Movies like The Boy with the Big Black Dog (1986)
The best movies like The Boy with the Big Black Dog (1986) are PAW Patrol: Jet to the Rescue (2020), Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (2011) and Where the Red Fern Grows (1974). If The Boy with the Big Black Dog hooked you with its family, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Wrong Trousers (1993)7.8/10 from 1,225 votes
- NewestRunt (2024)Released 2024
- In GermanSilly's Sweet Summer (2007)Also in German
PAW Patrol: Jet to the Rescue (2020)
A royal relative steals a gem with the power to make things fly, the Paw Patrol takes to the skies to stop him and save Barkingburg.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (2011)
Puppy mayhem turns the lives of newlywed Chihuahua parents Papi and Chloe upside down when their rambunctious, mischievous puppies present one challenge after another. But when their human owners end up in trouble, the tiny pups will stop at nothing to save them - because in good times and hard times, the family always sticks together. So Papi, Chloe and the puppies embark on a heroic adventure, proving once again that big heroes come in small packages.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
SnoozefestMovies like thisWhere 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: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSee Spot Run (2001)
A drug sniffing agent canine is a target for an assassin boss so the FBI calls Witness Protection to send him somewhere else. Meanwhile a single Mom puts her 6 year old boy James in the care of her irresponsible, mailman, neighbor, Gordon, when the babysitter bails on her. Meanwhile, an assassin mob boss hires 2 goons to kill Agent 11. But when 11 escapes from the van when they tried to kill him, he hides in Gordon's Mailtruck that James is in too. And guess what they name him. Spot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFlicka (2006)
Katy McLaughlin desires to work on her family's mountainside horse ranch, although her father insists she finish boarding school. Katy finds a mustang in the hills near her ranch. The headstrong 16 year old then sets her mind to tame a mustang and prove to her father she can run the ranch. But when tragedy happens, it will take all the love and strength the family can muster to restore hope.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisChestnut: Hero of Central Park (2004)
Ray and Sal, two orphaned sisters, adopt and hide a Great Dane puppy from their two adopted parents living in a luxury downtown New York apartment that expressely forbids dogs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisI Want a Dog for Christmas, Charlie Brown (2003)
All Rerun wants from Santa is a dog, but his mother won't let him have one. Spending time with Snoopy provides the perfect pick-me-up. But when Snoopy gets too busy to play with Rerun, they call in a substitute—Snoopy's brother Spike.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
SnoozefestMovies like thisSnoopy Presents: It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown (2022)
Charlie Brown is determined to win the big baseball game. But things turn into a fiasco right before the matchup, when Sally bonds with a little flower on the pitcher's mound and vows to protect it at all costs.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThunderstruck (2012)
After NBA star Kevin Durant switches talent with 16 year old Brian, the teenager becomes the star of his high school team, but Durant starts struggling and eventually learns an important lesson.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Boy with Green Hair (1948)
Peter, an orphaned boy, is adopted by Gramp Frye after his parents are killed in Europe while doing war relief work. The boy feels safe with his new caretaker, but when he is taunted for being an orphan, he gets demoralized. The next day Peter wakes up with green hair. Embarrassed and further ridiculed, Peter seeks solace in a nearby forest. To his surprise, he finds other orphans in the woods, who encourage him to spread news of the injustices of war.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBecause of Winn-Dixie (2005)
A girl, abandoned by her mother when she was three, moves to a small town in Florida with her father. There, she adopts an orphaned dog she names Winn-Dixie. The bond between the girl and her special companion brings together the people in a small Florida town and heals her own troubled relationship with her father.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAdventures of Dally and Spanky (2019)
A girl inherits a miniature horse that develops an unlikely friendship with her half-sister's Jack Russell Terrier, who takes to riding on the horse's back.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeethoven (1992)
The Newton family live in their comfortable home, but there seems to something missing. This "hole" is filled by a small puppy, who walks into their home and their lives. Beethoven, as he is named, grows into a giant of a dog... a St Bernard. Doctor Varnick, the local vet has a secret and horrible sideline, which requires lots of dogs for experiments. Beethoven is on the bad doctor's list.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
SnoozefestMovies like thisLassie (1994)
On their way to start a new life at a sheep farm in rural Virginia, the Turner family are halted by a wreck on the highway that has claimed the life of a truck driver. Spotting the trucker's now-abandoned collie on the side of the road, they take pity on the dog and adopt her. As the city family copes with the change to rural life, including a feud with a neighboring farm family who resent the city interlopers, the ever-loyal Lassie helps them adjust to their new surroundings.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisShepherd: The Story of a Jewish Dog (2020)
