Movies like The Boy and the Beast (2015)
The best movies like The Boy and the Beast (2015) are Mirai (2018), Spirited Away (2001) and Castle in the Sky (1986). If The Boy and the Beast hooked you with its action and adventure, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedSpirited Away (2001)8.5/10 from 19,208 votes
- NewestThe Imaginary (2023)Released 2023
- In JapaneseMirai (2018)Also in Japanese
Mirai (2018)
Four-year-old Kun struggles with jealousy after his newborn sister, Mirai, begins receiving most of his family’s attention. Retreating to the garden, he encounters Mirai as a teenager from the future and embarks on extraordinary journeys across his family’s past, gradually discovering new perspectives on love, belonging and what it means to become an older brother.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSpirited Away (2001)
A young girl, Chihiro, becomes trapped in a strange new world of spirits. When her parents undergo a mysterious transformation, she must call upon the courage she never knew she had to free her family.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & family
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisCastle in the Sky (1986)
A young boy and a girl with a magic crystal must race against pirates and foreign agents in a search for a legendary floating castle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & fantasy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisWolf Children (2012)
After her werewolf lover unexpectedly dies in an accident, a woman must find a way to raise the son and daughter that she had with him. However, their inheritance of their father's traits prove to be a challenge for her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & family
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisChildren Who Chase Lost Voices (2011)
The film centers on Asuna, a young girl who spends her solitary days listening to the mysterious music emanating from the crystal radio she received from her late father as a memento. One day while walking home she is attacked by a fearsome monster and saved by a mysterious boy named Shun. However, Shun disappears and Asuna embarks on a journey of adventure to the land of Agartha with her teacher Mr. Morisaki to meet a Shun again. Through her journey she comes to know the cruelty and beauty of the world, as well as loss.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSummer Wars (2009)
Teenage math whiz Kenji Koiso agrees to take a summer job at the Nagano hometown of his crush, Natsuki. When he arrives, he finds that her family have reunited to celebrate the 90th birthday of their matriarch. His job: pretend to be Natsuki's fiancé. Meanwhile, his attempt to solve a mathematical equation causes a parallel world's collision with Earth.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWeathering with You (2019)
The summer of his high school freshman year, Hodaka runs away from his remote island home to Tokyo, and quickly finds himself pushed to his financial and personal limits. The weather is unusually gloomy and rainy every day, as if taking its cue from his life. After many days of solitude, he finally finds work as a freelance writer for a mysterious occult magazine. Then, one day, Hodaka meets Hina on a busy street corner. This bright and strong-willed girl possesses a strange and wonderful ability: the power to stop the rain and clear the sky.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisArrietty (2010)
14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clock family live in peaceful anonymity as they make their own home from items "borrowed" from the house's human inhabitants. However, life changes for the Clocks when a human boy discovers Arrietty.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMary and The Witch's Flower (2017)
Mary Smith, a young girl who lives with her great-aunt in the countryside, follows a mysterious cat into the nearby forest where she finds a strange flower and an old broom, none of which is as ordinary as it seems.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPrincess Mononoke (1997)
Ashitaka, a prince of the disappearing Emishi people, is cursed by a demonized boar god and must journey to the west to find a cure. Along the way, he encounters San, a young human woman fighting to protect the forest, and Lady Eboshi, who is trying to destroy it. Ashitaka must find a way to bring balance to this conflict.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & fantasy
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Cat Returns (2002)
Young Haru rescues a cat from being run over, but soon learns it's no ordinary feline; it happens to be the Prince of the Cats.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both adventure & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSummer Days with Coo (2007)
A small, lone Kappa miraculously survives over 200 years into modern day Japan, when he is found by young Koichi. Coo, who is secretly adopted by Koichi's family, searches with his new human friend for unpopulated places in hopes of finding any remaining of his kind.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHowl's Moving Castle (2004)
Sophie, a young milliner, is turned into an elderly woman by a witch who enters her shop and curses her. She encounters a wizard named Howl and gets caught up in his resistance to fighting for the king.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & animation
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisThe Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006)
When 17-year-old Makoto Konno gains the ability to 'leap' backwards through time, she immediately sets about improving her grades and preventing personal mishaps. However, she soon realises that changing the past isn't as simple as it seems, and eventually, will have to rely on her new powers to shape the future of herself and her friends.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisKiki's Delivery Service (1989)
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPenguin Highway (2018)
A fourth-grader investigates the mysterious reason behind the sudden appearance of penguins in his village, which is somehow related to a power from a young woman working at a dental clinic.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013)
Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisMy Neighbor Totoro (1988)
Two sisters move to the country with their father in order to be closer to their hospitalized mother, and discover the surrounding trees are inhabited by Totoros, magical spirits of the forest. When the youngest runs away from home, the older sister seeks help from the spirits to find her.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both fantasy & animation
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPatema Inverted (2013)
A young girl, from a civilization that resides in deep underground tunnels, finds herself trapped in an inverted world and teams up with a resident to escape and return home.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Silent Voice: The Movie (2016)
Shouya Ishida starts bullying the new girl in class, Shouko Nishimiya, because she is deaf. But as the teasing continues, the rest of the class starts to turn on Shouya for his lack of compassion. When they leave elementary school, Shouko and Shouya do not speak to each other again... until an older, wiser Shouya, tormented by his past behaviour, decides he must see Shouko once more. He wants to atone for his sins, but is it already too late...?
