A heartwarming surprise video for a birthday present: a roundup of recommended birthday movies
When it comes to classic touches for birthdays and birthday parties, nothing beats a birthday video!
Many people want to give a heartfelt video for a family member, friend, or that special someone’s birthday.
But when it actually comes time to make one, it’s hard to decide what kind of video to create.
So in this article, we’ve gathered moving surprise videos perfect for birthdays that you can use as inspiration.
From parodies of anime and TV shows, to voice-over dubs, to meticulously crafted short films—surprising, touching, and full of humor—these videos make wonderful gifts overflowing with the creator’s love.
You’re sure to find ideas for a video that will delight someone special to you!
- A moving birthday song to give on someone’s special day. A birthday song so heartfelt it could bring you to tears.
- Birthday video ideas: Popular birthday movies to gift to friends, family, and loved ones.
- Disney songs recommended for birthdays!
- [Also great as video BGM] A birthday song to give a friend on their birthday
- [For the best day ever] Surprise ideas recommended for birthdays
- Surprise gifts to give on a birthday: touching birthday ideas
- Brighten your special day with happiness! A birthday song born in the Reiwa era
- Background music for a birthday party. A roundup of recommended birthday songs
- Funny surprises that liven up birthdays. Prank ideas that get everyone excited.
- [For Gifts and Video BGM] A Song for Celebrating the 60th Birthday (Kanreki)
- Sample heartfelt birthday messages to send to a friend
- [For friends or a significant other] Recommended birthday songs for high school students
- Let's give with all our heart: Recommended Japanese pop birthday songs for men
An emotional surprise video for a birthday present. Recommended birthday movie roundup (11–20)
How Do You Like Wednesday?-style movie
As a birthday movie, it would be wonderful to present the various memories from that year in the style of the ending of your favorite travel show.
If you’ve got lots of memories on your smartphone, it’d be a waste not to show them off! It’s also a perfect idea to make it more unique and unforgettable.
flipbook animation
How about creating a flipbook-style animation that’s a bit different—an animated sequence with a stop-motion feel, moving in a choppy, comical way? If you print out your photos and turn them into miniatures, you can make something irresistibly cute, and with miniatures you can even go places you can’t usually visit.
It’s a birthday movie especially recommended for photography enthusiasts and people who own a DSLR.
stop-motion style movie
How about deliberately making a movie with stop-motion? By lining up lots of photos and stitching them together, you can create some pretty interesting footage depending on your ideas! Come up with endless ideas—whether it’s a video that makes the recipient laugh or one that moves them—and bring them to life!
In Super Mario Maker
There are quite a few games nowadays where you can create your own stages.
Games like Super Mario Maker and Minecraft come to mind.
Using those kinds of games to make a surprise movie—now that’s a pretty great idea, isn’t it? Bring out your own unique flair and turn it into a wonderful video!
Terrace House-style movie
The romance reality show Terrace House—commonly known as “TeraHa”—documents men and women living together in a shared house.
In the opening, there’s a sequence where the cast members’ profiles and their everyday, candid photos and videos are presented in a very appealing way.
How about creating a birthday movie inspired by that Terrace House opening? A video featuring the birthday person as the star would be great, but it could also be nice to make a message montage featuring the people celebrating them.
Birthday video that conveys messages with glowing text
This is a surprise video made with light-painting using penlights! You often see this style in wedding videos, but it would also make a birthday video look festive and be very well received.
You can take photos like these by setting a slow shutter speed on your camera during shooting.
Even if you don’t have a DSLR, you can do it with a smartphone app that lets you adjust shutter speed, so if you’re interested, give it a try.
It’s a lot of work to make, but I think the sense of accomplishment when it’s finished is huge!
Add a message to a simple slideshow
I don’t usually manage to express my gratitude, but there’s so much I really want to say! This is a recommended surprise movie for times like that.
Create a video using footage and photos from the time you’ve spent together and add comments like, “Actually, this is what I was thinking at that moment,” and it’s sure to become a deeply moving surprise.
If someone gave you comments like, “I was always grateful,” or “Your kindness always saved me,” you’d be moved to tears, right? It’s a gift that will be appreciated for anyone’s birthday—family, partner, friends, or a mentor.
Celebrate with a lyric video
Sending a video as a birthday celebration is a great idea, isn’t it? You can gather memorable photos and clips, edit them together, and add a wonderful birthday song as background music—plus include the lyrics—turning it into a touching video.
I’m sure everyone has a favorite, that one perfect birthday song, right? Try expressing your everyday gratitude and feelings to a friend, boyfriend or girlfriend, or someone special with the perfect birthday song.
It will surely become a cherished memory and a lasting keepsake.
Sketchbook Relay
The sketchbook relay, a classic for wedding message videos, is actually great for birthday videos too! You can simply write congratulatory messages, or pick a theme like “Things we love about you” or “What we’ve secretly been grateful for,” and have everyone write a message on the same sketchbook—it’s sure to make them happy.
In the video, the sketchbook is passed from hand to hand among the participants like a relay, and in the end it reaches the person watching the video.
The surprise is wonderful not only as a video, but also because the sketchbook itself becomes a gift.
It’s something they’ll treasure for a lifetime!
letter-style movie
When you want to make a message video from friends and teammates but can’t meet up to film it, how about this letter-style message video? You can hand them an actual message card to write on, or have them send just their comments by email and edit them in later.
Adding each person’s photo next to their comment will make it heartfelt enough.
It’s also easier to edit if you standardize the number of characters on the message cards or in the comments for everyone.