Movies Like The Cabbage Soup
If you loved The Cabbage Soup's Comedy and Science Fiction storytelling, these films deliver a similar experience — carefully selected for tone, themes, and emotional depth. Each pick includes where to watch it right now.
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When Earth is taken over by the overly-confident Boov, an alien race in search of a new place to call home, all humans are promptly relocated, while all Boov get busy reorganizing the planet. But when one resourceful girl, Tip, manages to avoid capture, she finds herself the accidental accomplice of a banished Boov named Oh. The two fugitives realize there’s a lot more at stake than intergalactic relations as they embark on the road trip of a lifetime.

Jules
A flying saucer lands in the backyard of an elderly suburbanite with memory problems, who forms a bond with the scared alien inside.

Asteroid City
In an American desert town circa 1955, the itinerary of a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention is spectacularly disrupted by world-changing events.

The Gendarme and the Creatures from Outer Space
The bungling inspector Cruchot finds himself trying to save the residents of St. Tropez from some oil-drinking humanoid aliens. The only way to tell the aliens from the real people, besides their constant thirst for oil-products, is that they sound like empty garbage cans when you touch them. Chaos is ahead.

The Iron Giant
In the small town of Rockwell, Maine in October 1957, a giant metal machine befriends a nine-year-old boy and ultimately finds its humanity by unselfishly saving people from their own fears and prejudices.

Leroy & Stitch
Lilo, Stitch, Jumba, and Pleakley have finally caught all of Jumba's genetic experiments and found the one true place where each of them belongs. Stitch, Jumba and Pleakley are offered positions in the Galactic Alliance, turning them down so they can stay on Earth with Lilo, but Lilo realizes her alien friends have places where they belong – and it's finally time to say "aloha".

Cocoon
When a group of trespassing seniors swim in a pool containing alien cocoons, they find themselves energized with youthful vigor.

The Hundred-Foot Journey
A story centered around an Indian family who moves to France and opens a restaurant across the street from a Michelin-starred French restaurant.
More Movies Like The Cabbage Soup

Cycle of Time
In 1950s France, Helene and Michel lead a simple life until a freak accident in 2025 leads to Helene becoming a bank executive and Michel struggling with unemployment and depression. Their children grow up in a technology-dominated world.

Planet 51
When Earth astronaut Capt. Chuck Baker arrives on Planet 51 -- a world reminiscent of American suburbia circa 1950 -- he tries to avoid capture, recover his spaceship and make it home safely, all with the help of an empathetic little green being.

The Giver
In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
An alien is left behind on Earth and saved by the 10-year-old Elliott who decides to keep him hidden in his home. While a task force hunts for the extra-terrestrial, Elliott, his brother, and his little sister Gertie form an emotional bond with their new friend, and try to help him find his way home.

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Adventurer/surgeon/rock musician Buckaroo Banzai and his band of men, the Hong Kong Cavaliers, take on evil alien invaders from the 8th dimension.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Mere seconds before the Earth is to be demolished by an alien construction crew, Arthur Dent is swept off the planet by his friend Ford Prefect, a researcher penning a new edition of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy."

Starman
When an alien takes the form of a young widow's husband and asks her to drive him from Wisconsin to Arizona, the government tries to stop them.

Strange Brew
Something is rotten at the Elsinore Brewery. Bob and Doug McKenzie (as seen on SCTV) help the orphan Pam regain the brewery founded by her recently-deceased father. But to do so, they must confront the suspicious Brewmeister Smith and two teams of vicious hockey players.

Watching the Detectives
Neil, a self-proclaimed film geek and owner of Gumshoe video, has always been content to live vicariously through his favorite films noir. But when he meets Violet, a real-life femme fatale, his mundane world gets turned upside down and the line between reality and the movies quickly begins to blur.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers
A small-town doctor learns that the population of his community is being replaced by emotionless alien duplicates.

Dark Star
A group of scientists are sent on a mission to destroy unstable planets. Twenty years into their mission, they have to battle their alien mascot as well as a "sensitive" and intelligent bombing device that starts to question the meaning of its existence.

The History of Future Folk
An alien intending to claim Earth for his people before their homeworld is destroyed by a comet decides not to eliminate humanity when he hears their music. Instead, he lives among them until another alien is sent to find and kill him.
Why These Movies Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with The Cabbage Soup (1981): Comedy and Science Fiction themes, similar narrative structure, and comparable emotional depth. NoBadPicks uses a combination of TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface films most likely to resonate with fans of The Cabbage Soup.
See full details for The Cabbage Soup (1981)