Movies like What Happiness Is (2012)
The best movies like What Happiness Is (2012) are Dug's Special Mission (2009), Nomadland (2021) and Baraka (1992). If What Happiness Is hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
What Happiness Is
Quick picks
- Highest ratedBaraka (1992)8.2/10 from 735 votes
- NewestRental Family (2025)Released 2025
Dug's Special Mission (2009)
Dug is sent on foolish missions by Alpha, Beta, and Gamma so they can hunt for the Bird of Paradise Falls by themselves. Dug may find that where he belongs is not where he's been looking.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisNomadland (2021)
A woman in her sixties embarks on a journey through the western United States after losing everything in the Great Recession, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBaraka (1992)
A paralysingly beautiful documentary with a global vision—an odyssey through landscape and time—that attempts to capture the essence of life.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCharlie & Boots (2009)
After a family tragedy, Charlie and his estranged son, Boots, try to put their differences aside and head off on the road trip of a lifetime - from regional Victoria to the Cape York Peninsula - they overcome many challenges to reach their dream - to fish off the northernmost tip of Australia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLava (2015)
Inspired by the isolated beauty of tropical islands and the explosive allure of ocean volcanoes, Lava is a musical love story that takes place over millions of years.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBoundin' (2003)
On a high mountain plain lives a lamb with wool of such remarkable sheen that he breaks into high-steppin' dance. But there comes a day when he loses his lustrous coat and, along with it, his pride. It takes a wise jackalope - a horn-adorned rabbit - to teach the moping lamb that wooly or not, it's what's inside that'll help him rebound from life's troubles.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisHappy People: A Year in the Taiga (2010)
In the center of the story is the life of the indigenous people of the village Bakhtia at the river Yenisei in the Siberian Taiga. The camera follows the protagonists in the village over a period of a year. The natives, whose daily routines have barely changed over the last centuries, keep living their lives according to their own cultural traditions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGrand Canyonscope (1954)
Come along with Donald Duck as he visits one of nature's masterpieces. After a little ragtime rain dance, Donald strikes up a conversation with himself at Echo Cliff, then teeters along the edge of a precarious trail while riding a sure-footed burrow. It's a tough job for park ranger J. Audubon Woodlore to keep Donald in check, but it gets even tougher when they run afoul of a napping mountain lion.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisVoyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (2016)
A celebration of the universe, displaying the whole of time, from its start to its final collapse. This film examines all that occurred to prepare the world that stands before us now: science and spirit, birth and death, the grand cosmos and the minute life systems of our planet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBig City Greens the Movie: Spacecation (2024)
When thrill-seeker Cricket tricks his family into taking a "road trip" in space, chaos in the cosmos quickly ensues. Despite growing frustrations between Cricket and his dad, Bill, the two must learn to appreciate each other's unique perspectives in order to prevent Big City from being destroyed by an interstellar disaster.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Long, Long Trailer (1954)
A newly wed couple, Tacy and Nicky, travel in a trailer for their honeymoon. The journey is a humorous one that could end up destroying their marriage.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisClick (2006)
A married workaholic, Michael Newman doesn't have time for his wife and children, not if he's to impress his ungrateful boss and earn a well-deserved promotion. So when he meets Morty, a loopy sales clerk, he gets the answer to his prayers: a magical remote that allows him to bypass life's little distractions with increasingly hysterical results.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMy Girl 2 (1994)
Vada Sultenfuss has a holiday coming up, and an assignment: to do an essay on someone she admires and has never met. She decides she wants to do an assignment on her mother, but quickly realises she knows very little about her. She manages to get her father to agree to let her go to LA to stay with her Uncle Phil and do some research on her mother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisiCarly: iGo to Japan (2008)
Carly, Sam and Freddie kick off their adventure in Japan on a tin can of a plane packed with caged possums and piloted by Spencer's odd acquaintance.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Bucket List (2007)
Corporate billionaire Edward Cole and working class mechanic Carter Chambers are worlds apart. At a crossroads in their lives, they share a hospital room and discover they have two things in common: a desire to spend the time they have left doing everything they ever wanted to do and an unrealized need to come to terms with who they are. Together they embark on the road trip of a lifetime, becoming friends along the way and learning to live life to the fullest, with insight and humor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisInner Workings (2016)
This is the story of the internal struggle between a man's Brain—a pragmatic protector who calculates his every move, and his Heart—a free-spirited adventurer who wants to let loose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKung Fu Panda 2 (2011)
Po is finally living the dream as the Dragon Warrior—until a shadow from his past comes roaring back. When the ruthless peacock Lord Shen unleashes a devastating new weapon used to wipe out kung fu masters across the land, Po and the Furious Five race across China to put an end to his plans. But if Po is to have any hope of stopping him, he must first confront the truth of his origins—and find inner peace before his past tears him apart.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRental Family (2025)
An American actor in Tokyo struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese 'rental family' agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients' worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisGoofy and Wilbur (1939)
Goofy goes fishing with his best friend, Wilbur, a grasshopper.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPowaqqatsi (1988)
An exploration of technologically developing nations and the effect the transition to Western-style modernization has had on them.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like What Happiness Is?
The closest matches to What Happiness Is are Dug's Special Mission (2009), Nomadland (2021) and Baraka (1992). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after What Happiness Is?
Start with Dug's Special Mission (2009), the closest match to What Happiness Is.
What is the highest-rated movie like What Happiness Is?
Baraka (1992), rated 8.2/10 by 735 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like What Happiness Is?
Rental Family (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like What Happiness Is?
The closest matches are in other languages.
How are movies similar to What Happiness Is chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside What Happiness Is, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.