Movies like The Yearling (1946)
The best movies like The Yearling (1946) are National Velvet (1945), Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960) and Old Yeller (1957). If The Yearling hooked you with its drama and family, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Grapes of Wrath (1940)7.8/10 from 1,163 votes
- NewestLove's Abiding Joy (2006)Released 2006
National 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 drama & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisToby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960)
Angered at stern Uncle Daniel, Toby Tyler runs away from his foster home to join the circus, where he soon befriends Mr. Stubbs, the frisky chimpanzee. However, the circus isn't all fun and games when the evil candy vendor, Harry Tupper, convinces Toby that his Aunt Olive and Uncle Daniel don't love him or want him back. Toby resigns himself to circus life, but when he finally realizes that Tupper lied to him, and that his aunt and uncle truly love him, Toby happily returns home once again.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Old Yeller (1957)
Young Travis Coates is left to take care of the family ranch with his mother and younger brother while his father goes off on a cattle drive in the 1860s. When a yellow mongrel comes for an uninvited stay with the family, Travis reluctantly adopts the dog.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLassie Come Home (1943)
Hard times come for the Carraclough family and they are forced to sell their dog, Lassie, to the rich Duke of Rudling. Lassie, however, is unwilling to remain apart from young Carraclough son Joe and sets out on a long and dangerous journey to rejoin him.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDavid Copperfield (1935)
A young man journeys from a difficult childhood to maturity, exploring social injustice, personal development, and the complexities of human relationships.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLove's Abiding Joy (2006)
The continued Westward journey of settlers Missie and Willie Lahaye. Their roots now firmly planted as they set up homestead in the far West, Missie begins to realize her passion for teaching as Willie cares for the couple's young daughter Kathy while expanding the family ranch with a little help from sons Jeff and Matthew. When the frontier railroad comes to town, the pleasure of a long-promised visit from Missie's father Clark is suddenly offset by the tragic death of young Kathy. As the untimely demise of their beloved daughter begins to drive an emotional wedge between Missie and Willie, the devastated father unexpectedly accepts an offer made by the powerful Samuel Doros to assume the role of town sheriff. Their faith shaken and their once close-knit bond suddenly torn asunder, Missie and Willie desperately attempt to bring their crumbling family back together as son Jeff faces a series of dangers while hopelessly falling for Doros' beautiful daughter Colette.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & western
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisI Remember Mama (1948)
Norwegian immigrant Marta Hanson keeps a firm but loving hand on her household of four children, a devoted husband and a highly-educated lodger who reads great literature to the family every evening. Through financial crises, illnesses and the small triumphs of everyday life, Marta maintains her optimism and sense of humor, traits she passes on to her aspiring-author daughter, Katrin.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOur Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945)
Welcome to Fuller Junction, Wisconsin, a friendly small town settled by Norwegian farmers. Here we see the exploits of two young cousins, Selma and Arnold, who learn about their world and experience the ups and downs of life as the season pass.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Young Tom Edison (1940)
Inventor Thomas Edison's boyhood is chronicled and shows him as a lad whose early inventions and scientific experiments usually end up causing disastrous results. As a result, the towns folk all think Tom is crazy, and creating a strained relationship between Tom and his father. Tom's only solace is his understanding mother who believes he's headed to do great things.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
The Human Comedy (1943)
Teenager Homer Macauley stays at home in the small town of Ithaca, California to support his family while his older brother Marcus prepares to go to war.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
The 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisStars in My Crown (1950)
An orphaned man recalls his upbringing with his aunt and her husband, the parson, in a small Western town during the Reconstruction.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLife with Father (1947)
A straitlaced turn-of-the-century father presides over a family of boys and the mother who really rules the roost.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOliver Twist (1997)
An orphan endures a harsh life in a workhouse before fleeing to London, where he falls in with a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the criminal Fagin, and eventually finds a better life, exposing the cruelties of poverty and child labor in Victorian England.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisA Tiger Walks (1964)
A tiger escapes from a circus truck as it passes by a small town, and hides itself in the surrounding woods. This throws the town into a panic and everyone wants the animal killed immediately, except for the daughter of the sheriff. She wants to capture the tiger and put it in a zoo, thereby saving the tiger's life. Her determination starts a nationwide campaign among children to raise the money to buy the tiger from the circus, but first, she, her father and an Indian tiger trainer must find the tiger before the National Guard do, who have orders to kill it on sight.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Justin Morgan Had a Horse (1972)
This is the story of the foundation sire of the Morgan Horse Breed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Young Black Stallion (2003)
When courageous young Neera becomes separated from her family in the desert, she chances upon a wild colt. Together they find friendship, trust, and their way back home only to discover her family is about to lose everything!
