Best movies like Princes of the Desert

A comedy filled with tenderness as a baby raccoon snuggles his way into the life of a lonely boy. He becomes the boy's only companion during his father's frequent absences. Because of Rascal, both father and son realize their responsibility to each other

In a Kyrgyz village, five older women adopt an infant foundling. Jump ahead about 12 years: the boy, Beshkempir, is entering puberty, the age, his granny says, when life goes berserk. He plays with friends, horsing around, sniggering about sex, going to an outdoor movie. He works, fishing and making bricks of mud. And, he's starting to notice girls. He and his best friend fight, and he learns to his consternation that he's a foundling. A death in the family pushes Beshkempir even faster toward adult roles: he must brush tears from his eyes, lead a funeral procession, and reconcile with his friend. Then, he borrows a bicycle and calls on Aynura: courtship begins.

Wealthy sportsman James Haggin (Walter Pidgeon) lives on a Quebec estate called Wintapi. Émile Fornet (Émile Genest), handler of Haggin's hunting dogs, and Émile's wife Therese (Janette Bertrand), Haggin's cook and housekeeper, live in a separate house on the estate. To start a line of top show dogs, Haggin purchases the winner of the Montreal Kennel Club show, an Irish setter named Red.

Born to Be Wild observes various orphaned jungle animals and their day-to-day behavioural interactions with the individuals who rescue them and raise them to adulthood. The film unfurls in two separate geographic spheres. Half of it takes place in the rain forests of Borneo, where celebrated primatologist Dr. Birute Galdikas assists baby orangutans; the other half takes place on the arid savannahs of Kenya, where zoologist Dame Daphne Sheldrick works with baby elephant calves.

When he becomes a father at the tender age of 14, Robbie's life quickly spirals out of control. Feeling angry and neglected by his own dad, he kick-starts a series of events that will catapult him at great speed into adulthood.

An orphaned cheetah becomes the best friend and pet of a young boy living in South Africa.

When maladjusted orphan Jesse vandalizes a theme park, he is placed with foster parents and must work at the park to make amends. There he meets Willy, a young Orca whale who has been separated from his family. Sensing kinship, they form a bond and, with the help of kindly whale trainer Rae Lindley, develop a routine of tricks. However, greedy park owner Dial soon catches wind of the duo and makes plans to profit from them.

An elderly couple go about their routine of cleaning their gabbeh, while bickering gently with each other. Magically, a young woman appears, helping the two clean the rug. This young woman belongs to the clan whose history is depicted in the design of the gabbeh, and the rug recounts the story of the courtship of the young woman by a stranger from the clan.

A young girl from London moves to Africa with her parents where she befriends a lion cub.

Zain, a 12-year-old boy scrambling to survive on the streets of Beirut, sues his parents for having brought him into such an unjust world, where being a refugee with no documents means that your rights can easily be denied.

An expedition enters an area of the Congo jungle to investigate reports of a gorilla-worshipping tribe.

When a young woman learns that she's pregnant, she leaves graduate school to set up a home with her boyfriend in the country. The fate of the happy new family takes a gruesome turn when animals and people end up brutally dead – all with a strange connection to their newborn. Could their new child be the responsible for the killings?

After being kidnapped and escaping, young drummer boy Aaron searches for his camel and finds him in the Nativity of the Baby Jesus. Aaron gives Baby Jesus the only gift he has, a song on his drum.

An adult animated comedy with rock music soundtrack, portraying a far-fetched explanation of the Dawn of Man.

A young cobra and his scorpion best friend go on a journey across the Sahara desert to save a new-found love.

A hunter, who captures wild animals for zoos, takes his young son and the boy's widowed governess on his latest expedition. The boy and his pet chimp, in company with a baby elephant his father has captured, run away from camp and experience many thrilling adventures.

Raised on tales of a Djinn fairy princess, Azur, a young Frenchman goes to North Africa in search of the sprite, only to discover that his close childhood friend, Asmar, an Arab youth whose mother raised both boys also seeks the genie.

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

After directing him as the title character in Huckleberry Finn, William Desmond Taylor again used boy actor Lewis Sargent in this picture. His character, known merely as "the boy," has been raised in an orphanage where he has caused as much trouble as possible. He finally can't stand living there anymore and runs away. On the streets he finds a friend in Mike (Ernest Butterworth), a newsboy. Mike teaches him how to survive but inevitably the boy gets hauled into court. However, the judge sees potential in him and hands him over to be adopted by a young politician. The judge, incidentally, is played by Judge Ben Lindsey, who was famous in his day for his efforts to give delinquent boys a decent chance in life.