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisPokémon the Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back - Evolution (2019)
After accepting an invitation from a mysterious trainer, Ash, Misty and Brock meet Mewtwo, an artificially created Pokémon who wants to do battle.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Imaginary (2023)
Amanda and her imaginary friend Rudger go on thrilling make-believe adventures. But when Rudger finds himself alone, he faces a mysterious threat.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPonyo (2008)
When Sosuke, a young boy who lives on a clifftop overlooking the sea, rescues a stranded goldfish named Ponyo, he discovers more than he bargained for. Ponyo is a curious, energetic young creature who yearns to be human, but even as she causes chaos around the house, her father, a powerful sorcerer, schemes to return Ponyo to the sea.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisPokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle (2020)
In the Forest of Okoya, Koko is a feral child who has been raised as a Pokémon by the Mythical Pokémon Zarude. Koko has grown up never doubting that he is a Pokémon even though he can't really use any sort of moves. Ash Ketchum and Pikachu meet Koko and help him protect the Great Tree from the crooked scientist Dr. Zed.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDragon Quest: Your Story (2019)
Luca follows in his father's footsteps to rescue his mother from evil Ladja. Finding the heavenly hero who wields the Zenithian sword is his only hope.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBig Fish & Begonia (2016)
Beyond the human realm, there is a magical race of beings who control the tides and the changing of the seasons. One of these beings, a young girl named Chun, seeks something more—she wants to experience the human world! At sixteen, she finally gets her chance and transforms into a dolphin in order to explore the world that has her fascinated. But she soon discovers that it's a dangerous place and nearly gets killed in a vortex. Luckily, her life is spared when a young boy sacrifices himself to save her. Moved by his kindness and courage, she uses magic to bring him back to life only to learn that this power comes at a serious price. On a new adventure, she’ll have to make her own sacrifices in order to protect his soul until it is ready to return to the human world.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMai Mai Miracle (2009)
Inspired by her grandfather's stories, young Shinko embarks on wild flights of fancy about the history of the little town she lives in. But dreams can't fend off the realities of growing up.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Red Turtle (2016)
The dialogue-less film follows the major life stages of a castaway on a deserted tropical island populated by turtles, crabs and birds.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & drama
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCrayon Shinchan the Movie: The Storm Called: The Adult Empire Strikes Back (2001)
Shin-chan must rescue the adults of Kasukabe when they mysteriously abandon their responsibilities to relive their youth at the new 20th-century expo.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & adventure
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisTales from Earthsea (2006)
As crops dwindle and dragons reappear, mankind stands on the verge of total chaos. Lord Archmage Sparrowhawk, a powerful wizard, and Arren, a troubled young prince, search for the force behind this mysterious imbalance that threatens to destroy the land of Earthsea.
Why it matches: Fans watch both · both animation & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Boy and the Beast?
The closest matches to The Boy and the Beast are Mirai (2018), Spirited Away (2001) and Castle in the Sky (1986). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Boy and the Beast?
People who watched The Boy and the Beast most often go on to Mirai (2018), Spirited Away (2001) and Castle in the Sky (1986).
What is the highest-rated movie like The Boy and the Beast?
Spirited Away (2001), rated 8.5/10 by 19,208 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Boy and the Beast?
The Imaginary (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there Japanese movies like The Boy and the Beast?
Yes: Mirai (2018), Spirited Away (2001) and Castle in the Sky (1986).
How are movies similar to The Boy and the Beast chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Boy and the Beast, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.