Wildwood vs Forgotten Island: A Double Feature, Back To Back, Cute vs Super Cute
F'nAround double feature review. I watched Wildwood and Forgotten Island back to back, and that is the only honest way to compare them, because they hit you in completely different places on the same night. Wildwood was cute, in the way a handmade, slightly scary fairy tale is cute. Forgotten Island was super cute, in the way a bright, loud, funny friend movie is super cute. Both of them are good. They are not good in the same way, and if you watch them in the wrong order, or with the wrong expectations, you will miss what each one is actually doing.
Here is my verdict up front, so you do not have to wait for it. Wildwood gets the accolades, and it deserves them, for its stop motion animation, which is some of the best work Laika has ever done. Forgotten Island gets the fun award, and it deserves that too, for its cast, its jokes, and its sheer watchability. If you want to be awed, watch Wildwood. If you want to have the most fun, watch Forgotten Island. If you want the full double feature, watch Wildwood first, then let Forgotten Island cheer you back up. That order matters, and I will explain why.
Wildwood: The Premise, A Baby Brother, A Forbidden Forest, And A War
Wildwood is a 2026 American stop motion animated epic fantasy film, directed by Travis Knight, written by Chris Butler, based on the 2011 novel by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis. It premiered at the BFI London Film Festival on October 11, 2026, and opened in the United States on October 23, 2026, through Fathom Entertainment. It runs 132 minutes, it is rated PG-13, and it is Laika's first PG-13 film, and the longest stop motion theatrical feature ever made.
The premise is simple, and that simplicity is a strength. Prue McKeel, voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee, is a teenager in Portland, Oregon, minding her baby brother Mac, when a murder of crows carries Mac into the Impassable Wilderness, the forbidden forest at the edge of town. Prue follows, with her classmate Curtis Mehlberg, voiced by Jacob Tremblay, and they walk into a hidden world of talking animals, bandits, giant birds, and factions at war. At the center of that war is Alexandra, voiced by Carey Mulligan, a grieving, ruthless witch, a dowager governess who lost her son and now commands an army of uniformed coyotes, and who plans to use Mac to reclaim what she lost. Prue and Curtis do not just have to rescue a baby. They have to survive a war, pick a side, and grow up in a forest that does not care that they are kids.
That is a classic fairy tale setup, with echoes of Narnia, Coraline, and Laika's own history, and critics noted that familiarity. The plot is not wildly original. What is original is how seriously the film takes it. This is not a cute forest with cute animals. This is a forest with grief, ambition, betrayal, and an epic battle for the future of a magical realm, and the film never winks at you to say, do not worry, it is just for kids. It is not just for kids. It is PG-13 for a reason, it is long, intense, genuinely spooky, and full of dark themes, and that darkness is the point.
Forgotten Island: The Premise, Two Best Friends, One Last Night, And A Memory Price
Forgotten Island is a 2026 DreamWorks Animation film, written and directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, the team behind Puss in Boots: The Last Wish from 2022. It opened in the Philippines on September 23, 2026, in the United States on September 25, 2026, and in Australia on September 17, 2026. It runs 109 minutes, it is rated PG, and it went to digital platforms on October 27, 2026, just over a month after its theatrical debut.
The premise is also simple, but it is personal in a completely different way. The film is set in the Philippines in the 1990s, before cell phones, and it centers on two teenagers and best friends, Jo Fatima, voiced by H.E.R., full name Josephine Yuson, and Raissa Molina, voiced by Liza Soberano. They have been best friends since grade school, after Jo got in trouble at school for using a manananggal story to scare her classmates and Raissa caught up with her outside the guidance office. They grew up on stories from Jo's grandmother, Lola Fatima, about Nakali, short for nakalimutan, the Tagalog word for forgotten, a mythical island populated by creatures from Filipino folklore.
Now they are graduating high school, and their lives are splitting. Raissa, the brilliant overachiever, has accepted a once in a lifetime opportunity to study rocket science at Caltech in the United States, without telling Jo at first. Jo, who has been looked down on as a troubled slacker, has not figured out what comes next, and Raissa's parents see Jo as the anchor holding their daughter back. On their last night together, after a fight, a tampuhan, about everything neither of them knows how to say, they trigger a magical sand dollar, or a mysterious portal object near an old jeepney by the shore, and they wake up in Nakali itself. The island they imagined as children is real, and it is full of folklore creatures, and it has a price. To return home, they have to sacrifice all their memories of each other, symbolized by their charm filled friendship bracelets. They wake up on the beaches of Nakali with no memory of their first night there, and they have to retrace their steps, Hangover style, to find their way home before Raissa's flight, before they forget each other forever.
