Movies like Paper Dream (2025)
The best movies like Paper Dream (2025) are DC Showcase: The Phantom Stranger (2020), The Brave Little Toaster (1987) and Waking Life (2001). If Paper Dream hooked you with its animation and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Paper Dream
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFar from the Tree (2021)8.1/10 from 395 votes
- NewestCrossfaded: Thesis Film (2026)Released 2026
DC Showcase: The Phantom Stranger (2020)
Jess joins her friends at a party in a dilapidated mansion hosted by the mysterious Seth. When odd things begin to happen to Jess and her friends, the Phantom Stranger intervenes to save her from a dreary fate.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Brave Little Toaster (1987)
A group of dated appliances, finding themselves stranded in a summer home that their family had just sold, decide to seek out their eight year old 'master'.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWaking Life (2001)
Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisChickenhare and the Hamster of Darkness (2022)
A brave young animal explorer teams up with two trusty friends to find a powerful artifact before his greedy uncle can get his paws on it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonster High: Scaris City of Frights (2013)
The Monstruitas of Monster High are obsessed with going to Scaris, The City of Frights for Fashion international competition where the winner will become the apprentice of the world famous Madame Ghostier designer.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMonster House (2006)
Monsters under the bed are scary enough, but what happens when an entire house is out to get you? Three teens aim to find out when they go up against a decrepit neighboring home and unlock its frightening secrets.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShrek's Yule Log (2010)
Inside the Shrek home, a fire blazes in the fireplace during a Christmas party. Christmas music plays in the background as Shrek, his family, and his friends, come and go while tending the fire and engaging in various Christmas activities.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLou (2017)
A lost-and-found box holds a mysterious and unseen monster within.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCodename: Kids Next Door: Operation Z.E.R.O. (2006)
The villains of the Kids Next Door, lead by Father, join forces to resurrect the Ultimate Evil, Grandfather, a tyrant who once ruled the world many years ago when most of the villains were themselves kids. However, Father disgraced him that he can't even try to destroy the KND and the Villains were quickly betrayed when they are turned into Senior Citizombies, creatures that are immortal and can transform any living creature into one of them and slaves who are forced to make Tapioca to refuel Grandfather so he can find and destroy the Book of K.N.D.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDay & Night (2010)
When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other's unique qualities--and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world-the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBefore I Wake (2016)
An orphaned child's dreams—and nightmares—manifest physically as he sleeps.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDream Scenario (2023)
Hapless family man Paul Matthews finds his life turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. But when his nighttime appearances take a nightmarish turn, Paul is forced to navigate his newfound stardom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisEarly to Bed (1941)
Donald has to get up early, but everything seems to be working to keep him awake. His loudly ticking alarm clock resists several attempts to quiet it. Donald ultimately swallows it; the glow-in-the-dark dial can be seen through his feathers. Then his folding bed folds up on him. Springs start popping out of it; Donald builds an elaborate framework to hold it down. Finally, enough of the clock reassembles itself to sound the alarm and night is over.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKid's Story (2003)
A high school student is haunted by thoughts of "The Matrix" and a person named "Neo".
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPeter Ibbetson (1935)
When his mother dies, young Peter Ibbetson leaves Paris and his best friend, Mary, behind to live with a severe uncle in England. Years later, Peter is an architect with little time for women, until he begins a project with the Duke and Duchess of Towers. When Peter and the duchess become great friends, she reveals that she is Mary — but the duke soon suspects his wife of infidelity and challenges Peter to a duel, threatening the pair's second chance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSlumberland (2022)
A young girl discovers a secret map to the dreamworld of Slumberland, and with the help of an eccentric outlaw, she traverses dreams and flees nightmares, with the hope that she will be able to see her late father again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisQuiet Please! (1945)
The family dog warns Tom not to make any noise so he can take a nap. Jerry hears this and immediately devises plans to ensure that the dog's nap will be interrupted.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLEGO Scooby-Doo! Knight Time Terror (2015)
Mystery Inc. is summoned to investigate occurrences in a haunted villa, where a black knight terrorizes anybody who tries to get close to treasure hidden by the former owner of the building.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFar from the Tree (2021)
On an idyllic beach in the Pacific Northwest, curiosity gets the better of a young raccoon whose frustrated parent attempts to keep them both safe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHeavy Traffic (1973)
A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Enchanted Bell (2000)
After a magic bell from Tibet is stolen, a little girl and an elephant undertake a dangerous journey to bring the bell home.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & animation
Soul Reaper (2024)
A teenager with the ability to enter other people's dreams. When he witnesses a dark spirit taking people's lives in their dreams, he quickly realizes that it's related to the mysterious deaths that are happening in the real world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Symfonie (2024)
Little Martin would like to run outside with other children, but he is afraid that they will make fun of him because of his visual impairment. So he spends most of his time alone at home with his magical character Francis, who helps him discover the world. One day, a ball falls over the fence of Martin's house. The boy is afraid to return it to the children on the street...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
In Between Heartbeats (TBA)
Guided by a queer deity, a closeted man is forced to confront his parents as he tries to regain his lost sense of identity.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
About Socks and Love (2008)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Bird Trap (TBA)
Hala, an 8-year-old girl, lives a difficult life with her brother Amir and their cruel stepmother. To escape her painful reality, Hala retreats into a fantasy world, finding solace from the harshness around her. However, one question continues to haunt her: Do the dead fly?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Lenses (2025)
After finding a seemingly ordinary pair of glasses, Michael decides to show them off - unaware of the darkness that could soon consume him and endanger his friends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy
Crossfaded: Thesis Film (2026)
When a cynical, weed-pedaling stoner and a people pleasing social drinker are trapped in the basement of a frat party, the two strangers struggle to connect in a seemingly superficial world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Paper Dream?
The closest matches to Paper Dream are DC Showcase: The Phantom Stranger (2020), The Brave Little Toaster (1987) and Waking Life (2001). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Paper Dream?
Start with DC Showcase: The Phantom Stranger (2020), the closest match to Paper Dream.
What is the highest-rated movie like Paper Dream?
Far from the Tree (2021), rated 8.1/10 by 395 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Paper Dream?
Crossfaded: Thesis Film (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to Paper Dream chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Paper Dream, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.