Through the Windmill

Through the Windmill
Directed by	Reloaxa
Story by	Reloaxa
Written by	Reloaxa
Starring	Christy Carlson Romano Jason Lee Cillian Murphy Reloaxa Finn Wolfhard Winona Ryder Harry Shearer
Music by	Bruno Coulais Reloaxa
Production company(s)	Walt Disney Animation Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
Release date(s)	October 23, 2026
Running time	108 minutes
Language	English
Budget	$150 million
Box office	$719 million

“It's more than a run-of-the-mill.”

―Tagline

Through the Windmill is a 2026 American computer-animation black comedy horror gangster film produced and released by Walt Disney Pictures.

Film Summary

As a little girl, Kyla Victor loved to play around her grandfather Stepney's windmill. Since then, Stepney's passed and 15 years later, she's now a young adult, living in the big city. During a particular Christmas season, she decides to go back to relive her childhood memories, but then stumbles into the ghost of 50s gangster Crispy Blade and she has to go with him on a bizarre quest through a ghostly portal spawned by the windmill to help change the past, save the future, find out about her grandfather's past life and discover why the windmill was even there in the first place.

Cast

• Christy Carlson Romano as Kyla Victor, a 19-year old, Stepney's granddaughter who's biggest passion is drumming.
• Jason Lee as Sam "Stepney" Victor A.K.A Crispy Blade, Kyla's grandfather and gangster of the 50s.
• Cillian Murphy as Two-Time Crab Whacka, an Irish gangster of the 50s and founder of terrorist group Freez-Ide.
• Reloaxa as Rudiment, a blue-footed booby who's Kyla's pet and sidekick.
• Finn Wolfhard as Harry Knox, Kyla's boyfriend.
• Winona Ryder as Emma Victor, Kyla's mother.
• Harry Shearer as Jay Victor, Kyla's father.

Reception

Critical response

Through the Windmill received universal acclaim for it's premise, writing, crime influenced undertones and dark settings. Praise also went to the animation, characters, powerful messages and voice performances of Romano, Lee and Murphy and it has been named one of the best films of 2026. The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes reports that 97% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 247 reviews, with an average score of 8.6/10. The site's consensus states: "With it's crime-influenced plot, horrific undertones and powerful messages, Through the Windmill adds a whole new exciting chapter to Disney's library." Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 from top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 91 based on 50 reviews, indicating "Universal acclaim." In CinemaScore polls, cinema audiences gave Through the Windmill an average score of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Trivia

• The film was rated R in America and 15 in the UK, making it Reloaxa's first adult animated film.
• There are many debates as to whether this truly counts as a Christmas film. The main signs of it being a Christmas film include:
  • The film takes place on December 23rd
  • The decorations in the background
  • One of Kyla's suggested disguises is a reindeer (She even mentions Ruldolph)
  • The fact it was released on December 18th, a week before Christmas
  • Two Christmas songs (Fairytale of New York by The Pogues and Kirsty McColl and The Spirit of Christmas by Ray Charles) were both played in the film

Soundtrack

Through the Windmill/Soundtrack

Sequel

A sequel titled Through the Windmill, Again, directed by Bradley Raymond, was released in 2032 and unlike the first film, was critically panned and hardly had any connections to the first film.

Unlike the first film, Reloaxa was hardly involved in the film, only providing the music and voicing Rudiment again.