Movies like Swallows and Amazons (1974)
The best movies like Swallows and Amazons (1974) are Swallows and Amazons (2016), Magic Island (1995) and Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991). If Swallows and Amazons hooked you with its adventure 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
- NewestDolittle (2020)Released 2020
Swallows and Amazons (2016)
Four children dream of escaping the tedium of a summer holiday with their mother. When finally given permission to camp on their own on an island in the middle of a vast lake, they are overjoyed. But when they get there they discover they may not be alone… The battle for ownership of a lonely island teaches them the skills of survival, the value of friendship and the importance of holding your nerve.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMagic Island (1995)
Jack Carlisle is a disillusioned 13-year old boy. His mother is always away at work since his father left. He decides to run away, as his mom won't miss him. As he is ready to leave, his nanny, convinces him to read this 'magic book'. The book is about a pirate adventure on Magic Island. As Jack reads the book, he is sucked into the world and goes on numerous adventures with Prince Morgan, while fleeing the evil Blackbeard the Pirate. He is even saved by Lily, a beautiful mermaid, whom he falls in love with.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & adventure
Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991)
In this sequel to the 1980 classic, two children are stranded on a beautiful island in the South Pacific. With no adults to guide them, the two make a simple life together and eventually become tanned teenagers in love.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCareful, He Might Hear You (1983)
Abandoned by his father after his mother dies, young PS lives in suburban Sydney with his aunt Lila and her husband George. While they lead a modest existence, PS is happy with them. However, his contentment is derailed when Lila's wealthy sister, Vanessa, returns from England and takes an interest in PS.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family
The Sundowners (1960)
In the Australian Outback, the Carmody family--Paddy, Ida, and their teenage son Sean--are sheep drovers, always on the move. Ida and Sean want to settle down and buy a farm. Paddy wants to keep moving. A sheep-shearing contest, the birth of a child, drinking, gambling, and a racehorse will all have a part in the final decision.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
Ten-year-old Fiona is sent to live with her grandparents in a small fishing village in Donegal, Ireland. She soon learns the local legend that an ancestor of hers married a Selkie – a seal who can turn into a human. Years earlier, her baby brother was washed out to sea and never seen again, so when Fiona spies a naked little boy on the abandoned Isle of Roan Inish, she is compelled to investigate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWild Hearts Can't Be Broken (1991)
A runaway orphan, young Sonora, persists in a menial job mucking stables in Doc Carver's travelling stunt show. Her great wish is to become a death-defying "diving girl," but Doc refuses her pleas. Undaunted, Sonora's gutsy resolve finally convinces him to give her a break. On the brink of stardom, however, a cruel twist of fate threatens to destroy her dream.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNational Velvet (1945)
Mi Taylor is a young wanderer and opportunist who finds himself in the quiet English countryside home of the Brown family. The youngest daughter, Velvet, has a passion for horses and when she wins the spirited steed Pie in a town lottery, Mi is encouraged to train the horse.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisReturn to Nim's Island (2013)
Fourteen year old Nim, more determined than ever to protect her island and all the wildlife that call it home, faces off against resort developers and animal poachers. Soon she realizes she can’t depend on her animal cohorts alone and must make her first human friend – Edmund, who’s run away to the island from the mainland – to save her home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Railway Children (1970)
At the dawn of the 20th century, following their father's arrest on suspicion of betraying state secrets, the three Waterbury children—Bobbie, Phyllis and Peter—move with their mother to Yorkshire, where they find themselves involved in unexpected dramas along the railway by their new home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Thief Lord (2006)
A tale about two young boys, Prosper and Bo, who flee to Venice after being orphaned and dumped in the care of a cruel auntie. Hiding in the canals and alleyways of the city, the boys are befriended by a gang of young urchins and their enigmatic leader, the Thief Lord. From their home base of an old cinema theater, the children steal from the rich to support themselves and soon capture the interest of a bumbling detective. However, a greater threat to the children is something from a forgotten past - a beautiful magical treasure with the power to spin time itself
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Blue Lagoon (1949)
In the Victorian period, two British children survive a shipwreck in the South Pacific. After days afloat, they are marooned on a lush tropical island in the company of kindly old sailor. Together they survive solely on their resourcefulness and the bounty of their remote paradise.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
War of the Buttons (1994)
War between two Irish youth gangs consists of removing and retrieving buttons from each other's clothing.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisEnchanted April (1991)
When married British women Rose Arbuthnot and Lottie Wilkins decide to take a break from their respective spouses, they stay at a castle in Italy for a quiet holiday. Joining the ladies is Caroline Dester, a young socialite, and Mrs. Fisher, an older aristocrat. Liberated from their daily routines, the four women ease into life in rural Italy, and each finds herself transformed by the experience.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFly Away Home (1996)
Amy is only 13 years old when her mother is killed. She goes to Canada to live with her father, an eccentric inventor whom she barely knows. Amy is miserable in her new life... until she discovers a nest of goose eggs that were abandoned when a local forest was torn down. The eggs hatch and Amy becomes "Mama Goose". When winter comes, Amy and her dad must find a way to lead the birds South.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRasmus and the Vagabond (1981)
9-year old orphan called Rasmus runs away from the orphanage. He meets a vagabond they call Paradise Oskar who likes to sing and play his accordion. Oskar makes the Rasmus world seem like a better place.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Belle and Sebastian: The Adventure Continues (2015)
September, 1945. Sebastian impatiently waits for the return of his friend Angelina, whom he has not seen for two years. When the plane carrying the young woman to her small village in the Alps is reported to have crashed in the mountains, Sebastian is convinced that Angelina is still alive. Along with his faithful dog Belle, Sebastian embarks on the most dangerous adventure of his life.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Three Investigators in The Secret of Skeleton Island (2007)
The hobby detectives “The Three Investigators” want to take a little break. So they take advantage of an offer from Peter's father, who has accepted a job in South Africa and wants to take the detectives there. But Jupiter, Peter and Bob wouldn't be the three investigators marks feared by the criminal world if they just lounged around in the sun on their vacation. So it's no wonder that the clever boys soon have their next case to solve...