That is a friendship movie disguised as a fantasy adventure, and that disguise is why it works. The fantasy is the vehicle. The friendship, and the fear of growing apart, is the engine.
Light vs Dark: Wildwood Is Dark Fantasy, Forgotten Island Is Bright With A Dark Heart
This is the clearest difference between the two films, and it is why watching them back to back is such a good test. Wildwood is dark, and it stays dark. It is folk horror, it is war, it is grief, it is a witch who has lost a child and is willing to destroy a world to get him back, it is talking animals who are not cute sidekicks but soldiers, bandits, and leaders with their own agendas. The forest is beautiful, but it is dangerous, and the film does not soften that. Prue and Curtis are transformed by what they see, and not in a light way. They come out older, harder, and more aware that the world is not fair. That is why it is PG-13, why it is 132 minutes, and why it is not for little kids, even though it looks like a family movie in a poster.
Forgotten Island is bright, and it stays bright, even when it gets sad. It is colorful, funny, musical in its energy if not a full musical, and full of jokes, food, karaoke, jeepneys, and household objects turned into Easter eggs. But underneath the brightness is a dark heart, and it is a different kind of dark. It is not war. It is forgetting. It is the fear that your best friend will move to another country, start a new life, and slowly become a stranger. It is the fear that you will be left behind, and that your memories will be the price you pay for growing up. The villains fit that theme. Batiba, voiced by Jenny Slate, is a demon who trades in memories. Manang, voiced by Lea Salonga, is the dreaded manananggal, a terrifying figure from Filipino folklore who separates at the waist and flies at night. Those are scary ideas, but they are presented in a film that is warm, funny, and PG, and that makes the scary parts hit differently. You are not scared for your life. You are scared for a friendship, which, if you have ever lost one, is scarier in its own way.
Put them together, and you get a perfect light and dark pair. Wildwood asks, what would you do to save your brother from a war? Forgotten Island asks, what would you do to save your friendship from time? One is epic and external. One is intimate and internal. One will leave you awed and a little shaken. One will leave you smiling and a little teary. Neither one is light in the sense of being empty, and neither one is dark in the sense of being hopeless, but they use light and dark in opposite ways, and that is why they pair so well.
Graphics: Stop Motion Handmade vs DreamWorks CGI Painterly
Wildwood gets the accolades for animation, and there is no real argument about that. Laika has not released a movie since Missing Link in 2019, and Wildwood is its sixth feature, after Coraline, ParaNorman, The Boxtrolls, Kubo and the Two Strings, and Missing Link. It took 15 to 16 years to get to the screen, according to director Travis Knight, and you can feel every year of that work on screen. Stop motion means puppets moved by hand, one frame at a time, and Wildwood is handmade in a way CGI cannot fake. The forest has texture, the animals have weight, the light has a physical quality, and Caleb Deschanel, who shot The Black Stallion, shot this as his first animated film, which tells you how seriously Laika took the cinematography. Critics called it a landmark, a masterpiece, a handmade epic, and they were not exaggerating about the craft, even when they noted the plot was familiar. The animation is the star, and it earns that billing.
Forgotten Island does not try to beat Laika at Laika's game, and that is smart. It is computer animation from DreamWorks, in the painterly, storybook style Crawford and Mercado used in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, with elements borrowed from the Spider-Verse films, and with a visual language that is all its own. Reviewers called it a fever dream, Miyazaki on acid, a world overflowing with creativity, and they meant it as praise, even when they said the sheer amount happening on screen can become exhausting. Nakali is not a realistic island. It is a dream island, full of Filipino folklore creatures, bright colors, impossible shapes, and household iconography turned into magic. A jeepney is not just a jeepney. A karaoke machine is not just a karaoke machine. Food, family photos, and everyday objects become part of the world, and that makes the film feel personal in a way a generic fantasy island never would.
So the graphics comparison is not, which one looks better, because they are not trying to look like each other. Wildwood looks like it was built by hand, because it was. Forgotten Island looks like it was dreamed by a kid who grew up on Filipino stories, because that is the point. Wildwood wins on craft and awe. Forgotten Island wins on color, energy, and imagination per minute. If you care about how animation is made, Wildwood is the film you will study. If you care about how animation feels, Forgotten Island is the film you will rewatch first.
Casts And Voice Actors: A Stacked Forest vs A Stacked Friendship
Both casts are stacked, but they are stacked in different ways, and that difference explains a lot about why Forgotten Island felt more fun to watch.
