Best movies like On Borrowed Time

The Great Broadway Stage Hit Reaches The Screen

A unique, carefully handpicked, selection of the best movies like On Borrowed Time Starring Lionel Barrymore, Cedric Hardwicke, Beulah Bondi, Una Merkel, and more. If you liked On Borrowed Time then you may also like: The War with Grandpa, Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, One Potato, Two Potato, Owd Bob and many more popular movies featured on this list. You can further filter the list even more or get a random selection from the list of similar movies, to make your selection even easier.

Young Pud is orphaned and left in the care of his aged grandparents. The boy and his grandfather are inseparable. Gramps is concerned for Pud's future and wary of a scheming relative who seeks custody of the child. One day Mr. Brink, an agent of Death, arrives to take Gramps "to the land where the woodbine twineth." Through a bit of trickery, Gramps confines Mr. Brink, and thus Death, to the branches of a large apple tree, giving Gramps extra time to resolve issues about Pud's future.

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The War with Grandpa

Peter is thrilled that his Grandpa is coming to live with his family. That is, until Grandpa moves into Peter's room, forcing him upstairs into the creepy attic. And though he loves his Grandpa, he wants his room back - so he has no choice but to declare war.

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory

When eccentric candy man Willy Wonka promises a lifetime supply of sweets and a tour of his chocolate factory to five lucky kids, penniless Charlie Bucket seeks the golden ticket that will make him a winner.

The Witches

A young boy named Luke and his grandmother go on vacation only to discover their hotel is hosting an international witch convention, where the Grand High Witch is unveiling her master plan to turn all children into mice. Will Luke fall victim to the witches' plot before he can stop them?

One Potato, Two Potato

Study of interracial marriage in the 1960s. A white divorcée falls in love with and marries an African-American man. When her ex-husband sues for custody of her child, arguing that a mixed household is an improper place to raise the girl, the new husband fights for his parental rights in court, fighting against a judge who represents the prejudices of the era.

Owd Bob

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.

The Blue Bird

A pair of peasant children, Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl, are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the Fairy Berylune. On their journey, they are accompanied by the humanized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, Bread, and other entities.

Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father

In 2001, Andrew Bagby, a medical resident, is murdered not long after breaking up with his girlfriend. Soon after, when she announces she's pregnant, one of Andrew's many close friends, Kurt Kuenne, begins this film, a gift to the child.

A Dog of Flanders

Adaptation of Ouida's sentimental classic about a poor Flemish boy (Frankie Thomas) whose ambition is to become a painter.

A Dog of Flanders

The emotional story of a boy, his grandfather, and his dog. The boy's dream of becoming a great classical painter appears shattered when his loving grandfather dies.

Parenthood

The story of the Buckman family and friends, attempting to bring up their children. They suffer/enjoy all the events that occur: estranged relatives, the 'black sheep' of the family, the eccentrics, the skeletons in the closet, and the rebellious teenagers.

The Green Years

An orphaned young boy is guided by his great-grandfather and strives to go to university to become a doctor. However, the boy's harsh grandfather stands in his way.

The Land Before Time X: The Great Longneck Migration

A bedtime story leads Littlefoot and his grandparents on a journey to a new land, where Littlefoot discovers someone who vanished before he was born: his father! Now Littlefoot must decide between two worlds. Will he leave to be with his friends in the Great Valley, or stay behind and start a new life with his father?

Peter & the Wolf

An animated retelling set to Prokofiev's suite. Peter is a slight lad, solitary, locked out of the woods by his protective grandfather

Pollyanna

When Pollyanna is orphaned, she's sent to live with her crotchety Aunt Polly. Pollyanna discovers that many of the people in her aunt's New England hometown are as ill-tempered as her aunt. But Pollyanna's incurable optimism - exemplified by her "glad game", in which she looks for the bright side of every situation - brings a change to the staid old community.

The Christmas Wish

Returning to his home town after the death of the grandfather who raised him, slick and cynical Wall Street trader Will Martin feels decidedly out of place, and not at all in tune with the Christmas preparations being made by the local citizenry. But Will isn't really taking a sentimental journey at all: He's merely in town to modernize and streamline his family's real-estate company. While going through his grandfather's effects, Will and his grandmother come across the old man's diary--which reveals a lengthy relationship with a woman named Lillian.

Dragonworld

A young man must risk his life to save his fire-breathing friend from the unscrupulous owner of an amusement park.

Roommates

An elderly, yet young-at-heart man, moves in with his grandson, and both their lives turn upside-down.

Captain January

A little girl named Star lives with a lighthouse keeper who rescued her when her parents drowned. A truant officer decides she should go to boarding school but she's rescued by relatives.

The Man with a Cloak

Set in 19th-century New York, this mystery begins when a Frenchwoman shows up at the home of one of Napoleon's former marshals. The alcoholic man is badly crippled and slowly dying, but this doesn't stop the forthright lady from pushing him to change his will to include his estranged grandson so that he can help out the struggling French Republic. Unfortunately, the dying man's conniving housekeeper and butler, already planning murder to get the money themselves, overhear her and begin plotting her demise.

