25 Best Movies Like Harry Potter

For many years, “Harry Potter” had a stranglehold on younger grownup fantasy, with seven major books and eight films adapting them (not counting the “Unbelievable Beasts” films). However the now-famous story a few younger boy who discovers he is a wizard and is shipped off to magic college solely to spend every educational 12 months desperately making an attempt to not be killed by his arch-rival Lord Voldemort is hardly the one gig on the town. Possibly it is time to unfold the love round a little bit bit?

Should you’re a fan of “Harry Potter” and are searching for extra movies prefer it — or when you’re making an attempt to take a break from the sequence after a few of its creator J.K. Rowling’s more controversial comments — there’s a whole world of flicks that may encourage you. From boarding college dramas to peak fantasy fare, the movies on this listing have lots in frequent with the Boy Who Lived and his adventures, and relying on what facet of “Harry Potter” you had been most drawn to, there will be one thing for everybody.

Launched throughout a window of time when studios had been chasing the fantasy success of “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” (its trailer even references the latter), “The Golden Compass” acquired form of a uncooked deal. It was based mostly on Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” series, which follows a younger lady named Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) in a fantasy world the place every particular person has an animal daimon that principally serves as an exterior vessel for his or her soul. 

When Lyra tries to trace down a good friend who has gone lacking, she finally ends up on a wild journey that threatens to show among the darkest secrets and techniques of her world. Though “The Golden Compass” underperformed (to place it mildly — its field workplace numbers almost killed New Line Cinema), fortunately the franchise acquired one other probability within the kind of a 2019 series from HBO, which was capable of go quite a bit additional in bringing its fascinating fantasy story to life.

By some means, calling “Lord of the Rings” a movie that is like “Harry Potter” feels incorrect — if something, it is the opposite method round, since “Lord of the Rings” was written nicely earlier than it and has been an undisputed basic of the fantasy style for 70 years. The trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien follows the basic hero’s journey as a younger hobbit named Frodo (Elijah Wooden) leaves his secure, predictable neighborhood of the Shire to journey to Mordor to destroy the Ring of Energy, which corrupts all who carry it, resulting in loads of dramatic fight scenes. 

Alongside the way in which, he encounters elves, dwarfs, wizards, big spiders, and all method of mystical creature who each assist and hinder him on his journey (aside from Tom Bombadil, who famously did not make an appearance in the films). The primary movies of the “Lord of the Rings” and “Harry Potter” franchises had been launched inside a month of one another in 2001, and collectively they went a good distance in reestablishing the fantasy style for mainstream moviegoers after a few years of it being relegated to a distinct segment viewers.

Though there is not any magic to be seen in “Lifeless Poets Society” (except you rely the magic of poetry or of New England within the autumn), it provides a glimpse right into a boarding college expertise that may not be too dissimilar to what Harry and his pals have throughout their off-hours. It stars Robin Williams as an inspirational English trainer who is set to instill an appreciation for literature into his dead-eyed prep college college students, all of whom are being groomed for excellent issues in life however aren’t being taught nourish their souls with something inventive. 

With standout performances from Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean Leonard (and Williams himself, in fact), “Lifeless Poets Society” will depart you with a tear in your eye. Especially as it reaches its end — we defy you to not really feel one thing throughout the inspirational “Oh Captain, My Captain” scene on the movie’s emotional climax. (It is wild to look again and notice it almost ended completely differently.) Should you like this one, there are plenty more movies like it too.

“Willow” and “Harry Potter” share extra than simply the presence of actor Warwick Davis — they’re each magical examples of the basic hero’s journey. In “Willow,” Davis performs the younger sorcerer Willow Ufgood, whose life modifications ceaselessly when he takes on the duty of defending a child lady concentrating on by the dominion’s evil queen. Like “Harry Potter,” “Willow” traffics closely in prophecy, because the solely purpose the lady is at risk within the first place is as a result of it was foretold that she would usurp energy, one thing the queen is set to keep away from in any respect prices. 

“Willow” grew to become a charming and empowering 1980s cult classic, and it was nominated for 2 Academy Awards: Greatest Sound Results Enhancing and Greatest Visible Results. It was so enduringly in style that it will definitely earned a long-awaited sequel sequence in 2022 with Warwick Davis reprising his iconic position, though it was canceled after just one season and swiftly faraway from Disney+ as half of a bigger content material purge.

