Whimsical
Movies and TV that incorporate a touch of whimsy, either in plot or overall tone.
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1.
Amélie
(2001)
Amelie is an innocent and naive girl in Paris with her own sense of justice. She decides to help those around her and, along the way, discovers love. (122 mins.)
Director: Jean-Pierre Jeunet
2.
Big Fish
(2003)
A son tries to learn more about his dying father by reliving stories and myths he told about his life. (125 mins.)
Director: Tim Burton
3.
The Princess Bride
(1987)
While home sick in bed, a young boy's grandfather reads him a story called The Princess Bride. (98 mins.)
Director: Rob Reiner
4.
Fantastic Mr. Fox
(2009)
An urbane fox cannot resist returning to his farm raiding ways and then must help his community survive the farmers' retaliation. (87 mins.)
Director: Wes Anderson
5.
The Truman Show
(1998)
An insurance salesman/adjuster discovers his entire life is actually a T.V. show. (103 mins.)
Director: Peter Weir
6.
Midnight in Paris
(2011)
While on a trip to Paris with his fiancée's family, a nostalgic screenwriter finds himself mysteriously going back to the 1920s every day at midnight. (94 mins.)
Director: Woody Allen
7.
Being John Malkovich
(1999)
A puppeteer discovers a portal that leads literally into the head of the movie star, John Malkovich. (112 mins.)
Director: Spike Jonze
8.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
(2008)
Tells the story of Benjamin Button, a man who starts aging backwards with bizarre consequences. (166 mins.)
Director: David Fincher
9.
Groundhog Day
(1993)
A weatherman finds himself living the same day over and over again. (101 mins.)
Director: Harold Ramis
10.
Field of Dreams
(1989)
An Iowa corn farmer, hearing voices, interprets them as a command to build a baseball diamond in his fields; he does, and the Chicago White Sox come. (107 mins.)
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
11.
Pushing Daisies
(2007 TV Series)
A pie-maker, with the power to bring dead people back to life, solves murder mysteries with his alive-again childhood sweetheart, a cynical private investigator, and a lovesick waitress. (44 mins.)
12.
Hugo
(2011)
Set in 1930s Paris, an orphan who lives in the walls of a train station is wrapped up in a mystery involving his late father and an automaton. (126 mins.)
Director: Martin Scorsese
13.
Chocolat
(2000)
A woman and her daughter open a chocolate shop in a small French village that shakes up the rigid morality of the community. (121 mins.)
Director: Lasse Hallström
14.
Moonrise Kingdom
(2012)
A pair of young lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out to find them. (94 mins.)
Director: Wes Anderson
15.
Mary Poppins
(1964)
A magic nanny comes to work for a cold banker's unhappy family. (139 mins.)
Director: Robert Stevenson
16.
Pleasantville
(1998)
Two 1990s teenagers find themselves in a 1950s sitcom where their influence begins to profoundly change that complacent world. (124 mins.)
Director: Gary Ross
17.
The Red Balloon
(1956 Short Film)
A red balloon with a life of its own follows a little boy around the streets of Paris. (34 mins.)
Director: Albert Lamorisse
18.
La Luna
(2011 Short Film)
A fable of a young boy who is coming of age in the most peculiar of circumstances. Tonight is the very... (7 mins.)
Director: Enrico Casarosa
19.
Pan's Labyrinth
(2006)
In the falangist Spain of 1944, the bookish young stepdaughter of a sadistic army officer escapes into an eerie but captivating fantasy world. (118 mins.)
Director: Guillermo del Toro
20.
Stardust
(2007)
In a countryside town bordering on a magical land, a young man makes a promise to his beloved that he'll retrieve a fallen star by venturing into the magical realm. (127 mins.)
Director: Matthew Vaughn
21.
My Neighbor Totoro
(1988)
When two girls move to the country to be near their ailing mother, they have adventures with the wonderous forest spirits who live nearby. (86 mins.)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
22.
Kiki's Delivery Service
(1989)
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service. (103 mins.)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
23.
Spirited Away
(2001)
During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts. (125 mins.)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
24.
Howl's Moving Castle
(2004)
When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle. (119 mins.)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
25.
Across the Universe
(2007)
The music of the Beatles and the Vietnam War form the backdrop for the romance between an upper-class American girl and a poor Liverpudlian artist. (133 mins.)
Director: Julie Taymor
26.
Chicken with Plums
(2011)
Since his beloved violin was broken, Nasser Ali Khan, one of the most renowned musicians of his day, has lost all taste for life. Finding no instrument worthy of replacing it, he decides to confine himself to bed to await death. (93 mins.)
Director: Vincent Paronnaud, Marjane Satrapi
27.
The Science of Sleep
(2006)
A man entranced by his dreams and imagination is love-struck with a French woman and feels he can show her his world. (105 mins.)
Director: Michel Gondry
28.
