Best movies like The Secret of Roan Inish
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
10-year-old Fiona is sent to live with her grandparents in a small fishing village in Donegal, Ireland. She soon learns the local legend that an ancestor of hers married a Selkie - a seal who can turn into a human. Years earlier, her baby brother was washed out to sea and never seen again, so when Fiona spies a naked little boy on the abandoned Isle of Roan Inish, she is compelled to investigate.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Family, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: USA, Ireland
Duration: 103 min
Plot tags: scenic, fairy tale, touching, melancholic, sentimental, atmospheric, mystical, inspirational, offbeat, spiritual
Best tv shows and movies like The Secret of Roan Inish (1994):
Similar in 83%
Into the West (1992)
Plot Summary:
Accused of a crime they didn't commit, two city kids and a magical horse are about to become the coolest outlaws ever to ride Into The West.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Country: Ireland, UK
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: surreal, crying, fairy tale, touching, feel good, semi serious, independent film, light, inspirational, road movie
Similar in 84%
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 83%
The Golden Seal (1983)
Plot Summary:
A lonely 10-year-old boy living with his parents in a remote coastal part of Alaksa, spontaneously finds a legendary golden seal and her newborn pup. But the greed for her valuable pelt sets off the hunters, including his own father, the local natives, and an ambitious poacher in pursuit the seal. The golden seal and her cub are hunted for a huge bounty on her head and the mythological legend.
IMDB Rating: 5.4
IMDB Votes: 366
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: independent film, sentimental, touching, feel good, semi serious
Similar in 90%
Secret of the Cave (2006)
Plot Summary:
A young American boy spends his summer in Ireland and solves the mystery that captivates the entire village. Driven by curiosity and his own search for meaning in life, he faces his fears and discovers the Secret of the Cave.
IMDB Rating: 4.8
IMDB Votes: 507
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: USA
Duration: 88 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, suspenseful, captivating
Similar in 88%
The Water Horse (2007)
Plot Summary:
A lonely boy discovers a mysterious egg that hatches a sea creature of Scottish legend.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 43000
Genere: Adventure, Family, Fantasy, War
Country: New Zealand, UK, USA
Duration: 112 min
Plot tags: entertaining, scenic, emotional, fairy tale, mystical, exciting, costume drama, spiritual, sweet, ironic
Similar in 84%
Ondine (2009)
Plot Summary:
An Irish fisherman discovers a woman in his fishing net believing her to be a mermaid.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 22000
Genere: Drama, Mystery, Romance
Country: Ireland, USA
Duration: 111 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, fairy tale, sweet, romantic, heartbreaking, emotional, serious, gloomy, romantic drama
Similar in 79%
A Shine of Rainbows (2009)
Plot Summary:
An orphaned boy named Tomás is adopted by Maire O’Donnell to live on a whimsical Irish isle filled with new friends, secret caves and a lost baby pup seal stranded on the coast. But when Maire's reluctant husband Alec refuses to accept Tomás as his own son, the boy drifts down a fateful path of adventure and self-discovery, illuminating how rainbows can shine around - and within - us all.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Canada, Ireland
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: uplifting, feel good, sentimental, sincere, touching, serious, realistic, christian film, motivational
Similar in 86%
Tuck Everlasting (2002)
Plot Summary:
Natalie Babbitt's award winning book for children comes to the screen in a lavish adaptation from Walt Disney Pictures. Winnie Foster (Alexis Bledel) is a girl in her early teens growing up in the small rural town of Winesap in 1914. Winnie's parents (Victor Garber and Amy Irving) are loving but overprotective, and Winnie longs for a life of greater freedom and adventure.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 25000
Genere: Drama, Family, Fantasy, Romance
Country: USA
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, romantic, period piece, melancholic, sweet, sentimental, atmospheric, touching, serious, teen
Similar in 90%
War of the Buttons (1994)
Plot Summary:
The children of Ballydowse and Carrickdowse engage in battles where they cut of the buttons, shoe-laces and underwear of their captured opponents. This is to get the boys in trouble with their parents. They go to battle in mass groups of dozens, throwing stones and cutting off their opponents buttons etc. And sometimes they go to battle completely naked and exposed. In one such scene about 30 boys return from a battle to celebrate victory at a barn-house only to find some girls waiting for them and they get very embarrassed at losing their privacy.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 5000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: UK, France, Japan, USA
Duration: 94 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, realistic, epic, sincere, serious, contemplative, light, romantic, sexy
Similar in 89%
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 83%
The White Pony (1999)
Plot Summary:
The search for a mystical pony in Ireland.