Very similar to Harry Potter himself, Alex (Louis Ashbourne Serkis) in “The Child Who Would Be King” is a seemingly atypical boy whose life modifications in a single day when he discovers a grand heritage that has been handed right down to him. Or slightly, that is what he thinks. With an absentee father, he assumes that he is capable of pull Excaliber out of a stone and is being tasked with saving the world as a result of his dad is definitely King Arthur. 

Nevertheless it seems, simply as we be taught with the prophecies in “Harry Potter,” that finally your private decisions outline you and your path way over who you had been born as. “The Child Who Would Be King” is a charming piece of family-friendly fantasy, full with a stand-out efficiency from Angus Imrie as a teenage Merlin tasked with guiding Alex.

“The Boxtrolls” is form of like “The Jungle Ebook,” solely as an alternative of animals caring for and elevating a misplaced human little one, there are bizarre little troll guys clad in packing containers. Eggs (Isaac Hempstead-Wright) was taken in by the Boxtrolls, who reside underground and solely emerge at evening to scavenge objects that they deem helpful for his or her many innovations. His childhood is usually a cheerful one, since he’s liked by the Boxtrolls, but it surely swiftly takes a flip when the Snatcher (Ben Kingsley) runs a marketing campaign to seize and get rid of all of the Boxtrolls. 

Collectively together with his new good friend Winnie (Elle Fanning), Eggs should save the Boxtrolls earlier than it is too late. With a singular stop-motion animation type from Laika, a studio that’s an important staple in the world of animation, and a unusual humorousness, “The Boxtrolls” harks again to the darker than strictly essentially youngsters’ movies of the Nineteen Eighties.

Whenever you watch “Younger Sherlock Holmes,” you may be impressed by the visible similarity between it and “Harry Potter.” Its essential trio consists of a tall ginger (Nicholas Rowe as Sherlock Holmes), a brief boy with darkish hair and glasses (Alan Cox as John Watson), and a woman with thick brown hair (Sophie Ward as Elizabeth Hardy). Their pint-sized antagonist is a complicated blond boy who bullies them at college. Their college, Brompton Academy, has units that look remarkably like Hogwarts at instances. It was even written by Chris Columbus, who directed the primary two “Harry Potter” movies. 

Collectively, the three younger heroes work to uncover the thriller behind a secret cult of Osiris worshippers, who’re seemingly chargeable for a string of murders. “Younger Sherlock Holmes” captures all the allure of the basic detective sequence, whereas providing up a contemporary and youthful take that differentiates it from a few of its extra conventional diversifications.

“The Witches” was written by Roald Dahl, so its one other story for youngsters that will get method darker than it has any enterprise being. A younger boy, Luke (Jasen Fisher), is touring on a seaside trip together with his aged grandmother, who has at all times given him very severe classes on establish witches, when he discovers that his lodge is definitely internet hosting the worldwide conference for witches, led by Anjelica Huston because the Grand Excessive Witch. 

What’s extra, witches hate kids and dedicate themselves to their eradication — an actual downside when the boy is found by the witches, and became a mouse. (Forcible animal transformation is seemingly a factor in each “The Witches” and “Harry Potter.”) Spooky, atmospheric, and with some top-notch sensible results courtesy of Jim Henson, “The Witches” reveals a malevolent aspect to witchcraft — even when the film finally ends up softening the ending by letting Luke flip again right into a human.

Let’s be honest, a “dwelling for peculiar kids” may as nicely be Hogwarts’ alternate identify. Eva Inexperienced stars as Miss Peregrine in “Miss Peregrine’s Dwelling for Peculiar Kids,” a matriarch of kinds to a pack of children who all have distinctive skills, like invisibility, or having bees fly out their mouth. (Okay, some superpowers are higher than others.) Jake (Asa Butterfield) grew up listening to tales of this dwelling from his grandfather Abe, who lived there as a baby. 

However in the future, when he discovers Abe mysteriously killed, he’s despatched on an journey that may take him to Miss Peregrine’s dwelling itself — which, amazingly, exists in a bubble outdoors of time, to guard the Peculiars from darkish forces that search to hunt them down. Unusual and engaging, “Miss Peregrine’s Dwelling for Peculiar Kids” stands out for its unimaginable world-building, even when the plot itself wobbles occasionally.

