Movies like Tom's Midnight Garden (1999)
The best movies like Tom's Midnight Garden (1999) are Alice in Wonderland (1933), The Magic Faraway Tree (2026) and Shorts (2009). If Tom's Midnight Garden hooked you with its family and mystery, these 30 similar films are what to watch next, and every pick says why it matches.
Quick picks
- Highest ratedThe Secret Garden (1993)7.4/10 from 1,027 votes
- NewestThe Magic Faraway Tree (2026)Released 2026
Alice 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 & fantasy
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 thisShorts (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 & fantasy
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Borrowers (1997)
The four-inch-tall Clock family secretly share a house with the normal-sized Lender family, "borrowing" such items as thread, safety pins, batteries and scraps of food. However, their peaceful co-existence is disturbed when evil lawyer Ocious P. Potter steals the will granting title to the house, which he plans to demolish in order to build apartments. The Lenders are forced to move, and the Clocks face the risk of being exposed to the normal-sized world.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 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 thisHarold and the Purple Crayon (2024)
Inside of his book, adventurous Harold can make anything come to life simply by drawing it. After he grows up and draws himself off the book's pages and into the physical world, Harold finds he has a lot to learn about real life.
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 thisWelcome to Smelliville (2021)
The Oggly family arrive at the municipal rubbish dump of Smelliville and must look for a new home, but they never feel really welcome anywhere. They stink and are for most humans just a tad too oggly. When Firebottom, the family dragon, crash-lands on the run-down rubbish tip of the small town of Smelliville, the Ogglies at once feel at home. And it's here they want to stay.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSlumberland (2022)
A young girl discovers a secret map to the dreamworld of Slumberland, and with the help of an eccentric outlaw, she traverses dreams and flees nightmares, with the hope that she will be able to see her late father again.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & family
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 & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies 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 & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960)
Doctor Gulliver is poor, so nothing - not even his charming fiancée Elisabeth - keeps him in the town he lives. He signs on to a ship to India, but in a storm he's washed off the ship and ends up on an island, which is inhibitated by very tiny people. After he managed to convince them he's harmless and is accepted as one of their citizens, their king wants to use him in war against a people of giants. Compared to them, even Gulliver is a gnome.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Care Bears Movie (1985)
The Care Bears team up with a troubled brother and sister who just moved to a new town to help a neglected young magician's apprentice whose evil spell book causes sinister things to happen.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisSketch (2025)
When a young girl’s sketchbook falls into a strange pond, her drawings come to life—chaotic, real, and on the loose. As the town descends into chaos, her family must reunite and stop the monsters they never meant to unleash.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both adventure & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisScooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster (2010)
Scooby-Doo and the gang are on the case when a mysterious lake monster starts scaring the guests at a summer resort in Erie Point, where Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy have taken on seasonal jobs to pay for a barn they accidentally burned down. But in addition to sneaking suspicions, there's some romance in the air.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both mystery & fantasy
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Secret Garden (2020)
Mary Lennox is born in India to wealthy British parents who never wanted her. When her parents suddenly die, she is sent back to England to live with her uncle. She meets her sickly cousin, and the two children find a wondrous secret garden lost in the grounds of Misselthwaite Manor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & fantasy
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 thisThe Secret Garden (1993)
A young British girl born and reared in India loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake. She is returned to England to live at her uncle's castle. Her uncle is very distant due to the loss of his wife ten years before. Neglected once again, she begins exploring the estate and discovers a garden that has been locked and forgotten. Aided by one of the servants' boys, she begins restoring the garden, and eventually discovers some other secrets of the manor.
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both family & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisAlice in Wonderland (1999)
Alice follows a white rabbit down a rabbit-hole into a whimsical Wonderland, where she meets characters like the delightful Cheshire Cat, the clumsy White Knight, a rude caterpillar, and the hot-tempered Queen of Hearts and can grow ten feet tall or shrink to three inches. But will she ever be able to return home?
