Movies like The Sea Gypsies (1978)
The best movies like The Sea Gypsies (1978) are Return to Nim's Island (2013), Storm Boy (2019) and Moana (2026). If The Sea Gypsies 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 ratedThe Wild Robot (2024)8.3/10 from 6,849 votes
- NewestMoana (2026)Released 2026
Return 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 thisStorm Boy (2019)
Storm Boy lives a lonely life with his reclusive father on a desolate coastline, but when he forms a close bond with a pelican, Mr. Percival, his life takes a new and unexpected turn.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisMoana (2026)
Teenage Moana answers the Ocean's call and, for the first time, voyages beyond the reef of her island of Motunui with infamous demigod Maui on an unforgettable journey to restore prosperity to her people.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisTreasure Island (1990)
Young Jim Hawkins, while running the Benbow Inn with his mother, meets Captain Billy Bones, who dies at the inn while it is beseiged by buccaneers led by Blind Pew. Jim and his mother fight off the attackers and discover Billy Bones' treasure map for which the buccaneers had come. Jim agrees to sail on the S.S. Hispaniola with Squire Trelawney and Dr. Livesey to find the treasure on a mysterious island. Upon arriving at the island, ship's cook and scallywag Long John Silver leads a mutiny of crew members who want the treasure for themselves. Jim helps the Squire and Hispaniola officers to survive the mutiny and fight back against Silver's men, who have taken over the ship.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTreasure Island (1934)
In this early film adaptation of the classic novel by Robert Louis Stevenson, young Jim Hawkins is caught up with the pirate Long John Silver in search of buccaneer Captain Flint's buried treasure.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisTwo by Two: Overboard! (2020)
Two misfit castaways struggle to reunite an unorthodox family, out-run a volcano, and negotiate a peace deal on a creaking Ark.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies 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 thisThomas & 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 & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisFree Willy 3: The Rescue (1997)
Willy the whale is back, this time threatened by illegal whalers making money off sushi. Jesse, now 16, has taken a job on an orca-researching ship, along with old friend Randolph and a sarcastic scientist, Drew. On the whaler's ship is captain John Wesley and his son, Max, who isn't really pleased about his father's job, but doesn't have the gut to say so. Along the way, Willy reunites with Jesse.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoana (2016)
In Ancient Polynesia, when a terrible curse incurred by Maui reaches an impetuous Chieftain's daughter's island, she answers the Ocean's call to seek out the demigod to set things right.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Wild Robot (2024)
After a shipwreck, an intelligent robot called Roz is stranded on an uninhabited island. To survive the harsh environment, Roz bonds with the island's animals and cares for an orphaned baby goose.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Absolute CinemaMovies like thisDolittle (2020)
After losing his wife seven years earlier, the eccentric Dr. John Dolittle, famed doctor and veterinarian of Queen Victoria’s England, hermits himself away behind the high walls of Dolittle Manor with only his menagerie of exotic animals for company. But when the young queen falls gravely ill, a reluctant Dolittle is forced to set sail on an epic adventure to a mythical island in search of a cure, regaining his wit and courage as he crosses old adversaries and discovers wondrous creatures.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Sea Beast (2022)
When a young girl stows away on the ship of a legendary sea monster hunter, they launch an epic journey into uncharted waters — and make history to boot.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe Legend of Johnny Lingo (2003)
When a storm washes a canoe bearing an infant boy ashore upon a small South Pacific island, he is at first well-received as a gift from the heavens, even to the point of the tribal chief adopting him as a successor. However, with time as hardships are blamed upon Tama (as he is named), he is finally outcast to live with the poorest people on the island, Mahana and her drunken father. Mahana is considered homely and undesirable, but Tama feels differently, so when he is old enough to build a craft to sail away, he vows to return for her one day. A lucky stroke brings him to land upon the island of the legendary Johnny Lingo, the wealthiest trader in the islands, and after years of service to him, Tama has learned much about life and himself as he dreams of honoring his pledge to Mahana.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisOne Crazy Cruise (2015)
A family goes on a cruise but not all is what it seems. The next day they wake up with no memories of last night, which gets them in a LOT of trouble!
