Best movies like Captains Courageous
Last updated March 2024
Looking for movies similar to Captains Courageous? Provide your expertise to direct others to tv shows and films you've seen before that may also grip them. Support increasing the group of people raising videos among one another. We appreciate your participation!
Plot Summary:
Harvey Cheyne, Jr., second richest person in the world, orphaned and spoiled rotten, encounters a cigar and the sea on his way to England for boarding school. Seasick, over the rail for real, rescued by Dan Troop of a Gloucester fishing sailboat. Three months at sea, under a firm but fair Captain Troop (fair wages of $10.50 a month, if you don't work you don't eat). A hard life and a dangerous one, and a lot of growing up to do through hardship and tragedy.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 834
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: serious, realistic
Best tv shows and movies like Captains Courageous (1996):
Similar in 88%
Salt Water Moose (1996)
Plot Summary:
When Bobby and his Mom move from Toronto, away from his dad and his baseball team, to a small town in Nova Scotia, he's picked on by all the local kids, except for Jo. And Jo has also befriended a lonely male moose who lives on an island, and she has a wild plan to capture and relocate a female moose to be company for him. Together, Bobby and Jo, with the help of their single parents, Eva and Lester, attempt to put Jo's plan into operation.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 298
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: semi serious, independent film
Similar in 87%
Calm at Sunset (1996)
Plot Summary:
The struggle between a father and son at odds over the youths career choice. The 18 years old James Pfeiffer quits college and decides to become a fisherman like his father. Margaret and Russell are very upset with their son's decision. They had a lot of hopes for him, finishing law school and, like his older brother Joseph, make a decent living on shore rather than an uncertain and dangerous career at sea. But James dreams of having his own boat and is determined to persevere.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 131
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic
Similar in 90%
Blue Fin (1978)
Plot Summary:
Based on the children's novel by celebrated South Australian author 'Colin Thiele' , this is an emotional father and son story about tuna fishing of Southern Blue Fin tuna in South Australia's Port Lincoln fishing district. Accident prone son Snook is forever making mistakes much to the chagrin of his father Pascoe. But when tragedy strikes the fishing boat during a deep sea fishing trek in the Southern Ocean, the boy is called on to become a man in a rites of sea passage to reconcile is past mishaps and save both his father and the ship from certain disaster.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 268
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: Australia
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: semi serious, independent film
Similar in 83%
The Legend of Tillamook's Gold (2006)
Plot Summary:
Julie, a lonely fourteen year old girl, moves to Manzanita, an Oregon seaside town, from Los Angeles after her writer father, Robert, loses his job. Her family, including mother Kathryn and older sister Susan, has trouble adjusting to life in a small town. Julie parents struggle with her father's unemployment and her sister, Susan, finds solace in a summer fling with Tom.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 304
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: captivating, entertaining, light, feel good, serious, family saga
Similar in 79%
Storm Boy (1976)
Plot Summary:
Mike is a lonely Australian boy living in a coastal wilderness with his reclusive father. In search of friendship he encounters an Aboriginal native loner and the two form a bond in the care of orphaned pelicans.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Australia
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: semi serious, independent film, cult film
Similar in 86%
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase (1989)
Plot Summary:
Bonnie and cousin Sylvia, two very young children, are left at home in Willoughby Hall while their parents travel overseas. Only the servants and the prowling wolves are their companions. News arrives that Lord and Lady Willoughby are missing and an evil looking governess suddenly arrives at the hall.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 542
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: UK
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: spooky, independent film, serious
Similar in 85%
The New Swiss Family Robinson (1998)
Plot Summary:
When Angelino Jack Robinson gets a new job in Australia, he decides to take his sissy wife Ann, brave sons Shane and Todd and wining daughter Elisabeth 'Lizzy' by sailing yacht from Hong Kong to Syndney. The gun he gets thrown in by Sheldon Blake proves disabled, and for a sinister reason: near Borneo, Blake's men turn up to capture them. The family escapes but loses the yacht on a reef. They build a cool camp on an island. But the pirates keep coming back, and the boys discover why: he hid a treasure in the yacht. Shane is also discovered and captured in more then one way by French plane wreck survivor Françoise, who later teams up with the family.