IMDB Rating: 5.3
IMDB Votes: 225
Genere: Family, Fantasy
Country: Ireland, USA
Duration: 93 min
Plot tags: offbeat, feel good, humorous, semi serious
Similar in 85%
The Brothers Lionheart (1977)
Plot Summary:
9-year old Karl Lejon, 'Skorpan' is suffering from tuberculosis and knows that he will die soon. But his older brother Jonathan tries to comfort him by promising that they one day will meet in Nangijala, a magic country beyond the stars. Jonathan dies soon after in a house fire and Skorpan also passes away not long after. They meet in Nangijala, a country divided into the Cherry Blossom Valley and the Briar-Bush Valley. The people in the later are oppressed by the black knight Tengil and his dragon Katla. The two brothers, who now call themselves Jonathan and Karl Lion Heart, decide to help the freedom fighters against the oppression.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: Sweden, Iceland
Duration: 106 min
Plot tags: touching, exciting, atmospheric, epic, serious, stylized
Similar in 78%
The Indian in the Cupboard (1995)
Plot Summary:
A nine-year-old boy gets a plastic Indian and a cupboard for his birthday and finds himself involved in adventure when the Indian comes to life and befriends him.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 31000
Genere: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, light, clever, epic, grindhouse, juvenile, cult classic, weeping, offbeat, feel good
Similar in 81%
Lady in the Water (2006)
Plot Summary:
Apartment building superintendent Cleveland Heep rescues what he thinks is a young woman from the pool he maintains. When he discovers that she is actually a character from a bedtime story who is trying to make the journey back to her home, he works with his tenants to protect his new friend from the creatures that are determined to keep her in our world.
IMDB Rating: 5.5
IMDB Votes: 103000
Genere: Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 110 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, suspense, melancholic, stylized, serious, suspenseful, atmospheric, visual, touching, mystical
Similar in 90%
Nim's Island (2008)
Plot Summary:
A young girl inhabits an isolated island with her scientist father and communicates with a reclusive author of the novel she's reading.
IMDB Rating: 6.0
IMDB Votes: 37000
Genere: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: exciting, scenic, captivating, fairy tale, sad, light, colorful, touching, humorous, realistic
Similar in 84%
The Secret Garden (2020)
Plot Summary:
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, Archibald Craven. She meets her sickly cousin Colin and the two children find a wondrous secret garden lost in the grounds of Misselthwaite Manor.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 10000
Genere: Drama, Family, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: UK, France, USA, China
Duration: 99 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, mysterious, sentimental, exciting, touching, feel good, light, crying, period drama
Similar in 89%
Fluke (1995)
Plot Summary:
Workaholic Thomas Johnson dies in an auto accident and comes back to life as a dog. Remembering some of who he was, he returns to his wife and son to protect them from the man who caused his accident. But, as time goes by, he remembers more of his life, and realizes he wasn't such a good husband and father.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 7000
Genere: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, sentimental, light, semi serious, touching, entertaining, sad, cult classic, sweet, tear jerker
Similar in 76%
Hook (1991)
Plot Summary:
The boy who wasn't supposed to grow up—Peter Pan—did just that, becoming a soulless corporate lawyer whose workaholism could cost him his wife and kids. But a trip to see Granny Wendy in London, where the vengeful Capt. Hook kidnaps Peter's kids and forces Peter to return to Neverland, could lead to a chance at redemption, in this family-oriented fantasy from director Steven Spielberg.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 269000
Genere: Adventure, Comedy, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, sweet, stylized, feel good, inspirational, touching, entertaining, sentimental, humorous, exciting
Similar in 83%
The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008)
Plot Summary:
Upon moving into the run-down Spiderwick Estate with their mother, twin brothers Jared and Simon Grace, along with their sister Mallory, find themselves pulled into an alternate world full of faeries and other creatures.
