Movies like The Characters (1998)
The best movies like The Characters (1998) are The House (2022), Far from the Tree (2021) and Heavy Traffic (1973). If The Characters hooked you with its animation, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedFar from the Tree (2021)8.1/10 from 395 votes
- NewestThe Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special (2023)Released 2023
The House (2022)
Across different eras, a poor family, an anxious developer and a fed-up landlady become tied to the same mysterious house in this animated dark comedy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFar from the Tree (2021)
On an idyllic beach in the Pacific Northwest, curiosity gets the better of a young raccoon whose frustrated parent attempts to keep them both safe.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisHeavy Traffic (1973)
A white dropout struggles to become a cartoonist and filmmaker, drawing inspiration from the harsh, gritty world around him. Still sharing his rundown apartment with his middle-aged parents, an oafish slob of an Italian father and a ditzy nutcase of a Jewish mother, he's ridiculed and looked down upon by his friends, hypocrites who run with violent gangs and the Italian Mafia, and a shallow Black girl who makes her living downtown with the pimps and pushers. The cartoonist gets a chance to pitch a film idea to a movie mogul, but the story proves too outrageous: a far-future Earth, depleted by war and pollution, where a mutant antihero challenges and kills God.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDestino (2003)
Short film to a song of love lost and rediscovered, a woman sees and undergoes surreal transformations. Her lover's face melts off, she dons a dress from the shadow of a bell and becomes a dandelion, ants crawl out of a hand and become Frenchmen riding bicycles. Not to mention the turtles with faces on their backs that collide to form a ballerina, or the bizarre baseball game.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisArctic Dogs (2019)
Animals band together to save the day when the evil Otto Von Walrus hatches a sinister scheme to accelerate global warming and melt the Arctic Circle.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
SnoozefestMovies like thisGroot's Pursuit (2022)
Groot investigates a spooky noise that’s been haunting the Quadrant, which leads to an intense dance off.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Drawn Together Movie: The Movie! (2010)
When the mystery-solving musician Foxxy Love notices she and her fellow housemates can curse without being bleeped—something they've never been able to do before—she realizes their show has been canceled. Determined to get back on the air, the gang travels to Make-A-Point-Land in order to get a point (and get back on the air).
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters (2011)
Po and the Furious Five uncover the legend of three of kung fu's greatest heroes: Master Thundering Rhino, Master Storming Ox, and Master Croc.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSturgill Simpson Presents Sound & Fury (2019)
In this anime visual album, a mysterious driver heads deep into a postapocalyptic hellscape toward a ferocious showdown with two monstrous opponents.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDay & Night (2010)
When Day, a sunny fellow, encounters Night, a stranger of distinctly darker moods, sparks fly! Day and Night are frightened and suspicious of each other at first, and quickly get off on the wrong foot. But as they discover each other's unique qualities--and come to realize that each of them offers a different window onto the same world-the friendship helps both to gain a new perspective.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisSea Scouts (1939)
Donald is an admiral on a seagoing voyage with his nephews in which they encounter a ravenous shark.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisKoati (2021)
Three unlikely heroes - Nachi, a free-spirited coati; Xochi, a fearless monarch butterfly and Pako, a hyperactive glass frog - embark on an adventure to stop wicked coral snake Zaina from destroying their rain forest homeland.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Grandmother (1970)
To escape neglect and abuse from his parents, a young boy plants some strange seeds and they grow into a grandmother.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThru the Mirror (1936)
Mickey has been reading Alice in Wonderland, and falls asleep. He finds himself on the other side of the mirror, where the furniture is alive.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisRevolting Rhymes (2017)
Two half-hour animated films based on the much-loved rhymes written by Roald Dahl and illustrated by Quentin Blake.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special (2023)
GrandPat travels through alternate dimensions and timelines to get home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHis Mouse Friday (1951)
Tom is shipwrecked on an island, which is inhabited by at least one mouse - Jerry. To thwart the hungry cat, Jerry disguises himself as a cannibal.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisDragons: Rescue Riders: Secrets of the Songwing (2020)
When a musical dragon with a beautiful voice hypnotizes the dragons and people of Huttsgalor, the Rescue Riders have to find a way to break the spell.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThriller Night (2011)
A Shrek parody of Michael Jackson's Thriller song and music video, with Donkey singing.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRed Hot Riding Hood (1943)
Tired of always playing the same roles, Little Red Riding Hood, her grandmother and the Wolf demand a new version of the tale. The story then plays out in a more contemporary urban environment, with Little Red Riding Hood working as a pin-up girl in a night club.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both animation
Worth the HypeMovies like thisA (1965)
A writer is persecuted by an enormous and abusive letter 'A'.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Goodbye Jerome! (2021)
Having just arrived in paradise, Jerome sets out to find his wife Maryline. In the course of his search, he sinks into a surreal and colorful world in which no one seems to be able to help him.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
The Institute of The Dream (2006)
The man in the sand distributes dreams to a group of strange characters.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer (1984)
In Prague, a professorial puppet, with metal pincers for hands and an open book for a hat, takes a boy as a pupil. First, the professor empties fluff and toys from the child's head, leaving him without the top of his head for most of the film. The professor then teaches the lad about illusions and perspectives, the pursuit of an object through exploring a bank of drawers, divining an object, and the migration of forms. The child then brings out a box with a tarantula in it: the professor puts his "hands" into the box and describes what he feels. The boy receives a final lesson about animation and film making; then the professor gives him a brain and his own open-book hat.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisImpossible Figures and Other Stories I (2021)
The first and—paradoxically—the final part of the triptych. The city, which is its subject, grows not only in space but, most importantly, in time. With all consequences.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Auge (2011)
A Van Gogh like man meets the root of his self consciousness at the end of an unreal trip inside his own mind.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
The Black Dog (1987)
This rich, symbolic, intensely personal yet universal film wordlessly follows the path of a woman on a journey of self-discovery.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
The Bride (1971)
The story of a young woman courted by numerous suitors which she turned down, to eventually choose an unexpected fiancé
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Fantasmatic (1969)
Surreal animation with sand and metal slivers by Ernest Ansorge, Gisèle Ansorge
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Sierra (2022)
A father and his son are losing the race. To win, the boy turns himself into a car tyre. Sierra looks at toxic masculinity through dark irony, while pulling us into the surreal car racing world. Loosely inspired by the director's childhood, this animated black comedy includes fragments of a stop motion film animated by the director's father during Soviet Estonia.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both animation
Like The Characters and something else?
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Characters?
The closest matches to The Characters are The House (2022), Far from the Tree (2021) and Heavy Traffic (1973). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Characters?
Start with The House (2022), the closest match to The Characters.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Characters?
Far from the Tree (2021), rated 8.1/10 by 395 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Characters?
The Tidal Zone: SpongeBob Universe Special (2023) is the most recent release on this list.
How are movies similar to The Characters chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Characters, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.