Movies like The Day I Bought a Star (2006)
The best movies like The Day I Bought a Star (2006) are Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 (2022), Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Sky Utopia (2023) and Blush (2021). If The Day I Bought a Star hooked you with its animation and fantasy, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedRegular Show: The Movie (2015)7.9/10 from 455 votes
- NewestCosmic Princess Kaguya! (2026)Released 2026
- In JapaneseDoraemon the Movie: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 (2022)Also in Japanese
Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 (2022)
During summer vacation Nobita picks up a small rocket containing Papi, a palm-sized alien president escaping rebels on his home planet Pirika.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDoraemon the Movie: Nobita's Sky Utopia (2023)
Doraemon, Nobita and his friends go to find Utopia, a perfect land in the sky where everyone lives with happiness, using an airship having a time warp function.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBlush (2021)
When a horticulturalist-astronaut crashes onto a desolate planet, he encounters an ethereal visitor and discovers the joy of building a new life—realizing the universe has delivered something astonishing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCat Soup (2001)
The surreal black comedy follows Nyatta, an anthropomorphic kitten, on his travel to the land of the dead and back in an effort to save his sister's soul.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDoraemon: Nobita and the Steel Troops (1986)
Doraemon and Nobita decide to build a perfect toy robot. However, their creation turns out to be a little more uncanny than an object of appreciation and wonder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOrigin: Spirits of the Past (2006)
It is 300 years into the future. Earth's environment had been devastated by mankind's own foolish plans and humankind is beleaguered by the sentient forests which they have awoken. The world balance is tipped when a young boy named Agito stumbles across a machine that glowed in a strange blue hue inside a forbidden sanctuary.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisCosmic Princess Kaguya! (2026)
Iroha's life gets knocked off its orbit when Kaguya, a carefree runaway from the Moon, moves in and convinces her to perform in a virtual world together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & fantasy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDoraemon: Nobita and the Animal Planet (1990)
Nobita and his friends get transported to an animal planet after a mysterious pink fog appears inside his house. They work together with the natives to find the origin of the fog.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNo Time for Nuts (2006)
Scrat comes across a time machine and is transported to various times all in pursuit of his beloved acorn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRegular Show: The Movie (2015)
After a high school lab experiment goes horribly wrong, Mordecai and Rigby must go back in time to battle an evil volleyball coach in order to save the universe — and their friendship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisBURN·E (2008)
What lengths will a robot undergo to do his job? BURN·E is a dedicated hard working robot who finds himself locked out of his ship. BURN·E quickly learns that completing a simple task can often be a very difficult endeavor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisLifted (2006)
When an overconfident teen alien gets behind the controls of a spaceship, he must attempt to abduct a slumbering farmer under the watchful eye of a critical instructor. But abducting humans requires precision and a gentle touch, and within a few missteps it's painfully clear why more humans don't go missing every year.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeyond (2003)
While looking for her cat, a young woman and some kids find an abandoned building where strange things happen and the rules of physics don't always apply. Part of the Animatrix collection of animated shorts set in the Matrix universe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCosmic Scrat-tastrophe (2015)
Scrat struggles once again to protect his nut.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both science fiction & animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMooned (2023)
Villainous Vector must figure out how to get off the moon and return to Earth.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRobot Chicken: Star Wars (2007)
A series of 30 sketches, following the hilarious antics of various characters from a galaxy, far, far away.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
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 thisDC Showcase: Adam Strange (2020)
On a rugged asteroid mining colony, few of the toiling workers are aware that their town drunk was ever anything but an interplanetary derelict. But when the miners open a fissure into the home of a horde of deadly alien insects, his true identity is exposed. He is space adventurer Adam Strange, whose heroic backstory is played out in flashbacks as he struggles to save the very people who have scorned him for so long.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBabylon 5: The Road Home (2023)
Travel across the galaxy with John Sheridan as he unexpectedly finds himself transported through multiple timelines and alternate realities in a quest to find his way back home. Along the way he reunites with some familiar faces, while discovering cosmic new revelations about the history, purpose, and meaning of the Universe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPlanet 51 (2009)
When Earth astronaut Capt. Chuck Baker arrives on Planet 51 -- a world reminiscent of American suburbia circa 1950 -- he tries to avoid capture, recover his spaceship and make it home safely, all with the help of an empathetic little green being.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation & science fiction
SnoozefestMovies like thisEscape (2017)
After crash landing on a desolate planet, a lone space explorer must find a way to make her new home habitable. Using innovation, grit and courage, she casts out the darkness in this new land.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both science fiction & animation
Francis (2013)
Francis is a short story written by american novelist Dave Eggers. This is the story of a young boy growing up in the suburbs of chicago. He spent his vacations in Quetico Provincial Park, up on the border of Minnesota and Canada. But he won't be going back any day soon, not after what happened to a girl called Francis Brandywine.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
COMBO (2009)
Street artist Blu animates large-scale creatures as they crawl across an abandoned Argentine cityscape.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
The Cat That Walked by Himself (1968)
The story about the wild creatures of the wild forest and one impudent Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Guard Dog Global Jam (2011)
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Funny Pot (1990)
Once a potter made a pot that could laugh. Whoever takes it in their hands immediately starts laughing.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Warm Snow (2015)
An animated short about the relationship between a father and his grown up daughter. The daughter is waiting for her dinner and is irritated by her father’s nagging questions and suggestions. Soon we’re transported into the surreal and snowy world swirling in her head.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Nevermind The Grief (1983)
A soldier served a long time service. He took as a reward an old drum and went where his eyes were looking. He walked for a long time, and went to the hut, and in it the small girl was crying, because the fierce witch has destroyed her parents.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
It's a Wonderful Day (1975)
The cartoon based on the works of Alexander Pushkin was created on the basis of drawings from the exhibition "Pushkin through the eyes of children".
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Day I Bought a Star?
The closest matches to The Day I Bought a Star are Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 (2022), Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Sky Utopia (2023) and Blush (2021). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Day I Bought a Star?
Start with Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 (2022), the closest match to The Day I Bought a Star.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Day I Bought a Star?
Regular Show: The Movie (2015), rated 7.9/10 by 455 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Day I Bought a Star?
Cosmic Princess Kaguya! (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Day I Bought a Star?
Yes: Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Little Star Wars 2021 (2022), Doraemon the Movie: Nobita's Sky Utopia (2023) and Cat Soup (2001).
How are movies similar to The Day I Bought a Star chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Day I Bought a Star, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.