Adventure has served as one of the greatest underpinnings of storytelling since the earliest days of fiction, and that holds equally true in cinema. From quests to find lost treasures to heroes rescuing damsels in distress, the genre utilizes many of the most popular tropes and themes in fiction. However, as with any genre, adventure is incredibly versatile, and is often merged with other genres, including comedy.

The merger of comedy and adventure has led to some of Hollywood’s most entertaining and uplifting films, from ’80s classics to modern-day hijinks. These movies continue to be great, all-ages stories that combine some of the best ingredients in cinema, and include some fan-favorite franchises. Adding comedy to a movie is almost always a sign of mainstream success, and nowhere is this truer than in adventure.

10 A Knight’s Tale Brings Rock ‘N’ Roll To The Middle Ages

A Knight’s Tale begins when three friends, William, Wat, and Roland, discover that their master, Sir Ector, a knight in a jousting competition, has died. Rather than report it, however, William decides to assume Ector’s identity, entering the jousting competition and bringing his friends along. Throughout his travels, he encounters notable historical figures, such as Geoffrey Chaucer and Edward the Black Prince.

A Knight’s Tale is far from a standard Medieval story, incorporating rock ‘n’ roll into the story and plenty of amusing jokes that play on true Middle Ages history. Along the way, he finds himself on the wrong side of Count Adhemar, with whom he competes for the heart of a woman, Jocelyn. For people who enjoy everything from adventurous knights to modern-day Renaissance fairs, this Heath Ledger movie is a great choice.

9 The Pirate Movie Parodies The Work Of Gilbert And Sullivan

The Pirate Movie opens with a young exchange student, Mable, attending a pirate show in Australia. After developing a crush on one of the performers, Mable is left behind when her friends take the young man out on his boat. In an attempt to catch up, Mable’s boat capsizes in a storm. While unconscious, she imagines herself in a world of musical piracy, where the young man, now a pirate named Frederick, abandons his fellow buccaneers for a normal life. When he washes up on a nearby island, he meets Mable, now the youngest daughter of the island’s wealthy Major General, Stanley.

The Pirate Movie is a spoof of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance, turning the classic songs into 1980s-themed comedy sing-alongs. Whether it’s the romance between Frederick and Mabel, the hilarious dialogue and double-entendres of the Pirate King, or the catchy songs, this is one of the best pirate adventure movies of all time.

8 The Villain Is A Looney Tunes Western

A.K.A. Cactus Jack

The Villain follows a journey undertaken by a dim but heroic cowboy, Handsome Stranger, and the woman he’s protecting, Charming Jones. After they set off across the Old West, they are pursued by Cactus Jack, a gunslinger hired by a man who wants to take Jones’ inheritance left by her father for himself. Along the way, Jack’s various ill-conceived attempts to stop the duo backfire hilariously.

The Villain is effectively a live-action Looney Tunes movie, with Cactus Jack taking on the role of Wyle E. Coyote as Handsome Stranger functions as the Roadrunner. Despite Charming Jones’ numerous flirtations, the dim-witted Stranger remains oblivious along the journey, both to the woman’s advances and the traps laid out to stop him. The film is a child-friendly Western, with plenty of humor that adults will appreciate too.

7 The Mummy Never Took Itself Too Seriously

Stephen Sommers’ remake of The Mummy tells the story of Rick O’Connell, an American in Egypt, who gets hired by aspiring scholar, Evelyn Carnahan, to lead her to the lost city of Hamunhaptra. When they arrive — along with a gang of competitors — they unwittingly resurrect the mummy of the ancient priest Imhotep, who was cursed for murdering the Pharaoh. As the monster unleashes a series of Biblical plagues upon Egypt, Rick, Evelyn, and Jonathan race to find a way to defeat him.

While The Mummy does adopt a semi-serious tone for its horror sequences, the character banter between people like Rick, Jonathan, and Beni gives viewers plenty of laughs. Everything from Rick terrifying Imhotep with a cat to the borderline slapstick comedy of Evelyn toppling bookcases ensures there’s plenty of levity to balance the scares.

6 Without A Paddle Explores An American Legend

Without a Paddle begins with a montage of four childhood friends, culminating in one of them, Billy, leaving for a life of greatness. Years later, the remaining three friends — Jerry, Dan, and Tom — learn of Billy’s death and reunite for the funeral. When they visit their childhood treehouse, they remember an old trip they’d planned, a quest to find the landing site of famed hijacker D.B. Cooper. When they see Billy himself had made plans for the trip before his death, the trio embark on an adventure to finally see their friend’s dream fulfilled.

Without a Paddle follows Jerry, Dan, and Tom as they head out to the wilderness of Oregon, where everything starts to go wrong from the jump. From barely surviving an encounter with a grizzly bear to being hunted by a pair of pot-growing gunmen, the friends flee into the mountains in search of escape. Along the way, they open up to one another about their various life struggles and draw nearer to learning the truth of D.B. Cooper’s treasure.