Wildwood's cast is a prestige ensemble. Peyton Elizabeth Lee as Prue and Jacob Tremblay as Curtis carry the film, and they have to, because they are in almost every scene, and they are kids carrying a war movie. Carey Mulligan as Alexandra is the standout villain, grieving, ruthless, and completely committed. Mahershala Ali as Brendan, the bandit leader, Angela Bassett as the General, a colossal golden eagle, Awkwafina as Septima, Jake Johnson as Mr. McKeel, Maya Erskine as Mrs. McKeel, Charlie Day, Jemaine Clement, Amandla Stenberg, Richard E. Grant, Tom Waits, and Tantoo Cardinal as Iphigenia fill out the forest's factions. That is a cast of Oscar winners, Oscar nominees, and beloved character actors, and they all sound like they belong in a forest, not like they are doing celebrity voices. The praise for Wildwood's voice cast is real, and it is part of why the film feels weighty. These are not cameos. These are performances, and they give the talking animals gravity.
Forgotten Island's cast is a cultural ensemble, and that is its superpower. H.E.R., the R&B singer songwriter, as Jo, and Liza Soberano as Raissa, are the heart, and they sound like best friends, not like two stars reading lines. Dave Franco as Raww, a were-aspin, a shapeshifting were-dog, is the breakout comic relief, a suspicious yet hilarious guide who is lovably dim and completely earnest. Manny Jacinto as Bungi, a large tiyanak baby demon, Kevin McCann as Mermahn, the handsome aquatic Prince of the Kataw people, Jenny Slate as Batiba, Lea Salonga as Manang, Dolly de Leon as Lola Fatima, Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng as King Truffle Wuffle of the duwende, and Nico Santos round out a cast that is largely Filipino or Filipino American, including H.E.R., Soberano, Salonga, Jacinto, de Leon, and Jo Koy, which matters because the film is a love letter to the Philippines. That casting is not just representation for its own sake. It is why the jokes land, why the Tagalog words land, why the family dynamics land, and why the film feels authentic instead of researched.
Here is my take, and it matches what I felt watching them back to back. Wildwood has the more prestigious cast, and the more impressive individual performances, especially Mulligan and Ali. Forgotten Island has the more fun cast, because the chemistry between Jo and Raissa, and the comic timing of Franco as Raww, make you want to hang out with these people. Wildwood's cast makes you admire the film. Forgotten Island's cast makes you enjoy the film. Both are valuable, but they are not the same value, and on a back to back night, enjoyment wins the second half of the evening.
Audiences And Accolades: Who Got Hailed More, And Who Got Seen More
On reviews, Wildwood wins, and it is not close on the numbers, even though both films are acclaimed. Wildwood debuted with 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from its first critics at the BFI London Film Festival, and as reviews grew it settled at 99 percent from 148 critics, with a 97 percent audience score, an 88 on Metacritic, and an A CinemaScore from opening day audiences. It won the audience award at Sitges, it opened AFI Fest in Los Angeles, it opened Alice nella Citta in Rome, and it set a Laika record for audience score, beating Kubo and the Two Strings, which had held the studio record at 87 percent. Critics called it a landmark, a masterpiece, one of the decade's best animated films, and LAIKA's best reviewed film ever. That is not hype. That is a consensus, with only a few dissenters noting the familiar plot or a lack of originality next to other fantasy films.
Forgotten Island is also acclaimed, just a notch lower on the same scales. It holds about 94 to 95 percent from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, from 121 to 132 reviews depending on when you check, with a 95 percent audience score, a 73 to 74 on Metacritic, and an A CinemaScore, with 83 percent of general audiences saying they would definitely recommend it. Under 25 audiences gave it 93 percent positive in PostTrak surveys. Reviewers called it one of DreamWorks' finest to date, one of the most acclaimed animated films of the year, a vibrant and emotionally rewarding adventure that celebrates Filipino culture, and a film you will likely never forget, no matter your age. The caveats were consistent, and they are fair. The ending is a little too neat, a little too long, and not fully earned, and the sheer amount of visual invention can be exhausting. But nobody called it bad. Everybody called it good, and most called it great.
On audiences in theaters, both films struggled, which is the sad parallel nobody wants to talk about. Wildwood opened October 23, 2026, in third place, with about 12.3 million dollars domestic from about 2,817 theaters, against a reported budget of about 100 million dollars, and as of early November it had grossed about 53 million dollars worldwide. It had strong legs for a stop motion film, dropping only about 27 to 39 percent in its second weekend, and it even took second place on Halloween weekend, but it was still well short of breaking even in theaters. Forgotten Island opened September 25, 2026, in fifth place, with about 12.8 to 13 million dollars domestic from 3,548 theaters, against a reported budget of about 80 million dollars, and after four weekends it had grossed about 63 million dollars worldwide. It opened at number one in the Philippines, with 97.2 million pesos, Universal's biggest opening weekend in the country that year, and the biggest opening for a non-franchise animated film there, but in the United States it was pulled from hundreds of theaters in its third weekend, from 3,548 down to 2,898, and it went to digital on October 27, just over a month after opening.