Summer of the Colt

This award-winning film by André Melançon -- set on a ranch on the pampas of Argentina -- tells the story of three children spending a summer with their grandfather. The youngest, Felipe, makes friends with a puppy; his older brother, Daniel, breaks and train his first horse; their 13-year-old sister, Laura, struggles with the transition between childhood and growing up. The kids find it difficult to adapt to their proud and stubborn grandfather, and he learns that he has to change his ways and try to understand them as they all experience the joys and sorrows of growing up and growing old. ~ Alice Duncan, Rovi

A Child's Christmas in Wales

It's Christmas Eve in Wales. A young boy named Thomas is excited about the holiday, but he's also disappointed because it's raining instead of snowing. His grandfather gives him an old snow globe as an early Christmas present and starts telling colorful, amusing stories about his childhood Christmases that are shown in flashback. Thomas keeps asking his grandfather more questions because he likes the stories and because he doesn't want to go to bed. His parents finally insist that he go to bed, and his grandfather tells him one last story about going to bed on Christmas night while listening to his family singing carols downstairs. After Thomas falls asleep at last, his grandfather opens the bedroom window and sees falling snowflakes.

Home for Christmas

Mickey Rooney plays a weary old thief who befriends a young child. Home for Christmas is a 1990 Canadian made film about a young girl (Chantellese Kent) who wants a grandfather for Christmas. She chooses an elderly, homeless ex-con (Mickey Rooney) as her pseudo-grandfather and he teaches her - and her family - the true meaning of Christmas. Somewhat predictable.. but has a good plot twist about half way through that keeps it interesting. A solid, low-key performance by Mickey Rooney as the seemingly broken down homeless man saves this one from drowning in it's own mushiness.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

An American boy turns out to be the heir of a wealthy British earl. He is sent to live with the irritable and unsentimental aristocrat, his grandfather.

Little Lord Fauntleroy

Young Cedric Errol and his widowed mother live in genteel poverty in 1880s Brooklyn after the death of his father. Cedric's grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt, has long ago disowned his son for marrying an American. But after the death of the Earl's remaining son, he decides to accept Cedric as his heir.

The Care Bears in the Land Without Feelings

Kevin, an angry boy on Earth, is mad because he has to move away from his friend Donna. Declaring that he doesn't care, he decides to run away and ends up in The Land Without Feelings, which is ruled by Professeur Coldheart. The Care Bears, along with Donna, go into the Land Without Feelings to save Kevin.

Tarzan of the Apes

A female ape takes to mothering the orphaned boy (Tarzan) and raises him over the course of many years until a rescue mission is finally launched and the search party combs the jungle for the long-time missing Lord Greystoke. But then, one of the search members, Jane Porter, gets separated from the group and comes face to face with fearsome wild animals. Tarzan saves her from harm just in the knick of time and love begins to blossom.

The Blue Yonder

A young boy, who dreams of meeting the grandfather he never knew gets his chance, when an inventor friend constructs a time machine. After arriving in the past, it soon becomes apparent that his knowledge of the future could change the course of history.

Gangsta Granny

A young boy is bored spending time with his dull grandma until he discovers she's an international Jewel thief.

By Dawn's Early Light

When Mike Lewis leaves L.A. to stay with his grandfather in Colorado for the summer, he hates the old man's cowboy ways. When Mike demands to go home, the old man agrees and saddles up a couple of horses for a six week trip toward California, home, the Pacific and redemption.

The Return Of Peter Grimm

The ghost of a recently deceased family patriarch tries to help his surviving relatives, in part by preventing a marriage that he knows will go wrong.

The Color of Love: Jacey's Story

Set in a small town in the South, movie centers on Georgia Potter, an old-fashioned widow (Rowlands), whose life changes drastically when her estranged daughter and the son-in-law she never met die in a car crash. When she visits her granddaughter Jacey in the hospital, she’s shocked to discover that she’s half black, but conceals her misgivings and decides to raise her by herself.

Love Under the Olive Tree

The prize of Sunset Valley's annual olive oil contest is a land parcel with disputed ownership. When feisty Nicole and competitive Jake face-off, they never expect sparks to fly. Starring Tori Anderson and Benjamin Hollingsworth.

The Dust Factory

Ryan is a teenager who lacks the ability to speak. One day, Ryan falls off a bridge and he finds himself transported to a strange fantasy world where he encounters his Grandpa Randolph and a pretty girl named Melanie; together, Ryan and Melanie learn to help one another with their problems, and they both discover the wisdom they can gain from elders like Grandpa Randolph.

Christmas with Tucker

While coming to terms with his dad's recent passing in a tractor accident, 13-year-old George McCray is living with his grandparents on their Kansas farm. George misses his mom, Jill, who has moved to Minnesota to deal with her grief, but there is the promise of their reunion at Christmas. George feels needed on the farm as he helps his grateful grandfather Bo with daily chores and comforts his grandmother Cora. He has also made friends with Mary Ann and became attached to Tucker, the smart and friendly dog the McCrays take in when his troubled owner Frank Thorne lands in jail.

The Littlest Angel

Adapted from the book by Charles Tazewell. Michael, a shepherd boy living in Biblical times, finds himself transported to Heaven on his eighth birthday. Michael doesn't fully understand where he is, or why he's there. A guardian angel named Patience is given the task of showing Michael the joys of Heaven and helping him find his place in the Hereafter.

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