IMDB Rating: 4.9
IMDB Votes: 868
Genere: Adventure, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: romantic, independent film, serious
Similar in 85%
Flipper's New Adventure (1964)
Plot Summary:
While widowed Porter Ricks is away at school learning to be a park ranger, his teen-aged son, Sandy, under adult supervision from a neighbor, remains at the family home in the Florida Keys with his pet dolphin, Flipper. While Po (as Porter is called by most) is away, Sandy learns that the family home, built on state land, is being torn down to make way for a highway. In turn, Sandy would be sent to live with relatives, while Flipper would be sent to the seaquarium permanently. Not wanting to be separated from Flipper, Sandy, using his skiff, runs away with Flipper. A distraught Po returns home to look for his son. Meanwhile, the Hopewell family from Britain are vacationing in the area. Their sailboat is hijacked by three escaped convicts, who take the father, Halsey, hostage, and set the three Hopewell women - mother Julia, and teen-aged daughters Gwen and Penny - adrift, they who eventually land on the island where Sandy is hiding... Written by Huggo.
IMDB Rating: 5.9
IMDB Votes: 626
Genere: Family, Adventure, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: exciting, realistic, suspenseful, semi serious, cult film
Similar in 75%
Saving Shiloh (2006)
Plot Summary:
In this third movie about Shiloh, Judd Travers is accused of killing a man he once fought in a bar. Everyone in the town consider Judd to be guilty except Marty Preston, but even him has some doubts. Trying to clear Judd's name Marty and his friend searches the woods to find the criminal.
IMDB Rating: 6.2
IMDB Votes: 930
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: serious, sincere, touching, captivating, saga
Similar in 80%
Walking Thunder (1995)
Plot Summary:
In the 1850's, a young boy and his family on their way West become stranded in the Rockies. With the help of a local mountain man, a Sioux medicine man, and a legendary bear knows as "Walking Thunder," the boy learns to become a man, and his family's survival is secured.
IMDB Rating: 5.8
IMDB Votes: 274
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: independent film, exciting, serious, realistic
Similar in 75%
Storm Boy (2019)
Plot Summary:
When a highly successful retired businessman, Michael Kingley, starts to see things he at first can't explain, his life takes a dramatic turn. And when his grand-daughter rebels against her father, he is forced to re-evaluate his life and to act to prevent her going down a similar path to one he took years before. He tells her his story, when as a boy he lived a lonely existence with his father, Hideaway Tom, on an isolated coastline and how a bond with an orphaned pelican, Mr. Percival, changed his life forever.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Australia
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, captivating, disturbing, motivational, extraordinary
Similar in 79%
Spin (2003)
Plot Summary:
"Spin" tells the story of a boy who loses his parents in a plane crash, is taken in by his uncle (Tucci), who then leaves him for ten years in the care of his Hispanic ranch hand (Blades) and his wife (Delany). Once in high school, Eddie (Merriman) reconnects with a girl from his past (Garces), and their growing interracial relationship teaches the sometimes-sullen Eddie to think of others before himself.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 537
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 107 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, emotional, realistic, independent film
Similar in 89%
My Sweet Orange Tree (2012)
Plot Summary:
Zezé is an 8 year old boy who, although a naughty boy, has a good heart. He leads a very modest life, due to the fact that his father has been unemployed for a long time, and has the habit of having long conversations with a sweet orange tree which is in his backyard. Until one day he meets Portuga, a man who begins to help him and soon becomes his best friend.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Brazil
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, atmospheric, captivating, serious, realistic
Similar in 84%
Owd Bob (1998)
Plot Summary:
Recently orphaned David must move to the Isle of Man to live with his grandfather, Adam, who's a sheep farmer. Both long for the end of the summer, having nothing in common but their love for dogs, notably Adam's precious champion sheepdog Bob. David strikes a friendship with Maggie, the sassy daughter of friendly neighbor Keith Moore, but Adam hates that family on account of an old canine competition-related tragedy. Other neighbors suspect Bob and the Moore's dog of the recent series of nocturnal sheep-kills.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 418
Genere: Family, Drama
Country: UK, Canada
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, independent film