Ghosts are in every single place at Hogwarts, a lot in order that the scholars are hardly startled by them (though they’ll fall sufferer to the disagreeable sensation of strolling by a ghost if they are not cautious). This isn’t the case in “ParaNorman,” the place younger Norman has kind of a “Sixth Sense” state of affairs occurring. He can see all the ghosts round him when nobody else can, which makes him a little bit of an odd duck. 

However when his small city is ready upon by a horde of zombies as a part of a centuries outdated witch’s curse, Norman is the one one who can save the day. Like “The Boxtrolls,” “ParaNorman” is a product of Laika, which provides it its trademark animation type and eccentric humorousness, serving to it delve into completely macabre topics whereas nonetheless sustaining its family-friendly attraction and providing up the perfect entry-level horror film for kids.

As a lot as Hagrid from “Harry Potter” lives in a magical world of excessive fantasy, “Dragonheart” is principally his final dream. Dennis Quaid stars as Sir Bowen, a chivalrous knight who turns into disillusioned after his good friend and mentee Einon has his life saved by a dragon sharing its coronary heart with him, however grows right into a merciless and unjust ruler in consequence. Bowen devotes himself to the artwork of dragonslaying, which is when he meets Draco (Sean Connery), the lonely final dragon left on Earth. 

The 2 kind a cautious partnership and ultimately even friendship — though it is put to the take a look at when Draco’s destiny is interlinked with the more and more erratic Einon. “Dragonheart” birthed a cadre of sequels, none of that are fairly nearly as good as the unique. However what it is best identified for is its sweeping rating, which stands out as probably the most memorable in all of fantasy movie.

The primary time watching or studying “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Hearth” as a child, you might have been shocked by the dying of Cedric Diggory (Robert Pattinson). Producing that feeling is principally the complete objective of “Bridge to Terabithia.” A younger Josh Hutcherson stars as Jess, a child from a poor household who has loads of causes to need to escape actuality. When he turns into pals with Leslie (AnnaSophia Robb), he will get the prospect, through her imaginary world known as Terabithia. Collectively, they’ve limitless adventures, utilizing the shared fantasy as a method to keep away from coping with their real-life issues. 

However in the future, tragedy strikes, and Jess is left behind to face the world all by himself. Typically thought of probably the most unexpectedly devastating kids’s books, the “Bridge to Terabithia” movie adaptation spares no expense in breaking the hearts of audiences as nicely, changing into one of many saddest Disney films — which is saying one thing.

With regards to ’80s excessive fantasy, “Legend” is hard to beat — particularly relating to its villain, who’s as merciless and devilish as Lord Voldemort himself. “Legend” stars a younger Tom Cruise as Jack within the Inexperienced, a folkloric determine tasked with defeating the Lord of Darkness earlier than he is capable of set up dominion. Directed by Ridley Scott, “Legend” did not fairly get its due when it was first launched (though it was no less than nominated for a Academy Award for Greatest Make-up), but it surely has since gone on to turn out to be a cult basic. 

Llike many Scott productions, there is a director’s lower accessible, which is broadly thought of the superior movie. These days, “Legend” is usually remembered for its early casting of Hollywood megastar Tom Cruise, and the exquisitely malevolent efficiency of Darkness by Tim Curry, though the former actually regrets starring in the movie.

You understand how there’s at all times a ragtag group of scholars at Hogwarts who aren’t going dwelling for the vacations, and it is form of unhappy and miserable as a result of their mother and father do not need to see them throughout one of many few college breaks? That is principally the complete plot of the marvelous boarding school drama “The Holdovers.” Dominic Sessa stars as Angus Tully, a scholar who has been left behind at Christmas, his solely firm the curmudgeonly classics trainer Mr. Hunham (Paul Giamatti) and the kindly cafeteria supervisor Mary (Da’Vine Pleasure Randolph) nonetheless reeling from the current dying of her son in Vietnam. 

Though he initially chafes on the pressured togetherness, as the vacation goes on, the three lonely souls kind a kind of makeshift household, one that gives them consolation once they want it most. Now, if solely somebody desires to make a “Harry Potter” fanfic model of this movie with Harry and Snape, we might be all set.