5 The Jumanji Franchise Is A Mash-Up Of Comedy, Fantasy And Adventure

Beginning with 1995’s Jumanji, the titular franchise follows a variety of characters who get trapped in a fantastical land contained within a board game (later a videogame). The first film begins when Alan Parrish and his friend, Sarah, play the game, resulting in the boy getting trapped in the game for decades until finally being pulled out by two siblings, Judy and Peter. The four are then forced to continue playing the game, which wreaks havoc on their small town, with monstrous vines, giant wasps, and a hunter being unleashed.

The Jumanji franchise was revived in 2017, with Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Karen Gillan, and Jack Black playing the roles of four kids’ avatars in the game. The sequels follow the kids as they enter the world of Jumanji, where they’re forced to fend off the perils of the jungle, tyrannical warlords, and more. The franchise is a fun source of escapist entertainment and is worth a look for fans of comedy and adventure.

4 Welcome To The Jungle Helped Launch Dwayne Johnson’s Movie Career

A.K.A. The Rundown

Welcome To The Jungle follows a bounty hunter, Beck, who is sent to Brazil to find his employer’s rebellious, treasure-hunting son, Travis. When he arrives, Beck encounters a corporate tyrant, Hatcher, a man who keeps the locals in a system of slave labor to help him search for the same golden idol as Travis. Along their perilous journey, the two begin to form an uneasy friendship, born out of their need to work together to survive the jungle and Hatcher’s men.

Welcome to the Jungle is a comedic adventure hunt that follows Beck and Travis as the adventurer attempts to escape his captor, while still searching for the relic. With Hatcher and his men chasing them through the jungle, everything leads to an epic showdown that decides the fate of El Dorado. The film borrows heavily from the 1980s classic Midnight Run, including Beck’s restaurant aspirations and his rival bounty hunter.

3 The Goonies Follows Kids On A Treasure Hunt

The Goonies tells the story of a small group of childhood friends, dubbed the Goonies, who, in an attempt to save their homes from foreclosure, set off on an adventure to find the fabled treasure of the pirate One-Eyed Willy. Along the way, they encounter a family of criminal fugitives, the Fratellis, who hunt them through the caves beneath the shore. When they discover the intentions of the children, the crime family tries and take the treasure for themselves.

The Goonies is a touchstone of ’80s cinema, known and loved by audiences around the world for its hilarious script and unique characters. The film merges elements of classics like Stand By Me with an old-fashioned treasure hunt, one that sees the friends perform daring acts of bravery to fight the Fratellis. Virtually every character has their moment in the sun, and Fratelli’s incompetent attempts at getting the kids add an element of slapstick comedy to the mix.

2 The Princess Bride Is Riddled With Ironic Humor

The Princess Bride begins with a romance between Princess Buttercup and a farmhand, Westley. When the young man leaves, Buttercup is left bereaved when she learns of his death at the hands of the Dread Pirate Roberts and reluctantly agrees to marry Prince Humperdink. When she’s kidnapped by a small band of criminals, led by the obnoxious Vizzini, her life is threatened, only for the group to be pursued by the Dread Pirate Roberts himself. After defeating each of the kidnappers, the pirate is revealed to be Westley, and the pair renew their love for one another. However, the arrival of Humperdink, and the revelation that he was behind the plot, leads to a daring rescue.

The Princess Bride is full of cheeky humor that plays on the camp of swashbuckling adventure, with only Robin Wright’s Buttercup coming off as a dramatic performance. Virtually every hero and villain delivers their lines with the right amount of self-aware, ironic humor, which established Cary Elwes as an icon of parody cinema. With the entire story narrated to a young boy by his grandfather, viewers get plenty of comedy, mixed with sincere and enjoyable adventure.

1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse Of The Black Pearl Is Peak Swashbuckling Adventure

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl opens with a young Elizabeth Swan aboard a Royal Navy vessel when they find a boy overboard in the aftermath of a pirate attack. After saving him, Elizabeth finds a piece of gold in his possession, and he introduces himself as Will Turner. Years later, Elizabeth is the daughter of the governor of Port Royal, still in possession of the gold, and Will works as a blacksmith on the island. After the arrival of the eccentric pirate Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth unwittingly summons the cursed pirate crew of the Black Pearl, who proceed to raid the island and kidnap the young woman.

Curse of the Black Pearl plays its comedy fairly straight, relying on the oddities of Jack Sparrow and the exaggerated performance of Geoffrey Rush to bring comedy to an otherwise serious story. The story follows Jack and Will as they set off on the high seas to rescue Elizabeth from the clutches of pirates and end their curse. As the franchise progressed, it became even more comedic, but the first film struck the perfect balance between humor and a serious adventure story.