Movies like Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories (1990)
The best movies like Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories (1990) are Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie (2018), Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado (2025) and Ploey: You Never Fly Alone (2018). If Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories hooked you with its family, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009)7.3/10 from 1,830 votes
- NewestDora and the Search for Sol Dorado (2025)Released 2025
Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie (2018)
Thomas leaves Sodor to fulfil his dream of seeing the world. This heroic quest takes Thomas across deserts, through jungles and over dangerous mountains as he travels across five continents seeing sights he has never seen before.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDora and the Search for Sol Dorado (2025)
Dora, Diego, and their new friends trek through the perilous dangers of the Amazonian jungle in search of the ancient and powerful treasure of Sol Dorado to keep it out of enemy hands.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPloey: You Never Fly Alone (2018)
A plover chick has not learned to fly when his family migrates in the fall. He must survive the arctic winter, vicious enemies and himself in order to be reunited with his beloved one next spring.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
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
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSwimming for Gold (2020)
Young elite swimmer Claire is sent to Australia to coach a boys swimming team, where she must overcome an old rival and a secret fear to save the swimming camp from closing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWinnie the Pooh: A Valentine for You (1999)
After Pooh, Piglet, Tigger, and Rabbit see Christopher Robin making a valentine for -- gasp! -- a girl, they find he's been bitten by a "Smitten" and is lovesick! Worried that he'll no longer have time for them, and hoping a second bite from the love bug will cure him, they set out on a wild adventure to capture the Smitten. This wonderful story, filled with magic and whimsy, and sweetened with three new songs, reminds us all that the heart is big and always has plenty of room for friends -- old and new.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPAW 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 thisCurious George 3: Back to the Jungle (2015)
When Curious George is offered a special space mission, Ted (The Man in the Yellow Hat) can't deny his little friend this exciting journey, especially after Curious George completes the training. But when he crash-lands in Africa, a worried Ted goes searching, expecting the worst, only to have it turn out to be the best.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisAngela's Christmas Wish (2020)
A determined Angela makes a wish to reunite her family in time for Christmas, then launches a plan to find her way from Ireland to Australia.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisJumping Ship (2001)
Michael has big plans to show his cousin Tommy a good time aboard a luxury yacht until he discovers that the yacht he's chartered is actually an old rusted fishing boat. But when modern-day pirates chase the fishing boat, the boys are forced to jump ship, leaving them stranded on a desert island with the boat's captain, Jake Hunter.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMonster High: Great Scarrier Reef (2016)
Join your favourite ghoulfriends in an all-new aquatic adventure! When the ghouls get pulled into the school pool, they're transported to the gore-geous underwater world of the Great Scarrier Reef. Lagoon realizes she's come home and, in a fintastic mission of the heart, decides to come to terms with her own freaky flaws. Of course she'll need help from the most creeperific firends ever as she confronts a frenemy from her past, competes in a scaretastic dance extravaganze, and fights a terrible beast from the deep!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisCat Pack: A PAW Patrol Exclusive Event (2022)
When Mayor Humdinger transforms his robot cat Meow-Meow into a tiger-sized metal-eating menace, the PAW Patrol calls in the Cat Pack for help in the stopping the creature.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisWizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009)
During a family vacation, Alex, a young witch, accidentally casts a curse on her loved ones. To reverse this, she tries to find a magical stone while her brother tries to keep their parents together.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTom Sawyer (1973)
Tom Sawyer and his pal Huckleberry Finn have great adventures on the Mississippi River, pretending to be pirates, attending their own funeral, and witnessing a murder.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
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 family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSwallows and Amazons (2016)
Four children dream of escaping the tedium of a summer holiday with their mother. When finally given permission to camp on their own on an island in the middle of a vast lake, they are overjoyed. But when they get there they discover they may not be alone… The battle for ownership of a lonely island teaches them the skills of survival, the value of friendship and the importance of holding your nerve.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPhineas and Ferb the Movie: Candace Against the Universe (2020)
Phineas and Ferb travel across the galaxy to rescue their older sister Candace, who has been abducted by aliens and taken to a utopia in a far-off planet, free of her pesky little brothers.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA Loud House Christmas (2021)
Lincoln Loud gears up for the ultimate Christmas, until he finds out that most of his sisters have plans to be elsewhere for the big day. Determined to remind his family that they all need to be together, Lincoln and his best friend Clyde McBride embark on a mission to preserve the family’s holiday traditions.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisAround the World With Timon & Pumbaa (1996)
Join Timon and Pumbaa, your favorite friends from The Lion King, for outrageous laughs and high-spirited, globe-trotting adventures! First stop Boara Boara. Pumbaa gets the royal treatment when island natives think hes their long-lost king! Its a lesson in true friendship when Pumbaa strikes it rich and the evil criminal Quint steals his gold in Yukon Con. Then, Timon & Pumbaa play matchmaker for a couple of lovesick flying squirrels in Saskatchewan Catch. In Brazil Nuts, theres a rumble in the Amazon jungle when Timon & Pumbaa have to outsmart a couple of snakes that want to serve them up for dinner.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories?
The closest matches to Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories are Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie (2018), Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado (2025) and Ploey: You Never Fly Alone (2018). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories?
Start with Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie (2018), the closest match to Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories.
What is the highest-rated movie like Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories?
Wizards of Waverly Place: The Movie (2009), rated 7.3/10 by 1,830 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories?
Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado (2025) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories?
Yes: Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures! The Movie (2018), Dora and the Search for Sol Dorado (2025) and Ploey: You Never Fly Alone (2018).
How are movies similar to Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Thomas & Friends: James Learns a Lesson and Other Stories, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.