IMDB Rating: 6.5
IMDB Votes: 101000
Genere: Action, Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Thriller
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, exciting, scary, semi serious, visual, visually stunning, mystical, captivating, spooky, psychological
Similar in 82%
Peter Pan (2003)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 6.8
IMDB Votes: 79000
Genere: Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Romance
Country: UK, USA, Australia
Duration: 113 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, feel good, exciting, captivating, sweet, light, romantic, scenic, teen, colorful
Similar in 83%
Where the Wild Things Are (2009)
Plot Summary:
Max imagines running away from his mom and sailing to a far-off land where large talking beasts -- Ira, Carol, Douglas, the Bull, Judith and Alexander -- crown him as their king, play rumpus, build forts and discover secret hideaways.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 108000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy, Horror
Country: Germany, USA, Australia
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: emotional, touching, stylized, dark fantasy, light, talky, captivating, fairy tale, melancholic, sad
Similar in 83%
The Secret Garden (1993)
Plot Summary:
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 neglected. Aided by one of the servants' boys, she begins restoring the garden, and eventually discovers some other secrets of the manor.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 44000
Genere: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 101 min
Plot tags: costume drama, touching, atmospheric, feel good, fairy tale, sentimental, period piece, serious, realistic, light
Similar in 78%
The Bear (1988)
Plot Summary:
An orphan bear cub hooks up with an adult male as they try to dodge human hunters.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 19000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family
Country: France, USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: touching, scenic, uplifting, sentimental, captivating, visually stunning, inspirational, thought provoking, exciting, feel good
Similar in 78%
Finn (2013)
Plot Summary:
Nine year old Finn lives with his father in a small town. Together with his best friend Erik he plays football, but he prefers to play music. His dad wants him to play football, just like every other kid his age. Finn does not understand why, but his father doesn't want to talk about it. When Finn meets a mysterious old man, who plays the violin beautifully, he decides to learn how to play the violin as well. The old man teaches him, while Finn's dad thinks he is playing football... Is Finn the only one who sees the magic of music? What does his father hide?.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 356
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Netherlands
Duration: 90 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, serious, realistic, twisted
Similar in 87%
Bridge to Terabithia (2007)
Plot Summary:
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, and she's a city girl, he's a country boy, the two become fast friends. Together, they create Terabithia, a land of monsters, trolls, ogres, and giants and rule as king and queen.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 169000
Genere: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags: emotional, tear jerker, sad, touching, heartbreaking, fairy tale, sentimental, teen, captivating, melancholic
Similar in 83%
A Little Princess (1995)
Plot Summary:
When her father enlists to fight for the British in WWI, young Sara Crewe goes to New York to attend the same boarding school her late mother attended. She soon clashes with the severe headmistress, Miss Minchin, who attempts to stifle Sara's creativity and sense of self- worth.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: USA
Duration: 97 min
Plot tags: touching, feel good, fairy tale, heartbreaking, serious, humorous, realistic, semi serious, sweet, sad
Similar in 78%
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004)
Plot Summary:
Harry, Ron and Hermione return to Hogwarts for another magic-filled year. Harry comes face to face with danger yet again, this time in the form of escaped convict, Sirius Black – and turns to sympathetic Professor Lupin for help.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 676000
Genere: Adventure, Family, Fantasy, Mystery
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 142 min
Plot tags: gothic, fairy tale, dark fantasy, entertaining, atmospheric, exciting, saga, stylized, serious, visually appealing
Similar in 86%
The NeverEnding Story (1984)
Plot Summary:
While hiding from bullies in his school's attic, a young boy discovers the extraordinary land of Fantasia, through a magical book called The Neverending Story. The book tells the tale of Atreyu, a young warrior who, with the help of a luck dragon named Falkor, must save Fantasia from the destruction of The Nothing.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 154000
Genere: Adventure, Drama, Family, Fantasy
Country: West Germany, USA
Duration: 102 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, feel good, light, surreal, touching, scenic, offbeat, atmospheric, epic, melancholic
Similar in 86%
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)
Plot Summary:
Harry Potter has lived under the stairs at his aunt and uncle's house his whole life. But on his 11th birthday, he learns he's a powerful wizard -- with a place waiting for him at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. As he learns to harness his newfound powers with the help of the school's kindly headmaster, Harry uncovers the truth about his parents' deaths -- and about the villain who's to blame.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 837000
Genere: Adventure, Family, Fantasy
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 152 min
Plot tags: fairy tale, entertaining, exciting, touching, scenic, teen, saga, mystic, visually appealing, fantasy adventure
Similar in 89%
Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang (2010)
Plot Summary:
Nanny McPhee appears at the door of a harried young mother, Mrs. Isabel Green, who is trying to run the family farm while her husband is away at war. But once she’s arrived, Nanny McPhee discovers that the children are fighting a war of their own against two spoiled city cousins who have just moved in. Relying on everything from a flying motorcycle and a statue that comes to life to a tree-climbing piglet and a baby elephant, Nanny uses her magic to teach her mischievous charges five new lessons.
IMDB Rating: 6.1
IMDB Votes: 36000
Genere: Comedy, Family, Fantasy, War
Country: UK, France, USA
Duration: 109 min
Plot tags: captivating, fairy tale, entertaining, scenic, touching, humorous, surreal, colorful, witty, semi serious