Valentine marries at the end of the 19th century, and love passes through her family from generation to generation.

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.

12 year-old Sebastian has decided not to follow his father and Angelina to Canada, deciding to stay in the alps to watch over Belle who has now become the mother of three beautiful pups. When a stranger arrives claiming to be Belle’s rightful owner, Sebastian will do all it takes to protect his best friend and her little ones.

Adam (Robin Nielsen) works as a junior associate for a large Toronto law firm. When a business trip takes him to his hometown of Fernie, he reunites with his old friends, Jason (Viv Leacock) and Theo (James Wallis). Adam gets more than he bargained for when he finds out that, due to a series of terrible business decisions, Theo's ski waxing business "Waxopolis" is in serious financial trouble and at risk of being taken over by an evil developer. The three guys hatch a plan to throw a massive fundraising party to try and save the business. But, with the developer and his son on their back, party permit hassles, and a Sasquatch on the loose, will they be able to pull it off?

The incredible, true-life story of a baby elephant born into a rescue camp in the wilderness of Botswana. When she's suddenly orphaned at one month of age, it's up to the men who look after her herd to save her life.

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.

Tikoyo lives by the Bora Bora lagoon in the South Pacific, where he found a man-eating tiger shark when it was an orphaned baby, just a foot long. He named it Manidu, and it grew to be sixteen feet long. Tikoyo believes that his companion houses the soul of a wise old man, and helps him guard the sacred black pearls in the lagoon. In fact, Manidu does protects Tikoyo and his girlfriend Diana, only eating those who are their enemies, or who seek to destroy their environment, or steal the pearls.

An Orphaned Boy sets out in search of adventure, but when a shipwreck lands him on an island where Dinosaurs and Humans coexist, he finds not only adventure but a family as well.

Inspired by the true story of the first giraffe to visit France, Zarafa is a sumptuously animated and stirring adventure, and a throwback to a bygone era of hand-drawn animation and epic storytelling set among sweeping CinemaScope vistas of parched desert, wind-swept mountains and open skies. Under the cover of darkness a small boy, Maki, loosens the shackles that bind him and escapes into the desert night. Pursued by slavers across the moon-lit savannah, Maki meets Zarafa, a baby giraffe – and an orphan, just like him – as well as the nomad Hassan, Prince of the Desert. Hassan takes them to Alexandria for an audience with the Pasha of Egypt, who orders him to deliver the exotic animal as a gift to King Charles of France.

Gwen is a young girl adopted by a nomad tribe in a desert post-apocalyptic world. When Gwen's friend is kidnapped, she and an old woman called Roseline embark on a trip to bring him back.

Caroline Quentin narrates this heart-warming tale of a special group of baby animals born in some of the coldest and harshest places on Earth. We follow the ups and downs of impossibly cute yet plucky baby emperor penguins, snow monkeys, polar bears, arctic foxes, reindeer and otters and find out just what it takes to survive the first year of life in a world of snow and ice, with a little help from family and friends.

Franck, a scrap merchant, and Meriem have five children, a sixth on the go, and serious money issues. Julien and Anna are lawyers and cannot have a child. This is the story of an inconceivable agreement.

"Jiyan" takes place in Halabja about five years after Saddam's infamous chemical attack in 1988. Diyari (Kurdo Galali) has come from his new homeland, America, to put up a badly needed new orphanage. As construction proceeds, he gradually becomes acquainted with the tragic individual stories of the survivors. Prime among these is orphan girl Jiyan (Pirsheng Berzinji), and her lively young cousin Sherko (Choman Hawrami). Although he seems to fit right into life in this impoverished town, Diyari can hardly absorb the catastrophe that hit there, nor can he accept the level of injury that he encounters. When the orphanage is ready, Diyari says his goodbyes, plunging Jiyan back into quiet despair.

The film takes place away from the glittering strip of mega casinos, but the greed of Sin City is just as pervasive on the desert outskirts. This is where a happy family learns of a forgotten fortune that may be buried beneath their home. Their lives are turned upside down. A sophisticated study of just how far people are able and willing to go if faced with the tempting prospect of easily acquired wealth.

A recently-orphaned 12 year old boy moves to a new town to live with his aunt and uncle, and finds an unlikely mentor in the town loner, who helps him build the soap box racer he dreamed of crafting with his dad.

Threatened daily by the deadly residents and harsh environment of Australia’s Outback, a lonesome bilby finds himself an unwitting protector, and unexpected friend, to a helpless (and quite adorable) baby bird.