Movies like The Red Balloon (1956)
The best movies like The Red Balloon (1956) are The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012), Drop Dead Fred (1991) and Madeline (1998). If The Red Balloon hooked you with its comedy and drama, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedPaper Moon (1973)7.9/10 from 892 votes
- NewestJust an Illusion (2026)Released 2026
- In FrenchA Distant Neighborhood (2010)Also in French
The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012)
A childless couple bury a box in their backyard, containing all of their wishes for an infant. Soon, a child is born, though Timothy Green is not all that he appears.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDrop Dead Fred (1991)
An unhappy housewife gets a lift from the return of her imaginary childhood friend, Drop Dead Fred.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & fantasy
SnoozefestMovies 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChang Can Dunk (2023)
Chang, a 16-year-old, Asian American, bets the high school basketball star that he can dunk by Homecoming. The bet leads 5' 8" Chang on a quest to learn to dunk—not only to impress his crush, Kristy, but to gain the respect of his high school peers too. But before he can rise up and truly throw one down, he'll have to reexamine everything he knows about himself, his friendships and his family.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTimmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made (2020)
An 11-year old boy believes that he is the best detective in town and runs the agency Total Failures with his best friend, an imaginary 1,200 pound polar bear.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Distant Neighborhood (2010)
Thomas, a father in his fifties, returns by chance to the town where he grew up. He collapses and wakes up forty years earlier in the body of his teenage self. Thrown back into his past, Thomas will not only have to re-live his first love, but also try to understand the reasons for his father’s mysterious departure. Can you change the past by living it again?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob (2021)
An evil sorceress transports the gang back to the age of chivalrous knights, spell-casting wizards, and fire-breathing dragons.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTweety's High Flying Adventure (2000)
A full-length animated feature starring the little yellow bird. When Col. Rimfire announces at the Looney Club his belief that cats are the most intelligent animals, Granny, hoping to raise enough money to save a nearby children's park, makes a wager that her Tweety can fly around the world in 80 days, collecting the pawprints of 80 cats in the process. Sylvester, still hoping to make Tweety his personal snack, is incensed at the thought of some other cat getting the little bird first and vows to follow Tweety around the world and catch the canary himself.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Nicholas (2009)
Nicolas has a happy existence, parents who love him, a great group of friends with whom he has great fun, and all he wants is that nothing changes. However, one day, he overhears a conversation that leads him to believe that his life might change forever, his mother is pregnant! He panics and envisions the worst.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Isolated in the bell tower of Notre Dame, Quasimodo longs to experience the world beyond the cathedral walls, despite the wishes of his stern guardian, the Judge of Paris Claude Frollo. His first venture into the city leads him to Esmeralda, a fearless Romani woman whose defiance of Frollo's tyranny draws her—and Quasimodo—into his dangerous obsession.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both drama & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJust an Illusion (2026)
In 1985 suburban Paris, 12-year-old Vincent lives with his distant older brother and quarrelling parents. Amid laughter and unease, he navigates friendship and first love, while beginning to confront the adult world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMr. Peek-a-Boo (1951)
Léon, a humble civil servant, has the unusual ability to walk through walls, however thick they are. One day, he falls madly in love with a charming hotel thief by the name of Suzan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlight of the Red Balloon (2008)
The first part in a new series of films produced by Musée d'Orsay, 'Flight of the Red Balloon' tells the story of a French family as seen through the eyes of a Chinese student. The film was shot in August and September 2006 on location in Paris. This is Hou Hsiao-Hsien's first Western film. It is based on the classic French short The Red Balloon directed by Albert Lamorisse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMiraculous World: Paris, Tales of Shadybug and Claw Noir (2024)
Ladybug and Cat Noir discover the existence of a parallel universe in which they're supervillains determined to seize the Butterfly Miraculous.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFour Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle (1987)
Two young girls meet, Reinette from the countryside and Mirabelle from Paris, and decide to take a flat together in Paris where they attend University. Four successive stories about their daily lives illustrate the very different views, characters and relation to the world of these two friends.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisApril and the Extraordinary World (2015)
It's 1941, but France is trapped in the 19th Century, governed by steam and Napoleon V. Avril, a teenage girl, goes in search of her missing scientist parents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both comedy & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBallerina (2016)