The “Chronicles of Narnia” series by C.S. Lewis is the granddaddy of all youngsters fantasy lit, and in 2005, “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” acquired a big-screen adaptation. This movie revolves across the Pevensie kids, a household of 4 who’ve been despatched away from dwelling throughout World Battle II to keep away from the bombings, and their adventures as they uncover the land of Narnia by an outdated wardrobe. 

Collectively, they have to struggle the White Witch and assist Aslan (the titular lion who’s a not-so-subtle Christ allegory), and in doing so, they lay declare to the throne(s) of Narnia. If the follow-up movies “Prince Caspian” and “Voyage of the Daybreak Treader” suffered from diminishing returns, “The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe” remains to be an enthralling film in its personal proper. Should you preferred this one, keep tuned: Greta Gerwig has a new cinematic adaptation in the works as nicely.

Magical powers that our hero would not know what to do with? Verify. A horribly abusive household that by all rights ought to have had their rights terminated years earlier? Verify. A caring trainer who manages to function a quasi-parental determine regardless of their very own private trauma? Verify. There’s a lot crossover between “Harry Potter” and “Matilda,” we hardly know the place to begin.

Primarily based on a novel of the same name by Roald Dahl, little one ache knowledgeable extraordinaire, and directed by Danny DeVito (sure, actually), “Matilda” revolves round an impossibly shiny younger lady (Mara Wilson, probably the greatest little one stars of the Nineteen Nineties who disappeared from Hollywood as an adult) whose intelligence is being squandered by her boring and incurious mother and father. She has a lot latent mental energy that it begins to present itself in telekinesis, which permits her to take management of her life for the very first time.

When a bullied, lonely child named Bastian hides in his college’s unusually atmospheric attic to learn “The Neverending Story,” he would not notice the journey he is about to embark on. Within the land of Fantasia, there’s a malevolent vitality known as the Nothing threatening to overhaul all the things and everybody, and Atreyu (Noah Hathaway), a younger warrior, is tasked with stopping it. 

Though Atreyu is the ersatz hero of the story, Bastian has an sudden position to play, because the traces between reader and energetic participant within the fantasy world he is studying about turn out to be blurred. Crammed with imaginative fantasy magic and even a few moments of genuine heartbreak (RIP Artax), “The Neverending Story” is a basic kids’s movie, incomes two sequels that broaden upon its legacy (even when they can not fairly reside as much as it).

In “Stardust,” we’re launched to the idea that there are two elements of England dwelling aspect by aspect, one magical and one non-magical, separated solely by an enchanted wall. When Tristan (Charlie Cox) witnesses a falling star and vows to carry it again to his beloved (Sienna Miller), he embarks on a journey that may take him into the guts of the magical realm. His fallen star is definitely a girl, Yvaine (Claire Danes), and though he initially plans to return throughout the wall together with her, issues turn out to be extra difficult when the 2 start to develop emotions for one another of the course of their many adventures. 

However they’re confronted with appreciable challenges, as Yvaine is hunted by an age-old witch (Michelle Pfieffer), who seeks the guts of a star to revive her youth. “Stardust” is the perfect grown-up fairy tale, following the footsteps of “The Princess Bride” with its method to swashbuckling romance and succeeding to a stage of whimsical world-building that may make J.Okay. Rowling jealous.

Magic is a robust factor that should not be utilized in haste, as we be taught by the careless want visited upon Ella (Anne Hathaway) in “Ella Enchanted.” As an toddler, she was blessed by a fairy with the present of obedience. That will have appeared like a good suggestion on the time, but it surely truly condemns Ella to a life the place she has to do no matter anybody tells her to, even when it causes her nice ache. 

When she units out to drive the fairy to take again her present, she finally ends up on an journey that may change her life ceaselessly. Primarily based on a novel of the same name by Gail Carson Levine, “Ella Enchanted” is a shiny and charming ship up of the fairy story style, led ably by the mixed charismatic powers of Anne Hathaway as Ella and Hugh Dancy as Char, her good-looking prince.

In “Harry Potter,” magic is the premise for a whole hidden society, however in “The Craft,” it is one thing way more elemental and subversive. It options 4 teenage ladies who start to faucet into their shared powers, first casting small spells however ultimately shifting on to greater fare as they be taught firsthand the price of utilizing magic. 

