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Time Bandits poster

Movies that feel likeTime Bandits (1981)

Young history buff Kevin can scarcely believe it when six dwarfs emerge from his closet one night. Former employees of the Supreme Being, they've purloined a map charting all of the holes in the fabric of time and are using it to steal treasures from different historical eras. Taking Kevin with them, they variously drop in on Napoleon, Robin Hood and King Agamemnon before the Supreme Being catches up with them.

If you loved Time Bandits, the closest films we have are Escape to Witch Mountain (1975), Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955) and Flight of the Navigator (1986). All three share Time Bandits' warm and cozy feel, which is what we rank on before quality.

Seen the big three already? The under-the-radar pick below is Jason and the Argonauts (1963).

🍅 92% Rotten Tomatoes★ 6.9 IMDb ↗TMDB ↗dir. Terry Gilliamwarmcozydreamlikecerebralepicwitty
10 of 12 streaming nowAmazon Prime Video · Disney Plus · Peacock Premium

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If Time Bandits hit the spot, these will too

Escape to Witch Mountain poster
Escape to Witch Mountain
1975 · dir. John Hough
🍅 87%★ 6.3adventure · fantasy · science fictionDisney+

Both land warmth and comfort at once

The difference: Trades the wit of Time Bandits for an angle of its own

Tia and Tony are two orphaned youngsters with extraordinary powers. Lucas Deranian poses as their uncle in order to get the kids into the clutches of Deranian's megalomaniacal boss, evil millionaire Aristotle Bolt, who wants to exploit them. Jason, a cynical widower, helps Tia and Tony escape to witch mountain, while at the same time Tia and Tony help Jason escape the pain of the loss of his wife.

Journey to the Beginning of Time poster
Journey to the Beginning of Time
1955 · dir. Karel Zeman
★ 7.1adventure · fantasy · family

One thread runs through both: time travel

The difference: 26 years apart, and the 1950s show

Four schoolboys go on an awe-inspiring expedition back through time, where they behold landscapes and creatures that have long since vanished from the earth.

Flight of the Navigator poster
Flight of the Navigator
1986 · dir. Randal Kleiser
🍅 85%★ 6.9family · science fiction · adventureDisney+

Both keep coming back to the same thing: time travel

12-year-old David is accidentally knocked out in the forest near his home, but when he awakens eight years have passed. His family is overjoyed to have him back, but is just as perplexed as he is that he hasn't aged. When a NASA scientist discovers a UFO nearby, David gets the chance to unravel the mystery and recover the life he lost.

The Dark Crystal poster
The Dark Crystal
1982 · dir. Frank Oz
🍅 78%★ 7.1adventure · family · fantasyPeacock

The same mix in both: dream logic, then scale

On another planet in the distant past, a Gelfling embarks on a quest to find the missing shard of a magical crystal and restore order to his world, before the grotesque race of Skeksis find and use the crystal for evil.

Jason and the Argonauts poster
Jason and the Argonauts
1963 · dir. Don Chaffey
🍅 85%★ 7.3adventure · family · fantasy

Family with a pulse of warmth, in both cases

Jason, a fearless sailor and explorer, returns to his home land of Thessaly after a long voyage to claim his rightful throne. He learns, however, that he must first find the magical Golden Fleece. To do so, he must embark on an epic quest fraught with fantastic monsters and terrible perils.

The Amazing Mr. Blunden poster
The Amazing Mr. Blunden
1972 · dir. Lionel Jeffries
★ 6.8family · fantasyPrime Video

Both lean on comfort more than on fantasy

Mysterious old solicitor Mr. Blunden visits Mrs. Allen and her young children in their squalid, tiny Camden Town flat and makes her an offer she cannot refuse. The family become the housekeepers to a derelict country mansion in the charge of the solicitors. One day the children meet the spirits of two other children who died in the mansion nearly a hundred years prior. The children prepare a magic potion that allows them to travel backwards in time to the era of the ghost children. Will the children be able to help their new friends and what will happen to them if they do?

Return to Oz poster
Return to Oz
1985 · dir. Walter Murch
🍅 59%★ 6.7adventure · family · fantasyDisney+

Dreamlike adventure in both cases

The difference: The scrappier of the two with critics

Dorothy, saved from a psychiatric experiment by a mysterious girl, finds herself back in the land of her dreams, and makes delightful new friends, and dangerous new enemies.

Explorers poster
Explorers
1985 · dir. Joe Dante
★ 6.4science fiction · adventure · family

Cerebral science fiction, and it commits to that

Middle schooler Ben spends his free time watching sci-fi films, playing video games and reading comic books. Surprisingly, his affinity for all things fantastical yields a real result – when he has a vivid dream about technology, his prodigy best friend Wolfgang manages to create a working spacecraft. Joined by their buddy Darren, the boys take off into outer space and encounter some very odd extraterrestrial life.

Around the World in 80 Days poster
Around the World in 80 Days
1956 · dir. Michael Anderson
🍅 72%★ 6.7adventure · comedy · family

Comedy built on wit, twice over

The difference: Leans harder into romance than Time Bandits does

Based on the famous book by Jules Verne the movie follows Phileas Fogg on his journey around the world. Which has to be completed within 80 days, a very short period for those days.

The NeverEnding Story poster
The NeverEnding Story
1984 · dir. Wolfgang Petersen
🍅 84%★ 7.3adventure · fantasy · family

Common ground: magic

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.

Honey, I Shrunk the Kids poster
Honey, I Shrunk the Kids
1989 · dir. Joe Johnston
🍅 76%★ 6.5adventure · comedy · familyDisney+

Cerebral family in both cases

The scientist father of a teenage girl and boy accidentally shrinks his and two other neighborhood teens to the size of insects. Now the teens must fight diminutive dangers as the father searches for them.

Asterix and Obelix Take On Caesar poster
Asterix and Obelix Take On Caesar
1999 · dir. Claude Zidi
★ 6family · adventure · comedyPrime Video

Both lean on scale more than on fantasy

Set in 50 B.C., Asterix and Obelix are living in a small but well-protected village in Gaul, where a magic potion concocted by Druids turns the townsfolk into mighty soldiers. When Roman troops carve a path through Gaul to reach the English Channel, Caesar and his aide de camp Detritus discover the secret elixir and capture the Druid leader who knows its formula, and Asterix and Obelix are sent off to rescue them.

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The best-reviewed films that share Time Bandits’ defining feeling.