Similar in 77%
Heidi (2005)
Plot Summary:
Swiss girl Adelheid 'Heidi' is orphaned young. Aunt Detie brings her to grandpa Alp and his wife, who live isolated in the Alps since his murder charge. Heidi soon takes to the wild country, especially accompanying young goatherd Peter. Grandpa refuses to send her to school in the city, but aunt Detie returns and forces him to give in. She's sent to a posh lady in Frankfurt, where she'll be a companion for crippled daughter Clara after school hours.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, serious
Similar in 79%
Anne of Green Gables: A New Beginning (2008)
Plot Summary:
Anne, now a middle-aged woman, is troubled by recent events in her life. Her husband, Gilbert, has been killed overseas as a medical doctor during World War II. Her two daughters are pre-occupied with their own young families and her adopted son Dominic has yet to return from the war. When a long-hidden secret is discovered under the floorboards at Green Gables, Anne retreats into her memories to relive her troubled early years prior to arriving as an orphan at Green Gables and being adopted by the Cuthberts.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 652
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada
Duration: 144 min
Plot tags: sincere, feel good, captivating, psychological, realistic, serious
Similar in 77%
The Secret Garden (1987)
Plot Summary:
When a spoiled English girl living in 19th century India loses both parents in a cholera epidemic, she is sent back to England to live in a country mansion. The lord is a strange old man-- frail and deformed, immensely kind but so melancholy. She wishes to discover what has caused him so much sorrow and to bring joy back to the household. It all must have something to do with the screams and wails which echo through the house at night and no one wants to talk about.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Family, Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 100 min
Plot tags: touching, sincere, sentimental, light, captivating, disturbing, sad, fairy tale, atmospheric, serious
Similar in 84%
When I Find the Ocean (2006)
Plot Summary:
A little girl leaves home with her pet dog and rabbit to escape abuse and find the ocean in the hopes of feeling closer to her father who has passed away.
IMDB Rating: 4.3
IMDB Votes: 259
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 104 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic, sincere, captivating
Similar in 84%
Shiloh (1996)
Plot Summary:
An abused beagle runs away from his owner. On the road, he meets young Marty Preston and follows him home. The boy immediately forms a bond with the dog and names him Shiloh. His stern father won't let him keep the dog because it belongs to Judd Travers, a local hunter. After Shiloh is mistreated again, he runs away and returns to Marty. Knowing his father will once again make him bring Shiloh back to Judd, he makes a home for the dog in an old shed up the hill from the Prestons' house and hides him from his family. His secret is soon discovered when a stray attacks the dog one night and he must turn to his father for help.
IMDB Rating: 6.3
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: sweet, touching, emotional, semi serious, feel good, gothic, epic, independent film, fairy tale, sentimental
Similar in 79%
Shiloh 2: Shiloh Season (1999)
Plot Summary:
After young Marty Peterson rescued Shiloh from his abusive owner, Judd Travers, he thought his troubles were over. But when Judd starts threatening to take "his" dog back, Marty is afraid of losing the best friend he's ever had. Even after Shiloh's keen senses help save Judd's life, the old man refuses to mend his mean-spirited ways, convincing everyone in town he's just too nasty to change. Now, in a long-short gamble to keep the dog he loves, Marty sets out to prove that just like a mistreated animal, a man filled with hate can be healed by the power of kindness.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family, Thriller
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 89%
Heidi (1968)
Plot Summary:
Heidi is an orphaned girl initially raised by her aunt Dete in Maienfeld, Switzerland. In order to get a job in Frankfurt, Dete brings 5-year-old Heidi to her grandfather, who has been at odds with the villagers for years and lives in seclusion on the alm. He at first resents Heidi's arrival, but the girl manages to penetrate his harsh exterior and subsequently has a delightful stay with him and her best friend, young Peter the goat-herd.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 665
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: West Germany, USA
Duration: 105 min
Plot tags: sentimental, uplifting, touching, feel good, serious, realistic
Similar in 85%
Smitty (2012)
Plot Summary:
SMITTY is a family film about a rescue dog. When life gets tough for Ben, a friendly paw is all it takes to pull him through. Mischievous thirteen-year-old Ben is sent to his grandfather's farm for the summer, where he crosses paths with a lovable mutt. With help from the unlikely canine companion, Ben learns the importance of friendship, family and responsibility.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 659
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sincere, captivating, light, feel good, touching, humorous, realistic, semi serious
Similar in 75%
Flipper (1963)
Plot Summary:
Many kids might say their best friend is a puppy or a pony. But for 12-year-old Sandy, the most special pet of all is the exuberant dolphin he rescues and who returns the favor by rescuing Sandy from sharks.The dolphin named Flipper first swam into the world's minds and hearts in this 1963 film starring Chuck Connors and Luke Halpin as Sandy (a role he would continue in the 1964-68 TV series that followed.) James B. Clark, a long-time family filmmaker whose credits include "Island of the Blue Dolphins" and "My Side of the Mountain," directs the story of hard times (Hurricane Hazel and its aftermath) and joy (Sandy's dolphin-powered rides through the waves). And two fins up for Mitzie, the animal star who plays flipper.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Adventure, Family, Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 87 min
Plot tags: melancholic, touching, exciting, feel good, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sentimental, romantic, clever
Similar in 77%
Free Willy 3: The Rescue (1997)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 4.7
IMDB Votes: 11000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 86 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, humorous, retro, epic, semi serious, exciting, romantic, feel good, unusual plot structure
Similar in 86%
Free Willy: Escape from Pirate's Cove (2010)
Plot Summary:
After young Kirra (Bindi Irwin) leaves her Australian home to summer with her grandfather (Beau Bridges) in South Africa, she soon discovers a baby orca stranded in the lagoon near her grandfather’s rundown seaside amusement park. She names the lonely whale Willy--and embarks on a great quest to lead the little guy back to his anxious pod.
IMDB Rating: 5.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: serious, sentimental, touching, realistic, uplifting
Similar in 90%
Dolphin Tale (2011)
Plot Summary:
A story centered on the friendship between a boy and a dolphin whose tail was lost in a crab trap.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: uplifting, sentimental, touching, realistic, serious, inspirational, social, saga
Similar in 81%
The Young Black Stallion (2003)
Plot Summary:
When courageous young Neera becomes separated from her family in the desert, she chances upon a wild colt. Together they find friendship, trust, and their way back home only to discover her family is about to lose everything!.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 50 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, realistic
Similar in 89%
Andre (1994)
Plot Summary:
The true story of how a marine seal named Andre befriended a little girl and her family, circa 1962.
IMDB Rating: 5.7
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 95 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, sad, feel good, humorous, semi serious, fairy tale, light, inspirational, romantic
Similar in 87%
Alabama Moon (2009)
Plot Summary:
After the unexpected death of his survivalist father, an eleven year old boy raised in the Alabama wilderness must learn how to make a home in the modern world.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, realistic, exciting, serious, inspirational, feel good
Similar in 77%
Pollyanna (2003)
Plot Summary:
Pollyanna Whittier goes to live with her wealthy but bitter aunt after the tragic death of her father. Pollyanna shares a game her father taught her -- the 'Glad Game' -- in which everyone can find a silver lining in even the darkest cloud, and her sunny nature, good humor and determination to look on the bright side of life prove to have an astonishing effect on those around her. With the help of her orphaned friend, Jimmy Bean, she casts her spell on the grumpiest townsfolk of Beldingsville -- including the cynical shut-in Mrs. Snow, the morose millionaire Mr. Pendleton and the enigmatic Dr. Chilton. And Pollyanna masterminds the romance between her Aunt's maid, Nancy, and the handyman, Tim. It is only Aunt Polly, who cannot bring herself to embrace Pollyanna's innocence and joy. But all is not straightforward in Pollyanna's war against pessimism, since she must overcome a personal tragedy that threatens to banish "glad" from her vocabulary forever.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 1000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: UK
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, uplifting, sentimental, realistic, semi serious, humorous, tear jerker, period drama, tearjerker