Movies like Johnny on the Run (1953)
The best movies like Johnny on the Run (1953) are Shorts (2009), Moon the Panda (2025) and Anastasia: Once Upon a Time (2020). If Johnny on the Run hooked you with its family and adventure, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedScooby-Doo! and the Loch Ness Monster (2004)7.3/10 from 480 votes
- NewestThe Magic Faraway Tree (2026)Released 2026
Shorts (2009)
A young boy's discovery of a colorful, wish-granting rock causes chaos in the suburban town of Black Falls when jealous kids and scheming adults alike set out to get their hands on it.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisMoon the Panda (2025)
Due to his poor academic performance, twelve-year-old Tian is sent to live with his grandmother in the remote mountains of Sichuan. Far from the hustle and bustle of the city, he finds himself immersed in nature and secretly befriends a panda cub he names Moon. Together, Tian and Moon embark on a journey of discovery and overcoming challenges. The boy is forced to confront his fears and, in the process, learns valuable lessons about courage, respect, and the profound bond between humankind and nature. This experience profoundly transforms Tian's life and fosters an unexpected family reconciliation.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAnastasia: Once Upon a Time (2020)
Anastasia Romanov escapes through a portal when her family is threatened by Vladimir Lenin, and she finds herself in the year 1988, befriended by a young American girl.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisWish Upon a Unicorn (2020)
Two children discover that their mother is gone. The youngest of the pair, adventurer and upcomming singer, Long Johnson forces his older sister, Lily Johnson, to hunt down a unicorn with magical blood.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDog Gone (2023)
When his beloved dog goes missing, a young man embarks on an incredible search with his parents to find him and give him life-saving medication.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Magic Faraway Tree (2026)
A modern family relocates to the countryside where the children discover a magical tree with eccentric residents. They're transported to fantastical lands, rekindling their family bond through adventures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Luck of the Irish (2001)
A teenager must battle for a gold charm to keep his family from being controlled by an evil leprechaun.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScooby-Doo! and the Loch Ness Monster (2004)
While the gang travel to Scotland to visit Daphne's cousin and witness the annual Highland Games, they find themselves terrorized by the legendary Loch Ness Monster.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Legend of Ochi (2025)
In a remote village on the island of Carpathia, a shy farm girl named Yuri is raised to fear an elusive animal species known as ochi. But when Yuri discovers a wounded baby ochi has been left behind, she escapes on a quest to bring him home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAlice in Wonderland (1933)
In Victorian England, a bored young girl dreams that she has entered a fantasy world called Wonderland, populated by even more fantastic characters.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisInkheart (2008)
The adventures of a father and his young daughter, in their search for a long lost book that will help reunite a missing, close relative.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBookworm (2024)
Eleven-year-old Mildred’s life is turned upside down when her mother lands in hospital and estranged, American magician father, Strawn Wise, comes to look after her. Hoping to entertain the bookish tween, Strawn takes Mildred camping in the notoriously rugged New Zealand wilderness, and the pair embark on the ultimate test of family bonding – a quest to find the mythological beast known as the Canterbury Panther.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPete's Dragon (2016)
For years, old wood carver Mr. Meacham has delighted local children with his tales of the fierce dragon that resides deep in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. To his daughter, Grace, who works as a forest ranger, these stories are little more than tall tales... until she meets Pete, a mysterious 10-year-old with no family and no home who claims to live in the woods with a giant, green dragon named Elliott. And from Pete's descriptions, Elliott seems remarkably similar to the dragon from Mr. Meacham's stories. With the help of Natalie, an 11-year-old girl whose father Jack owns the local lumber mill, Grace sets out to determine where Pete came from, where he belongs, and the truth about this dragon.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Hobbit (1977)
The story follows the adventures of Bilbo Baggins, a diminutive creative who resides in a place called Middle-Earth before he is compelled to go on a quest to find a treasure buried deep in the heart of the Lonely Mountain.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisReturn to Nim's Island (2013)
Fourteen year old Nim, more determined than ever to protect her island and all the wildlife that call it home, faces off against resort developers and animal poachers. Soon she realizes she can’t depend on her animal cohorts alone and must make her first human friend – Edmund, who’s run away to the island from the mainland – to save her home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhite Fang 2: Myth of the White Wolf (1994)
A boy and his dog, White Fang, must try to save the noble Haida tribe from evil white men in turn-of-the-century Alaska.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Princess and the Goblin (1991)
The story is about the Princess Irene and a young warrior boy named Curty. Irene must use her magic power to fight off goblins and save the kingdom.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
SnoozefestMovies like thisOddball (2015)
An eccentric chicken farmer, with the help of his granddaughter, trains his mischievous dog Oddball to protect a penguin sanctuary from fox attacks in an attempt to reunite his family and save their seaside town.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisNicholas Nickleby (2002)
Nicholas Nickleby, a young boy in search of a better life, struggles to save his family and friends from the abusive exploitation of his coldheartedly grasping uncle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMia and the White Lion (2018)
A young girl from London moves to Africa with her parents where she befriends a lion cub.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJourney to the Center of the Earth (1959)
An Edinburgh professor and assorted colleagues follow an explorer's trail down an extinct Icelandic volcano to the earth's center.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure (2001)
Lady and Tramp's mischievous pup, Scamp, gets fed up with rules and restrictions imposed on him by life in a family, and longs for a wild and free lifestyle. He runs away from home and into the streets where he joins a pack of stray dogs known as the "Junkyard Dogs." Buster, the pack's leader, takes an instant disliking to the "house-dog" and considers him a rival. Angel, a junkyard pup Scamp's age, longs for the safety and comfort of life in a family and the two become instant companions. Will Scamp choose the wild and free life of a stray or the unconditional love of his family?