Bridge to Terabithia
(2007)
A preteen's life turns upside down when he befriends the new girl in school and they imagine a whole new fantasy world to escape reality. (96 mins.)
Director: Gabor Csupo
29.
Where the Wild Things Are
(2009)
Yearning for escape and adventure, a young boy runs away from home and sails to an island filled with creatures that take him in as their king. (101 mins.)
Director: Spike Jonze
30.
Happy Accidents
(2000)
Ruby Weaver has man trouble: she tries to fix them, so she's stuck herself with a string of losers. Her current lover... (110 mins.)
Director: Brad Anderson
31.
The Castle
(1997)
A working-class family from Melbourne, Australia fights city hall after being told they must vacate their beloved family home to allow for infrastructural expansion. (85 mins.)
Director: Rob Sitch
32.
Big
(1988)
When a boy wishes to be big at a magic wish machine, he wakes up the next morning and finds himself in an adult body. (104 mins.)
Director: Penny Marshall
33.
Miracle on 34th Street
(1947)
When a nice old man who claims to be Santa Claus is institutionalized as insane, a young lawyer decides to defend him by arguing in court that he is the real thing. (96 mins.)
Director: George Seaton
34.
Stranger Than Fiction
(2006)
An IRS auditor suddenly finds himself the subject of narration only he can hear: narration that begins to affect his entire life, from his work, to his love-interest, to his death. (113 mins.)
Director: Marc Forster
35.
Finding Neverland
(2004)
The story of J.M. Barrie's friendship with a family who inspired him to create Peter Pan. (106 mins.)
Director: Marc Forster
36.
Edward Scissorhands
(1990)
A gentle man, with scissors for hands, is brought into a new community after living in isolation. (105 mins.)
Director: Tim Burton
37.
The Triplets of Belleville
(2003)
When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters--an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire--to rescue him. (78 mins.)
Director: Sylvain Chomet
38.
Enchanted
(2007)
A princess, who is prepared to be wed, is sent away to New York by an evil queen, where she falls in love with a lawyer. (107 mins.)
Director: Kevin Lima
39.
Ever After: A Cinderella Story
(1998)
The "real" story of Cinderella. A refreshing new take on the classic fairy tale. (121 mins.)
Director: Andy Tennant
40.
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
(1971)
A poor boy wins the opportunity to tour the most eccentric and wonderful candy factory of all. (100 mins.)
Director: Mel Stuart
41.
Breakfast at Tiffany's
(1961)
A young New York socialite becomes interested in a young man who has moved into her apartment building. (115 mins.)
Director: Blake Edwards
42.
The Accidental Tourist
(1988)
An emotionally distant writer of travel guides must carry on with his life after his son is killed and his marriage crumbles. (121 mins.)
Director: Lawrence Kasdan
43.
Local Hero
(1983)
An American oil company sends a man to Scotland to buy up an entire village where they want to build a refinery. But things don't go as expected. (111 mins.)
Director: Bill Forsyth
44.
Joe Versus the Volcano
(1990)
When a hypochondriac learns that he is dying, he accepts an offer to throw himself in a volcano at a tropical island, and along the way there, learns to truly live. (102 mins.)
Director: John Patrick Shanley
45.
Labyrinth
(1986)
A selfish 16-year old girl is given 13 hours to solve a labyrinth and rescue her baby brother when her wish for him to be taken away is granted by the Goblin King. (101 mins.)
Director: Jim Henson
46.
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
(2005)
A young boy wins a tour through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, led by the world's most unusual candy maker. (115 mins.)
Director: Tim Burton
47.
Time Bandits
(1981)
A young boy accidentally joins a band of dwarves as they jump from era to era looking for treasure to steal. (116 mins.)
Director: Terry Gilliam
48.
Nanny McPhee
(2005)
Emma Thompson stars as a governess who uses magic to rein in the behavior of seven ne'er-do-well children in her charge. (97 mins.)
Director: Kirk Jones
49.
The Last Mimzy
(2007)
Two siblings begin to develop special talents after they find a mysterious box of toys. Soon the kids, their parents, and even their teacher are drawn into a strange new world and find a task ahead of them that is far more important than any of them could imagine! (90 mins.)
Director: Bob Shaye
50.
Made in Heaven
(1987)
After being dumped by his girlfriend, a boy runs away to California. But he ends up in heaven because he dies after trying to help a family from drowning in a river. In heaven he'll meet a beautiful girl, who has never reincarnated before. (103 mins.)
Director: Alan Rudolph
51.
Danny Deckchair
(2003)
An Aussie becomes a national sensation when he lifts off in his deck chair tied to balloons. (100 mins.)
Director: Jeff Balsmeyer
52.
Michael
(1996)
Two tabloid reporters checking out a report of the Archangel Michael living with an old woman find that it's true. But that's not the only surprise. (105 mins.)
Director: Nora Ephron