In 1879 Paris, a young orphan dreams of becoming a ballerina and flees her rural Brittany for Paris, where she passes for someone else and accedes to the position of pupil at the Grand Opera house.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMiraculous World: Tokyo, Stellar Force (2025)
Kagami drags Marinette to Tokyo to help the Stellars defeat a new supervillain, but Marinette soon realizes her friend has another, untold reason for this trip to Japan.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & fantasy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMy Little Pony: The Movie (2017)
A new dark force threatens Ponyville, and the Mane 6 – Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity – embark on an unforgettable journey beyond Equestria where they meet new friends and exciting challenges on a quest to use the magic of friendship and save their home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMiraculous World: London, at the Edge of Time (2024)
To save the future from a terrible fate, Marinette becomes Chronobug and teams up with Bunnyx to defeat a mysterious opponent who travels through time.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJumbo (2025)
Desperate to prove to his peers that he’s more than a chubby kid that never wins at anything, little Don wishes to win his local talent show by performing a stageplay inspired from a storybook written by his late parents. When unfortunately a bully stole that book, at the same time a little ghost appeared from the spirit world asking for Don’s help to reunite her with her parents’ spirits. The two new friends then embark on an exciting adventure to help each other and learn the true meaning of friendship.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPete's Dragon (1977)
Pete, a young orphan, runs away to a Maine fishing town with his best friend a lovable, sometimes invisible dragon named Elliott! When they are taken in by a kind lighthouse keeper, Nora, and her father, Elliott's prank playing lands them in big trouble. Then, when crooked salesmen try to capture Elliott for their own gain, Pete must attempt a daring rescue.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & comedy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAngel-A (2005)
A beautiful and mysterious woman helps an inept scam artist get his game together... but is their meeting purely coincidence?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStrangers in the Park (2026)
A former communist militant and a "live and let live" man form an unlikely friendship on a park bench, sharing their life stories with humor and heart.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Kitchen Stories (2003)
Swedish efficiency researchers come to Norway for a study of Norwegian men, to optimize their use of their kitchen. Folke Nilsson (Tomas Norström) is assigned to study the habits of Isak Bjørvik (Joachim Calmeyer). By the rules of the research institute, Folke has to sit on an umpire's chair in Isak's kitchen and observe him from there, but never talk to him. Isak stops using his kitchen and observes Folke through a hole in the ceiling instead. However, the two lonely men slowly overcome the initial post-war Norwegian-Swede distrust and become friends.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPaper Moon (1973)
During the Great Depression, a con man finds himself saddled with a young girl who may or may not be his daughter, and the two forge an unlikely partnership.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Upside of Anger (2005)
After her husband runs off with his secretary, Terry Wolfmeyer is left to fend for herself -- and her four daughters. As she hits rock bottom, Terry finds a friend and drinking buddy in next-door neighbor Denny, a former baseball player. As the two grow closer, and her daughters increasingly rely on Denny, Terry starts to have reservations about where their relationship is headed.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both comedy & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKolumittayi (2016)
Unni and his friends move to the 6th grade after the new academic year begins. He loves his school life mainly because of his crush Riya and feels threatened by the newcomer in his class - Roney. Soon they lock horns and are in competition.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & comedy
Olappeeppi (2016)
Olappeeppi portrays the story of an ordinary Malayali family and the changes in the socio-economic scene in Kerala from 1970's to the 2000's . As the name suggests, its about colours of the past, taking us to that era along with a boy named Unni and his grandmother.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & family
The Final Day (2024)
Yadira, a creative young Cuban girl, struggles packing on her final day home. Embarking on an immigration journey alone, her suitcase feels too small to carry everything her heart holds.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both drama & family
Like The Red Balloon and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Red Balloon?
The closest matches to The Red Balloon are The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012), Drop Dead Fred (1991) and Madeline (1998). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Red Balloon?
Start with The Odd Life of Timothy Green (2012), the closest match to The Red Balloon.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Red Balloon?
Paper Moon (1973), rated 7.9/10 by 892 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Red Balloon?
Just an Illusion (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there French movies like The Red Balloon?
Yes: A Distant Neighborhood (2010), Little Nicholas (2009) and Just an Illusion (2026).
How are movies similar to The Red Balloon chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Red Balloon, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.