Why it matches: Recommended by TMDB viewers · both fantasy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisScooby-Doo! in Arabian Nights (1994)
Scooby-Doo and Shaggy travel to Arabia to become the Caliph's Royal Food Tasters. But they bite off more than they can chew and are forced to run for their lives! It's a wild magic carpet ride as Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and their genie (Yogi Bear) and a jolly sailor named Sinbad (Magilla Gorilla) take you on an adventure of mistaken identities, exotic locations and fun-filled action and surprises!
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisThe BFG (2016)
An orphan little girl befriends a benevolent giant who takes her to Giant Country, where they attempt to stop the man-eating giants that are invading the human world.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisThe Cat in the Hat (2003)
During a rainy day, and while their mother is out, Conrad and Sally, and their pet fish, are visited by the mischievous Cat in the Hat. Fun soon turns to mayhem, and the siblings must figure out how to rid themselves of the maniacal Cat.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & adventure
SnoozefestMovies like thisPeter Pan (2003)
In stifling Edwardian London, Wendy Darling mesmerizes her brothers every night with bedtime tales of swordplay, swashbuckling and the fearsome Captain Hook. But the children become the heroes of an even greater story, when Peter Pan flies into their nursery one night and leads them over moonlit rooftops through a galaxy of stars and to the lush jungles of Neverland.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & fantasy
Worth the HypeMovies like thisJames and the Giant Peach (1996)
When the young orphan boy James spills a magic bag of crocodile tongues, he finds himself in possession of a giant peach that flies him away to strange lands.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family & adventure
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisBridge to Terabithia (2007)
Jesse Aarons trained all summer to become the fastest runner in school. So he's very upset when newcomer Leslie Burke outruns him and everyone else. Despite this and other differences including that she's rich, he's poor, she's a city girl, and he's a country boy the two become fast friends. Together they create Terabithia, a land of monsters, trolls, ogres, and giants where they rule as king and queen.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & family
Worth the HypeMovies like thisČertův švagr (1984)
An evil and calculating stepmother chases her stepson out of the house. Petr tries in vain to find a job, but he is sent to hell everywhere. So he goes to serve in hell. As you will see, he could not have done anything better.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both family & fantasy
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
A concise adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's "The Wind in the Willows" about Mr. Toad's motor mania, followed by a short retelling of Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" concerning schoolmaster Ichabod Crane.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both fantasy & family
Popcorn FlickMovies like thisPippi Longstocking (1997)
Pippi Longstocking is an extraordinary little girl who lives alone in her house, while her father sails the seven seas. Pippi's irrepressibly fun nature makes her easy to befriend, as neighbors Tommy and Annika find, but can also earn ire, especially from social worker Mrs. Prysselius.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & family
SnoozefestMovies like thisThe Book of Pooh: Stories from the Heart (2001)
Part of The Book of Pooh series, which offers preschool kids simple life lessons and scholastic pointers, The Book of Pooh: Stories From the Heart uses puppetry and computer animation to tell Christopher Robin's imaginative tales. Kids join Christopher Robin, Winnie the Pooh, Piglet, and Tigger for an afternoon of storytelling and lesson learning.
Why it matches: Similar story and style · both adventure & family
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Frequently asked questions
What are the best movies like Tom's Midnight Garden?
The closest matches to Tom's Midnight Garden are Alice in Wonderland (1933), The Magic Faraway Tree (2026) and Shorts (2009). Below are 27 more, each with the reason it matches.
What should I watch after Tom's Midnight Garden?
Start with Alice in Wonderland (1933), the closest match to Tom's Midnight Garden.
What is the highest-rated movie like Tom's Midnight Garden?
The Secret Garden (1993), rated 7.4/10 by 1,027 TMDB users.
What is the newest movie like Tom's Midnight Garden?
The Magic Faraway Tree (2026) is the most recent release on this list.
Are there English movies like Tom's Midnight Garden?
Yes: Alice in Wonderland (1933), The Magic Faraway Tree (2026) and Shorts (2009).
How are movies similar to Tom's Midnight Garden chosen?
First come films that Trakt’s viewers watch alongside Tom's Midnight Garden, then TMDB’s recommendations and films it rates as similar in story and genre. Each pick says which signal put it there.