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInternational Velvet (1978)
Sarah Brown is sent to England after her parents die in a car crash. There, she lives with her aunt Velvet who introduces Sarah to the world of equestrian competition and gives her the last foal of her own prize horse, The Pie. Under the watchful eye of her aunt and horse trainer Capt. Johnson, Sarah develops into a talented rider who might have a shot at the Olympics.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family
Heidi (2015)
Heidi, is an eight-year-old Swiss orphan who is given by her aunt to her mountain-dwelling grandfather. She is then stolen back by her aunt from her grandfather to live in the wealthy Sesemann household in Frankfurt, Germany as a companion to Klara, a sheltered, disabled girl in a wheelchair. Heidi is unhappy but makes the best of the situation, always longing for her grandfather.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Black Stallion (1979)
While traveling with his father, young Alec becomes fascinated by a mysterious Arabian stallion that is brought on board and stabled in the ship he is sailing on. When it tragically sinks both he and the horse survive only to be stranded on a deserted island. He befriends it, so when finally rescued both return to his home where they soon meet Henry Dailey, a once successful trainer. Together they begin training the horse to race against the fastest ones in the world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIsland of the Blue Dolphins (1964)
Based on the beloved book by Scott O'Dell, this family movie tells the adventures of a young Native American girl. After her father is killed by a malevolent white trapper, Karana joins her community as they leave their island home in the Pacific to live on the mainland. Upon her departure, Karana realizes that her brother has been left behind. She immediately swims back to be with him and the two remain on the abandoned island. Though Karana is able to domesticate a wolf, her brother is not so fortunate with the animals and is killed by a pack of wild dogs. She is left to survive against the odds.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Pippi Longstocking (1969)
Pippi Longstocking, a super-strong redheaded little girl, moves into her father's cottage Villa Villekulla, and has adventures with her next-door neighbors Tommy and Annika in this compilation film of the classic Swedish TV series. This was followed by Pippi Goes on Board.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
Plucky Englishwoman Joan Webster travels to the remote islands of the Scottish Hebrides in order to marry a wealthy industrialist. Trapped by inclement weather on the Isle of Mull and unable to continue to her destination, Joan finds herself charmed by the straightforward, no-nonsense islanders around her, and becomes increasingly attracted to naval officer Torquil MacNeil, who holds a secret that may change her life forever.
Why it matches: Fans watch both
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRobby (1968)
Shipwrecked on a tropical island, a young boy befriends an abandoned native youth, forcing him to reevaluate societal prejudice about race, religion and nudity.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & adventure
Pippi in the South Seas (1970)
Pippi Longstocking, accompanied by friends Tommy and Annika, adventures on the South Seas to search for her father, who has been kidnapped by pirates.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Water Horse (2007)
A lonely boy discovers a mysterious egg that hatches a sea creature of Scottish legend.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTreasure Island (1934)
In this early film adaptation of the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, young Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver in search of buccaneer Captain Flint's buried treasure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDolittle (2020)
After losing his wife seven years earlier, the eccentric Dr. John Dolittle, famed doctor and veterinarian of Queen Victoria’s England, hermits himself away behind the high walls of Dolittle Manor with only his menagerie of exotic animals for company. But when the young queen falls gravely ill, a reluctant Dolittle is forced to set sail on an epic adventure to a mythical island in search of a cure, regaining his wit and courage as he crosses old adversaries and discovers wondrous creatures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Swallows and Amazons?
The closest matches to Swallows and Amazons are Swallows and Amazons (2016), Magic Island (1995) and Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Swallows and Amazons?
People who watched Swallows and Amazons most often go on to Swallows and Amazons (2016), Magic Island (1995) and Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991).
What is the highest-rated movie like Swallows and Amazons?
A Little Princess (1995), rated 7.6/10 by 1,080 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Swallows and Amazons?
Dolittle (2020) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Swallows and Amazons?
Yes: Swallows and Amazons (2016), Magic Island (1995) and Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991).
How are movies similar to Swallows and Amazons chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Swallows and Amazons, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.