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Adventures of Huck Finn (1993)
Mischievous Huck Finn is unnerved when his father, reemerging after years away, kidnaps him in an attempt to take away a $600 inheritance from his late mother. Fearing for his life, Huck fakes his own death and escapes. He soon runs into his friend, Jim, a slave fleeing his master. Together, the pair embarks on a raft journey down the Mississippi River, staying ahead of pursuers who blame the slave for Huck's alleged murder.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet (2013)
A 10-year-old child prodigy cartographer secretly leaves his family's ranch in Montana where he lives with his cowboy father and scientist mother and travels across the country on board a freight train to receive an award at the Smithsonian Institute.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Circus Kid (1928)
In 'The Circus Kid', Buddy, an orphan who runs away from a a harsh orphanage, joins Cadwallader's Circus.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Charlie & Louise - Das doppelte Lottchen (1994)
The two twelve-year-old girls Charlotte Palfy and Louise Kröger meet on a language trip to Scotland and discover that they are twins who were separated shortly after birth. Charlotte, the daughter of a music hall composer, is cool, self-confident and cheeky, dresses accordingly and listens to techno music. Louise, who grew up with her mother, an advertising executive, wears more "old-fashioned" clothes, is shy and reserved, but conscientious and orderly. Determined to play fate, the two swap roles - at the end of the journey, Louise travels as Charlie to her father, who works as a composer in Berlin-Kreuzberg, while Charlie travels as Louise to her mother in Hamburg, where she works in an advertising agency. The girls realize that getting their parents back together is not as easy as they thought.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
The Fool Killer (1965)
After the Civil War, a southern boy, aged 12, runs away from his foster home, wanders the countryside, and meets various odd characters along the way, including Milo, a mysterious drifter who may or may not be the vengeful "Fool Killer" of folklore.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Cat On The Roof (2017)
Xiaolong lives together with his grandfather and his cat in a little town in rural china. After graduating from elementary school, he plans to visit the city's middle school together with his two best friends Lele and Meimei. But Xiaolong's father wants him to move to Shanghai and visit a school there. Xiaolong doesn't want to leave so he runs away with his cat, and finds shelter on a deserted roof.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
The Boy Who Disappeared (1984)
Fed up with his quarreling middle class parents, thirteen-year-old Jonas runs away from home. He seeks his freedom in the woods, where he befriends a girl his own age and a drunken ex-pilot, who offers him some warmth and understanding.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Like Johnny on the Run and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Johnny on the Run?
The closest matches to Johnny on the Run are Shorts (2009), Moon the Panda (2025) and Anastasia: Once Upon a Time (2020). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Johnny on the Run?
Start with Shorts (2009), the closest match to Johnny on the Run.
What is the highest-rated movie like Johnny on the Run?
Scooby-Doo! and the Loch Ness Monster (2004), rated 7.3/10 by 480 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Johnny on the Run?
The Magic Faraway Tree (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Johnny on the Run?
Yes: Shorts (2009), Moon the Panda (2025) and Anastasia: Once Upon a Time (2020).
How are movies similar to Johnny on the Run chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Johnny on the Run, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.