Follow the perilous journey to freedom when a young boy and his dog attempt to escape a concentration camp during World War II. Based on true events.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisFirehouse Dog (2007)
Rexxx, Hollywood's top canine star, gets lost and is adopted into a shabby firehouse. He teams up with a young kid to get the station back on its feet.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Ugly Dachshund (1966)
The Garrisons are the "proud parents" of three adorable dachshund pups - and one overgrown Great Dane named Brutus, who nevertheless thinks of himself as a dainty dachsie. His identity crisis results in an uproarious series of household crises that reduce the Garrisons' house to shambles - and viewers to howls of laughter!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBenji (2018)
Two school kids strike up a friendship with an orphaned puppy named Benji. When danger befalls them and they end up kidnapped by robbers who are in over their heads, Benji and his scruffy sidekick come to the rescue.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWoody Woodpecker (2017)
Woody Woodpecker enters a turf war with a big city lawyer wanting to tear down his home in an effort to build a house to flip.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScooby-Doo! Stage Fright (2013)
Join Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and the Mystery Inc. crew as they head to Chicago for Talent Star, a hit talent show in which Fred and Daphne are finalists with some high hopes. Unlucky for them, the competition is frightful as the show is being broadcast from an opera house with a history of horrors and a particularly vengeful phantom that has cursed the show's production.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMadicken of June Hill (1980)
A second movie based on Astrid Lindgren's novel "Madicken och Junibackens pims", which is about two sisters and their adventures in 1910s Sweden.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Runt (2024)
In the Australian town of Upson Downs, ten-year-old Annie and Runt, her stray dog, attempt to win the Agility Course Championship at the Krumpets Dog Show in London in order to save their family's farm from drought and misery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
A, B, C... Z (1971)
Children get ready to start the first grade. They start learning the first letters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
A Grand Day Out (1990)
Wallace and Gromit have run out of cheese, and this provides an excellent excuse for the duo to take their holiday to the moon, where, as everyone knows, there is ample cheese.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wrong Trousers (1993)
Wallace rents out Gromit's former bedroom to a penguin, who takes up an interest in the techno trousers created by Wallace. However, Gromit later learns that the penguin is a wanted criminal.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Close Shave (1996)
Wallace's whirlwind romance with the proprietor of the local wool shop puts his head in a spin, and Gromit is framed for sheep-rustling in a fiendish criminal plot.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (2005)
Cheese-loving eccentric Wallace and his cunning canine pal Gromit run a business ridding the town of garden pests. Using only humane methods, which turns their home into a halfway house for evicted vermin, the pair stumble upon a mystery involving a voracious vegetarian monster that threatens to ruin the annual veggie-growing contest.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisBeethoven's 2nd (1993)
Beethoven is back -- and this time, he has a whole brood with him now that he's met his canine match, Missy, and fathered a family. The only problem is that Missy's owner, Regina, wants to sell the puppies and tear the clan apart. It's up to Beethoven and the Newton kids to save the day and keep everyone together.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
SnoozefestMovies like thisSilly's Sweet Summer (2007)
Twelve-year-old Martin is a little too small for his age. Too thin and too quiet, as his mother is unfortunately always reminding him. He and his blue baseball cap are joined at the hip, or rather, at the head. Martin and his parents have just moved to the quiet little town of Bellbach. A new home, a new school, but no new friends. Even on his first day, there’s trouble...
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
102 Dalmatians (2000)
Get ready for a howling good time as an all new assortment of irresistible animal heroes are unleashed in this great family tail! In an unlikely alliance, the outrageous Waddlesworth - a parrot who thinks he's a Rottweiler - teams up with Oddball - an un-marked Dalmatian puppy eager to earn her spots! Together they embark on a laugh-packed quest to outwit the ever-scheming Cruella De Vil.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
SnoozefestMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Boy with the Big Black Dog?
The closest matches to The Boy with the Big Black Dog are PAW Patrol: Jet to the Rescue (2020), Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2 (2011) and Where the Red Fern Grows (1974). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Boy with the Big Black Dog?
Start with PAW Patrol: Jet to the Rescue (2020), the closest match to The Boy with the Big Black Dog.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Boy with the Big Black Dog?
The Wrong Trousers (1993), rated 7.8/10 by 1,225 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Boy with the Big Black Dog?
Runt (2024) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there German movies like The Boy with the Big Black Dog?
Yes: Silly's Sweet Summer (2007).
How are movies similar to The Boy with the Big Black Dog chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Boy with the Big Black Dog, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.