Movies like The Magic Shelf (1952)
The best movies like The Magic Shelf (1952) are The Great Buck Howard (2008), Magician Mickey (1937) and Magic Camp (2020). If The Magic Shelf hooked you, these 20 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedWhere Hope Grows (2014)7.9/10 from 232 votes
- NewestSnoopy Presents: It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown (2022)Released 2022
The Great Buck Howard (2008)
When a law school dropout answers an advertisement to be a personal assistant he unknowingly signs on to work for a belligerent has-been magician struggling to resurrect his career. This leads to a journey across the country staging the comeback of a lifetime.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMagician Mickey (1937)
Donald continually heckles Mickey's magic act, but Mickey bests him at every turn. Donald shoots off a magic pistol that causes all the stage props to fall down on them at the finish of the act.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMagic Camp (2020)
Andy, at the urging of his former mentor and Magic Camp owner Roy Preston, returns to the camp of his youth hoping to reignite his career. Instead, he finds inspiration in his ragtag bunch of rookie magicians.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Geisha Boy (1958)
Gilbert Wooley is a second-rate magician who is sent to entertain the troops in the pacific. During his time in Japan he becomes attached to a little orphan boy.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Last Unicorn (1982)
A unicorn learns from a riddle-speaking butterfly that she is supposedly the last of her kind, all the others having been herded away by the monstrous Red Bull. The unicorn sets out to discover the truth behind the butterfly's words. She is eventually joined on her quest by Schmendrick, a second-rate magician, and Molly Grue, a middle-aged woman who dreamed all her life of seeing a unicorn. Their journey leads them far from home, all the way to the castle of King Haggard.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisDavid Blaine: Beyond Magic (2016)
In his most revealing performance yet, the one-hour special features an exploration into Blaine’s trademark style of street magic as he once again stuns his audience.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMagic in the Moonlight (2014)
Set in the 1920s French Riviera, a master magician is commissioned to try and expose a psychic as a fraud.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisOz the Great and Powerful (2013)
Oscar Diggs, a small-time circus illusionist and con-artist, is whisked from Kansas to the Land of Oz where the inhabitants assume he's the great wizard of prophecy, there to save Oz from the clutches of evil.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe House of Magic (2013)
Thunder, an abandoned young cat seeking shelter from a storm, stumbles into the strangest house imaginable, owned by an old magician and inhabited by a dazzling array of automatons and gizmos. Not everyone welcomes the new addition to the troupe as Jack Rabbit and Maggie Mouse plot to evict Thunder. The situation gets worse when the magician lands in hospital and his scheming nephew sees his chance to cash in by selling the mansion. Our young hero is determined to earn his place and so he enlists the help of some wacky magician's assistants to protect his magical new home.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisIt's Magic, Charlie Brown (1981)
When Snoopy turns Charlie Brown invisible in a magic act, he has trouble changing him back.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisUpside-Down Magic (2020)
Nory and her best friend Reina enter the Sage Academy for Magical Studies, where Nory’s unconventional powers land her in a class for those with wonky, or “upside-down,” magic. Undaunted, Nory sets out to prove that that upside-down magic can be just as powerful as right-side-up.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTromeo & Juliet (1996)
All the body-piercing, kinky sex, and car crashes that Shakespeare wanted but never had! Join Tromeo and Juliet as they travel through Manhattan's underground in search of climactic love, violence and the American Way.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisWhere Hope Grows (2014)
Calvin Campbell is a former professional baseball player sent to an early retirement due to his panic attacks at the plate. Even though he had all the talent for the big leagues, he struggles with the curveballs life has thrown him. Today, he mindlessly sleepwalks through his days and the challenge of raising his teenager daughter. His life is in a slow downward spiral when it is suddenly awakened and invigorated by the most unlikely person – Produce, a young-man with Down syndrome who works at the local grocery store.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies 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
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)
Balthazar Blake is a master sorcerer in modern-day Manhattan trying to defend the city from his arch-nemesis, Maxim Horvath. Balthazar can't do it alone, so he recruits Dave Stutler, a seemingly average guy who demonstrates hidden potential, as his reluctant protégé. The sorcerer gives his unwilling accomplice a crash course in the art and science of magic, and together, these unlikely partners work to stop the forces of darkness.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGeorge Carlin: It's Bad for Ya! (2008)
It's Bad For Ya, Carlin's Emmy nominated 14th and final HBO special from March of 2008 features Carlin's noted irreverent and unapologetic observations on topics ranging from death, religion, bureaucracy, patriotism, overprotected children and big business to the pungent examinations of modern language and the decrepit state of the American culture.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisFeel the Beat (2020)
After failing to make it on Broadway, April returns to her hometown and reluctantly begins training a misfit group of young dancers for a competition.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Shaggy Dog (1959)
Through an ancient spell, a boy changes into a sheepdog and back again. It seems to happen at inopportune times and the spell can only be broken by an act of bravery....
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Academy of Magic (2020)
Aura is gifted with magical abilities; she and her friends have many exciting adventures at the academy, but soon Aura learns that the school hatches many dark secrets that she must uncover. Will she be able to unveil the truth?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Gnome-Mobile (1967)
An eccentric millionaire and his grandchildren are embroiled in the plights of some forest gnomes who are searching for the rest of their tribe. While helping them, the millionaire is suspected of being crazy because he's seeing gnomes! He's committed, and the niece and nephew and the gnomes have to find him and free him.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers
Popcorn FlickMovies like this
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Magic Shelf?
The closest matches to The Magic Shelf are The Great Buck Howard (2008), Magician Mickey (1937) and Magic Camp (2020). Below are 17 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Magic Shelf?
Start with The Great Buck Howard (2008), the closest match to The Magic Shelf.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Magic Shelf?
Where Hope Grows (2014), rated 7.9/10 by 232 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Magic Shelf?
Snoopy Presents: It's the Small Things, Charlie Brown (2022) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Magic Shelf?
Yes: The Great Buck Howard (2008), Magician Mickey (1937) and Magic Camp (2020).
How are movies similar to The Magic Shelf chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Magic Shelf, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.