Momo (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Purple Ball chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Purple Ball, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.