Audiences gain a rare original animated feature from DreamWorks that deploys Filipino folklore in a vivid, fast-moving story about friendship and memory. Forgotten Island, directed and co-written by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, sets its action in the Philippines in the 1990s and follows two schoolgirls who are swept through a portal to a mythical place called Nakali.
The central relationship is between Jo, the mischievous storyteller voiced by Kailey Crawford as a child and H.E.R. as an older Jo, and Raissa, the aspiring scientist played by Kayla Teruel and Liza Soberano. Their grandmother Lola, voiced by Dolly de Leon, supplies the folkloric frame that propels them into the island. On Nakali they wake altered, with strange tattoos and other physical changes, and meet a parade of creatures who fuel a quest to get back home.
The film leans into horror at times, with a threatening antagonist called Manang, voiced by Lea Salonga, who can split her body in two. The price of return turns out to be the girls’ memories of their friendship, a conceit that supplies the emotional stakes. Comic and supporting voices include Dave Franco as Raww, Jenny Slate as Batiba, Manny Jacinto as Bungi, Jo Koy as Datu, Ronny Chieng as King Truffle Wuffle and Kevin McCann as the vainglorious Prince Mermahn.
Critically, the movie can feel overstuffed; the filmmakers pack many characters and set pieces into the 1 hour 47 minute runtime, and some plot threads tangle. Still, the film’s energy, wit and strong emotional centre make the overload forgivable. The animation is highly inventive, showing clear nods to anime, Studio Ghibli and the visual experimentation popularised by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, while character design and pacing remain kinetic.
Musically, the soundtrack balances covers of 1990s pop, including INXS and Tina Turner, with original work by Nathan Matthew David that incorporates traditional Filipino and Indigenous instruments. The production credits list DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures, with Mark Swift producing and Ryan Carlson as production designer. The film is rated PG and opens Friday, September 25.
Forgotten Island both foregrounds Philippine cultural elements in a major studio tentpole and continues a run of original-feeling projects from Crawford and Mercado, building on their work together from 2022’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