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisMoby Dick (1956)
In 1841, young Ishmael signs up for service aboard the Pequod, a whaler sailing out of New Bedford. The ship is under the command of Captain Ahab, a strict disciplinarian who exhorts his men to find Moby Dick, the great white whale. Ahab lost his leg to that creature and is desperate for revenge. As the crew soon learns, he will stop at nothing to gain satisfaction.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisHell and High Water (1954)
A privately-financed scientist and his colleagues hire an ex-Navy officer to conduct an Alaskan submarine expedition in order to prevent a Red Chinese anti-American plot that may lead to World War III. Mixes deviously plotted schoolboy fiction with submarine spectacle and cold war heroics.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisLife of Pi (2012)
The story of an Indian boy named Pi, a zookeeper's son who finds himself in the company of a hyena, zebra, orangutan, and a Bengal tiger after a shipwreck sets them adrift in the Pacific Ocean.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAbandoned (2016)
In 1989 the trimaran Rose Noelle set sail from Picton, New Zealand, bound for Tonga with four crew. After a freak wave capsized the yacht, they drifted for 119 days before landing on Great Barrier Island.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisTrue Spirit (2023)
When the tenacious young sailor Jessica Watson sets out to be the youngest person to sail solo, nonstop and unassisted around the world, many expect her to fail. With the support of her sailing coach and mentor Ben Bryant and her parents, Jessica is determined to accomplish what was thought to be impossible, navigating some of the world’s most challenging stretches of ocean over the course of 210 days.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisIn Search of the Castaways (1962)
Two teenagers, Mary (Hayley Mills) and Robert (Keith Hamshere) are lead by Professor Paganel (Maurice Chevalier) on a search expedition for the children's shipwrecked sea captain father. This Disney film was based upon Jules Verne's 1868 adventure novel Captain Grant's Children.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisGreystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984)
A shipping disaster in the 19th Century has stranded a man and woman in the wilds of Africa. The lady is pregnant, and gives birth to a son in their tree house. Soon after, a family of apes stumble across the house and in the ensuing panic, both parents are killed. A female ape takes the tiny boy as a replacement for her own dead infant, and raises him as her son. Twenty years later, Captain Phillippe D'Arnot discovers the man who thinks he is an ape. Evidence in the tree house leads him to believe that he is the direct descendant of the Earl of Greystoke, and thus takes it upon himself to return the man to civilization.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisRobinson Crusoe (1997)
Robinson Crusoe flees Britain on a ship after killing his friend over the love of Mary. A fierce ocean storm wrecks his ship and leaves him stranded by himself on an uncharted island. Left to fend for himself, Crusoe seeks out a tentative survival on the island, until he meets Friday, a tribesman whom he saves from being sacrificed. Initially, Crusoe is thrilled to finally have a friend, but he has to defend himself against the tribe who uses the island to sacrifice tribesman to their gods. During time their relationship changes from master-slave to a mutual respected friendship despite their difference in culture and religion.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Silver Horde (1920)
A young man who has proven a failure in business goes to Alaska and enters the salmon-fishing industry, in direct competition with the father of the woman he loves.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Russkies (1987)
A group of American boys discovers a Russian sailor washed up on the coast of Florida and decide to befriend him, assuming that he is friendly and will bring them no danger and thus go against the ideas of their parents, as well as the government.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family
Wyvern (2009)
The residents of a small Alaskan town find themselves under attack by a flying reptile known in medieval mythology as a Wyvern. It has thawed from its ancient slumber by melting icecaps caused by global warming.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisInto the Wild (2007)
After graduating from Emory University in 1992, top student and athlete Christopher McCandless abandons his possessions, gives his entire $24,000 savings account to charity, and hitchhikes to Alaska to live in the wilderness.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe White Dawn (1974)
In 1896, three survivors of a whaling ship-wreck in the Canadian Arctic are saved and adopted by an Eskimo tribe but frictions arise when the three start misbehaving.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
Harpoon (1948)
A tale of feuding and revenge among whalers in Alaska in the late 19th century.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like The Sea Gypsies?
The closest matches to The Sea Gypsies are Return to Nim's Island (2013), Storm Boy (2019) and Moana (2026). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after The Sea Gypsies?
Start with Return to Nim's Island (2013), the closest match to The Sea Gypsies.
What is the highest-rated movie like The Sea Gypsies?
The Wild Robot (2024), rated 8.3/10 by 6,849 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like The Sea Gypsies?
Moana (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like The Sea Gypsies?
Yes: Return to Nim's Island (2013), Storm Boy (2019) and Moana (2026).
How are movies similar to The Sea Gypsies chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside The Sea Gypsies, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.