So the accolades go to Wildwood, clearly, on Rotten Tomatoes, on Metacritic, on festival awards, and on craft praise. The audience love is close, with both films earning an A CinemaScore and audience scores in the mid 90s. The box office goes to neither, which is a shame, because both films deserved bigger crowds than they got. If you are picking based on reviews alone, pick Wildwood. If you are picking based on what audiences who actually saw it said, pick either, because both audiences loved what they saw, even if not enough people saw them.
Which Was More Enjoyable To Watch, Back To Back
This is the question you actually asked, and here is my honest answer after watching them back to back. Wildwood was cute, and it was impressive, and it stayed with me. Forgotten Island was super cute, and it was fun, and it stayed with me in a different way. If I have to pick one as more enjoyable to watch, I pick Forgotten Island, and I do not feel guilty about that, because enjoyable is not the same as better.
Wildwood is the film you admire. You sit there thinking, how did they make this, how long did this take, how did they get puppets to feel this alive. You are awed, you are moved, you are a little shaken, and you are tired by the end, in a good way, like after a long hike in a beautiful, dangerous forest. It is 132 minutes, it is PG-13, it is dark, and it asks a lot of you. That is a compliment, but it is also a cost. You do not put Wildwood on casually. You commit to it.
Forgotten Island is the film you enjoy. You sit there thinking, I know these people, I want to hang out with these people, I want Raww to be my friend, I want to see what Nakali looks like next. You laugh more, you relax more, and even when it gets sad about friendship and memory, it does not leave you exhausted. It is 109 minutes, it is PG, it is bright, it is funny, and it is built for a second watch, because you will catch jokes and Easter eggs you missed the first time. On a double feature night, Forgotten Island is the film that makes you glad you stayed for the second movie, instead of going home after the first one broke your heart a little.
That is also why the order matters. Watch Wildwood first, when you have energy, when you can give it your full attention, when you want to be impressed. Then watch Forgotten Island second, when you want to be cheered up, when you want to laugh, when you want to remember why you love your best friend. If you reverse the order, Wildwood will feel even darker after Forgotten Island's brightness, and Forgotten Island will feel even lighter after Wildwood's weight, which is not bad, but it is not the best double feature. The best double feature is awe, then joy. Dark, then light. Forest, then island. Grief, then friendship. That is the night I had, and that is the night I recommend.
The Double Feature Verdict, Side By Side
Wildwood: Laika, stop motion, Travis Knight, Chris Butler, based on Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis, October 23, 2026, PG-13, 132 minutes, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Jake Johnson, Maya Erskine, Charlie Day, Jemaine Clement, Amandla Stenberg, Richard E. Grant, Tom Waits, Tantoo Cardinal. Premise: Prue rescues Mac from the Impassable Wilderness and gets caught in a war. Light vs dark: dark fantasy, folk horror, grief and war. Graphics: handmade stop motion, longest stop motion feature ever, 15 to 16 years in development. Reviews: about 99 percent critics, 97 percent audience, 88 Metacritic, A CinemaScore. Box office: about 53 million dollars worldwide against a reported 100 million dollar budget, as of early November 2026. Best for: awe, craft, and a serious fantasy epic.
Forgotten Island: DreamWorks, CGI, Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, September 25, 2026 in the United States, PG, 109 minutes, H.E.R., Liza Soberano, Dave Franco, Manny Jacinto, Jenny Slate, Lea Salonga, Dolly de Leon, Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng, Kevin McCann, Nico Santos. Premise: Jo and Raissa go to Nakali on their last night together and have to get home before they forget each other. Light vs dark: bright, funny, and warm, with a dark heart about growing apart and losing memories. Graphics: painterly CGI, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish style, Spider-Verse influence, Filipino folklore brought to life. Reviews: about 94 to 95 percent critics, 95 percent audience, 73 to 74 Metacritic, A CinemaScore. Box office: about 63 million dollars worldwide against a reported 80 million dollar budget, as of late October 2026. Best for: fun, friendship, and a rewatch with friends.
Final call: Wildwood gets the accolades, and it should. It is the more impressive film, the more ambitious film, and the more important film for animation as an art form. Forgotten Island gets the fun, and it should. It is the more enjoyable film, the more rewatchable film, and the more human film about friendship. I watched them both back to back, I loved them both, and if you only have time for one tonight, pick based on your mood, not based on the scores. Want to be awed? Wildwood. Want to have fun? Forgotten Island. Want the perfect night? Both, in that order, and do not skip the second one just because the first one was a masterpiece. The masterpiece needs the super cute chaser, and the super cute chaser deserves the masterpiece as a lead in.