| Battle for Dream Island | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | |
| Created by | Cary Huang Michael Huang |
| Based on | Total Firey Island by Cary Huang |
| Showrunners | Joseph Pak Samuel Thornbury |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 5 |
| No. of episodes | 98(list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Running time | 5–55 minutes |
| Production company | jacknjellify |
| Original release | |
| Network | YouTube |
| Release | January 1, 2010 (2010-01-01) – present |
Battle for Dream Island (BFDI) is an Americanindependent animatedweb series created by twin brothers Cary andMichael Huang. Aparody of thegame show genre, the series consists of competitions betweenanthropomorphic objects, with viewers voting for a character's elimination. Episodes and related media are posted on theirYouTube channel, jacknjellify.[a]Battle for Dream Island has influenced a genre of similar independent series known asobject shows.
Battle for Dream Island centers around competitions between anthropomorphic objects as contestants, such as a pen, a bubble, and a leaf.[1][2] Each character is generally named after the type of object they are. The series is agame show parody, with similarities toSurvivor andTotal Drama Island;[2][3]the show's contestants compete in various contests, such as winning a race or scaling a wall, to win a prize and avoid elimination. YouTube viewers vote for a character to be saved or eliminated.[b] Whether a character is eliminated or saved affects the course of the series. In addition to voting, viewers could also invent their own characters and send them to the Huang twins, where they would be included as acameo appearance, and also as a form offan art.[1][2]The series makes use ofslapstick humor reminiscent ofCharlie Chaplin.[3] Even though characters often die in ways that reflect how their real-life counterparts would be destroyed, they can be resurrected via machines[2] called "recovery centers".
| Season | Title | Episodes | Originally released | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First released | Last released | ||||
| 1 | Battle for Dream Island | 25 | January 1, 2010 (2010-01-01) | January 2, 2012 (2012-01-02) | |
| 2 | Battle for Dream Island Again | 22 | 5[c] | June 30, 2012 (2012-06-30) | August 2, 2013 (2013-08-02) |
| 17[d] | September 1, 2023 (2023-09-01) | TBA | |||
| 3 | dnalsI maerD roF elttaB | 1[e] | September 1, 2016 (2016-09-01) | ||
| 4 | Battle for B.F.D.I. | TBA | 16 | November 3, 2017 (2017-11-03) | March 25, 2020 (2020-03-25) |
| Battle for B.F.B. | 14 | April 17, 2020 (2020-04-17) | April 9, 2021 (2021-04-09) | ||
| 5 | Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two | 20 | January 10, 2021 (2021-01-10) | TBA | |
Twin brothersMichael and Cary Huang were born on March 18, 1997, and grew up inMoraga, California.[‡ 4][4][5] While attending school, they began using the multimedia software programAdobe Flash. Cary "started using Flash when [he] was 10 years old".[6] In 2005, the twins created their own website,htwins.net, where they released severalFlash games.[7] In 2010, they created the interactive online visualization toolThe Scale of the Universe,[8][4] and its 2012 sequelThe Scale of the Universe 2 at the age of 14.[5]
In 2009, Cary "had to create a fake catalogue for analgebra class", and inside of it was "a comic about howrock, paper, and scissors ... could be improved. [Cary] replaced them with water, sponge, and fire". Cary continued creating comics; he had written a comic inspired byTotal Drama Island, titledTotal Firey Island.[3] Michael created animations based on Cary's comics,[7] later stating that he wanted to "combine [animation] with Cary's characters".[3]
In 2009, the twins started production onBattle for Dream Island at the age of 12, and released the first episode on January 1, 2010.[1][3] Like the previous projects by the Huang twins, the show wasanimated using Adobe Flash.[6][7] While some episodes were written and directed by the pair,[f] they eventually recruited additional writers and a full-fledged production team. During the series's production, the twins graduated high school and attended separate universities; Michael studiedfilm atUniversity of California, Berkeley, and Cary studiedcomputer science atStanford University.[3]
From around 2019 to 2025, jacknjellify's subscriber count grew from one million to more than three million, which largely consisted of children, but also many teenagers and adults.[1][3] Originally funded byYouTube ad revenue, the twins startedmerchandising the show in 2019.[3][9] The Huang twins have organized live events for the series, including awatch party in partnership with the producers ofInanimate Insanity(seebelow).[9][10] The twentieth episode of the series's fifth season,Battle for Dream Island: The Power of Two, was screened inAMC andMarcus theaters in theUnited States on October 16, 2025, and uploaded to YouTube the next day. Several screenings were sold out, and the episode had one million views within nine hours of the upload.[11][12]
/Film writer Witney Seibold called the series an "underground phenomenon", citing a lack of coverage by the media and the absence of aWikipedia article at the time despite its popularity, while noting its "sweet, direct, Kindergarten appeal".[2] Russ Burlingame ofComicsBeat praised the series's avoidance of "predictable traits" and "lazy jokes".[11]
Battle for Dream Island influenced a small genre of similar, independent web series called "object shows". "Object shows" are used as anumbrella term for any animated series featuring a large cast of anthropomorphic inanimate objects—typically with simplistic,stick figure designs—that compete inSurvivor-esque competitions.[2][11] Thefandom for the show is collectively referred to as the "object show community", or the "OSC".[11]
One example of another object show isInanimate Insanity,[2] which has been described as an "unofficial sister show" toBattle for Dream Island.[11] Two members of the team behindInanimate Insanity—Joseph Pak and Samuel Thornbury—took roles asshowrunners forBattle for Dream Island.[11]
In the text, these references are preceded by a double dagger (‡):
Media from Commons
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