2026 Breaks One Of The Biggest Golden Rules In Movies More Than Once

Published Oct 20, 2026, 12:46 PM EDT Zoë Miskelly is an editor and second in command for Screen Rant's Movies team, having covered the entertainment industry for almost 10 years now. Zoë's love of superheroes and all things Marvel & DC started out in childhood, and has blossomed into a career getting to talk about some of the biggest and best movies and shows of all time, having previously focused on comics while working at WhatCulture. Sign in to your ScreenRant account 2026's recent movie roster breaks one of the usual golden rules of the world of film more than once, helping pave a path for more releases to potentially go down the same route. Much like most art medium, there are few rules in the realm of movies that don't exist to be broken, with just about every convention of this format having been experimented with by some film or another. We've seen plenty of this kind of exploration in 2026's movie roster thus far. The year has been a strong one for creatives who were previously less well-known in the film sphere, with releases like Obsession, Backrooms, and Iron Lung each demonstrating the critical and financial results that can be earned by platforming creators with strong creative visions, even if their portfolios haven't previously focused on theatrical feature-length films. 2026's recent movie roster has also delved into how films can be depicted on-screen in a way that blurs the lines of what's possible in terms of a story's visuals, with the September to October time period providing two strong examples of how movies can break one of the format's otherwise most fundamental rules to great effect overall. 2026 Toys With One Of The Most Fundamental Rules Of Movies 2026's movie roster has continued a long and studied film tradition of toying with the boundaries between live-action and animated releases, as more than one movie story has already done so to great effect in recent history. Forgotten Island does so in a way that both makes sense for its story, and helps to make the later challenges of the bonds between its two heroes in Forgotten Island's ending feel all the more emotional. The introduction of the animated movie opens by building the bond between these protagonists, showing us how Jo and Raissa grow up together, and are best friends for years by the present day of the story. In order to cement this, we see a very young Jo and Raissa in Jo's house watching TV in a fort together as they decide they're going to be best friends forever. To celebrate, Jo gives Raissa one of two matching friendship bracelets, and the two animated characters watch the live-action Predator movie on TV, replicating the film's iconic handshake scene with each other to cement their eternal bond. Inversely, the otherwise live-action 2026 Street Fighter film uses animated sequences for its flashback moments, which also works on several levels for the film. Not only does it allow Street Fighter to make it visually very clear when the story is going back into the past, it also means that the film is able to show certain moments while still saving some surprises for the live-action scenes. This is the case with the first live-action Hadoken Ryu uses in the film, and the reveal of Roman Reigns playing antagonist Akuma, since Reigns only physically appears as Akuma later on in the story. Why More Movies Need To Blur The Lines Between Live-Action And Animated Films Image via DreamWorks Forgotten Island and Street Fighter are by no means the only movies to play around with the lines between live-action and animation, though both films do so to interesting and positive results. Indeed, many films have had a more famous effort to blur the lines between these movie formats, as is the case with the likes of Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Space Jam. With that said, seeing more modern movies delve into this territory in 2026 is promising, since there's much unique potential in intentionally playing around with having live-action and animation in the same film story, even though this requires a careful hand since it's hard to get right, and is generally avoided by the vast majority of movies as a result.