Despite its campiness, “The Craft” stands out as a narrative of feminine empowerment, specializing in the friendship that grounds the magical skills of the 4 lead characters as a reclamation of their very own company as ladies. Though critics appeared nonplussed by its launch, “The Craft” ended up as a shock hit on the field workplace — and in 2020, it was given a legacy sequel about a new generation of witches, albeit one which was largely considered as vastly inferior to the unique.

In “Harry Potter,” magical powers are current all through a witch or wizard’s life, even from a really early age. However in “Teen Witch,” a supernatural comedy starring Robin Energetic (older sister of Blake Energetic, in case you had been questioning), these powers solely manifest upon a witch’s sixteenth birthday. Louise Miller (Energetic) is principally invisible at her highschool, however when she learns the reality about her identification, she lastly sees a path in direction of making all of her teenage desires come true. 

At first, she makes use of spells to clear her method to recognition, even securing the affections of in style teen jock Brad (Dan Gauthier), however she ultimately realizes that she’s utilizing her magic as a crutch. A story of an adolescent looking for her personal identification transposed onto the supernatural, “Teen Witch” is a beloved but bewildering 1989 classic — if for no different purpose than its now iconic rap quantity “High That.”

Phrase of warning: Should you’re searching for a “Harry Potter” substitute to point out your youngsters, “if….” might be not the best alternative. Whereas “Harry Potter” is principally an ode to the English boarding college system, “if….” makes the case that it is classist, sexually wicked, and more and more out of contact with the trendy world and England’s place in it. 

Malcolm McDowell stars as Mick Travis, a teenage boy within the decrease sixth kind whose anarchic leanings signify a non-conformist perspective that places him at odds with a lot of his classmates. Along with two of his pals, he plots an rebel that may take purpose on the elitist constructions of presidency, the navy, and the church , form of like Dumbledore’s Military taking up Dolores Umbridge and the Ministry of Magic. Now thought of a basic of Nineteen Sixties counterculture cinema in Britain, “if….” is a definitive satire of the boarding college expertise.

Primarily based on the popular novel series by Rick Riordan, “Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief” was the start of a deliberate franchise, though it solely lasted for 2 movies. It stars Logan Lerman as Percy Jackson, a preteen boy whose world is shaken to its core when he learns that his absentee father was not just a few man, however the Greek god Poseiden. When he is despatched to Camp Half-Blood, a house for all of the cast-off, half-human offspring of the gods, it units him on the trail of a wholly new life. 

When Zeus’s lightning is stolen, he, together with Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), a baby of Athena, and his satyr finest good friend Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) go on a real hero’s quest. Though the movie model might not have been beloved by diehard “Percy Jackson” followers, there’s lots to love right here, particularly the successful lead efficiency from Lerman as Percy Jackson himself.

Very similar to Harry Potter himself, Lewis (Owen Vaccaro) is shipped to reside together with his uncle after his mother and father die within the spooky but family-friendly “The House With a Clock in Its Walls.” However in contrast to Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon, who’re agonizingly typical, Lewis’s Uncle Jonathan (Jack Black) is an authorized eccentric, dwelling in a mansion that appears to have a lifetime of its personal. We be taught that Jonathan is definitely a warlock on a mission to seek out the clock that was reportedly hidden within the partitions of the home by an evil magical couple. 

Whereas “The Home With a Clock in Its Partitions” is a wizarding journey on the floor, it is also a meditation on loss and grief, of not letting previous ache management your life. For Lewis to achieve his full potential, he has to be taught to let go — or no less than learn to reside with — his emotions about his mother and father’ passing, slightly than dwelling on their deaths ceaselessly.

With regards to magical realism in childrens’ literary diversifications, Freddie Highmore within the mid-2000s was principally your man. He stars in “The Spiderwick Chronicles” as a pair of twins, Jared and Simon, who, together with their sister Mallory (Sarah Bolger) transfer to the imposing Spiderwick property. Whereas there, Jared discovers a subject information of all of the supernatural creatures that reside within the space, from fairies to Redcaps. And what’s extra, he discovers a plot by the native goblins to take away the protecting circle of mushrooms that surrounds the home, in order that their ogre chief Mulgarath (Nick Nolte) can steal the Ebook for his personal nefarious functions. 

Though it acquired some criticism for its dodgy particular results, “The Spiderwick Chronicles” lives and dies on the efficiency of Highmore within the two lead roles, who performs one of the best pretend twins since Lindsay Lohan in “The Mother or father Lure.”