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSpencer's Mountain (1963)
Clay Spencer and his wife, Olivia, live in a small town deep in the mountains. When Clay isn't busy drinking with his buddies or railing against the town minister, he's building the house he's always promised Olivia. He is overjoyed when he learns his eldest son will be the first Spencer to attend college, if he can resist the charms of a pretty local girl and rustle up the money for tuition.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle Women (1933)
Four sisters come of age in America in the aftermath of the Civil War.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHills of Home (1948)
William McClure is the villlage doctor in a remote Scottish glen. Tricked into buying Lassie, a collie afraid of water, he sets about teaching her to swim. At the same time he has the bigger problem that he is getting older and must ensure the glen will have a new local doctor ready.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & drama
The Champ (1931)
A broken-down alcoholic prizefighter struggles to keep custody of his adoring son.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Story of Seabiscuit (1949)
Horse trainer Shawn O'Hara and his lovely niece, Margaret, come to America to escape the memory of an accident involving Margaret's brother, Danny. Working with thoroughbreds in Kentucky, Shawn takes a liking to a yearling named Seabiscuit, and fights to convince the horse's owner that the tiny horse with big knees will become a top-notch racehorse. Meanwhile, Margaret begins a tentative relationship with jockey Ted Knowles, but is haunted by her brother's death in a steeplechase spill. Written by Ray Hamel
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Where the Red Fern Grows (1974)
Billy Coleman works hard and saves his earnings for two years to achieve his dream of buying two red-bone coonhound pups. He develops a new trust in life as he faces overwhelming challenges in adventure and tragedy roaming the river bottoms of Cherokee country with his dogs, Old Dan and Little Ann.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFriendly Persuasion (1956)
The story of a family of Quakers in Indiana in 1862. Their religious sect is strongly opposed to violence and war. It's not easy for them to meet the rules of their religion in everyday life but when Southern troops pass the area they are in real trouble. Should they fight, despite their peaceful attitude?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLittle House on the Prairie (1974)
The story of the Ingalls family who left their house in Wisconsin and moved to the west, wanting to find a new place for home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both western & family
The Journey of Natty Gann (1985)
America is in the depths of the Great Depression. Families drift apart when faraway jobs beckon. A courageous young girl confronts overwhelming odds when she embarks on a cross-country search for her father. During her odyssey, she forms a close bond with two diverse traveling companions: a magnificent, protective wolf, and a hardened drifter.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both family & drama
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Man from Snowy River (1982)
Jim Craig has lived his first 18 years in the mountains of Australia on his father's farm. The death of his father forces him to go to the lowlands to earn enough money to get the farm back on its feet.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & western
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLittle Fugitive (1953)
After a prank makes Joey Norton believe he killed his older brother, he runs away from home and spends the day at Coney Island while his brother tries to find him before their mother gets home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFollow Me, Boys! (1966)
Lem Siddons is part of a traveling band who has a dream of becoming a lawyer. Deciding to settle down, he finds a job as a stockboy in the general store of a small town. Trying to fit in, he volunteers to become scoutmaster of the newly formed Troop 1. Becoming more and more involved with the scout troop, he finds his plans to become a lawyer being put on the back burner, until he realizes that his life has been fulfilled helping the youth of the small town.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both drama & family
Like The Yearling and something else?
Blend two favourites and we’ll find the films in between.
Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Yearling?
The closest matches to The Yearling are National Velvet (1945), Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960) and Old Yeller (1957). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Yearling?
People who watched The Yearling most often go on to National Velvet (1945), Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960) and Old Yeller (1957).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Yearling?
The Grapes of Wrath (1940), rated 7.8/10 by 1,163 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Yearling?
Love's Abiding Joy (2006) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Yearling?
Yes: National Velvet (1945), Toby Tyler or Ten Weeks with a Circus (1960) and Old Yeller (1957).
How are movies similar to The Yearling chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Yearling, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.