FORGOTTEN ISLAND – Review by Valerie Kalfrin

Friends can be closer than family, creating memories that make us who we are. Forgotten Island, the new DreamWorks animated film, is an exuberant celebration of friendship and Filipino culture, blending different animation styles, neon colors, and ‘80s and ‘90s references.

While it gets a little too frenetic in the latter parts, Forgotten Island deserves kudos for its original story, clever artistry, and young adult protagonists.

Jo (recording artist H.E.R., 2023’s The Color Purple) and Raissa (Liza Soberano, Lisa Frankenstein) meet in elementary school when Jo, replete with cardboard wings and her bared teeth, enthusiastically relates the story of the Dreaded Manananggal, a kind of vampiric creature from Filipino mythology. Jo’s father lives in America and left her in Manila with her Lola, or grandmother (Dolly De Leon, Nine Perfect Strangers). Lola swears that she once met the mystical beings she describes to Jo in detail.

The girls grow up bonding over mixtapes, Arnold Schwarzenegger movies (macho Predator hand clasp and all), and making their own charm bracelets, adding matching mementoes from each escapade. But upon graduating from high school, Jo fears she and Raissa will lose their special connection once Raissa, a STEM whiz, heads to Caltech.
On their last night before Raissa’s flight, the girls find a portal to Nakali, the enchanted place that Lola often described. The two jump through it for one last adventure, saying, “Tayo na,” (“Let’s go” in Tagalog), then wake up on a beach with little memory of what’s happened and some wild consequences. Both have homemade tattoos, Jo’s lost a shoe, and Raissa’s lost half her hair—and sprouted sentient wings.
What ensues is a bit like The Hangover with fart humor and a touch of Moana, as the girls retrace their steps and discover the fearsome Manananggal (Lea Salonga, Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin), whose head and limbs rotate in jerky contortions as she also searches for something lost. Along the way, the girls connect with other mythical creatures, including Raww (Dave Franco, Hoppers), an eager-to-please weredog; a magnanimous tree (comedian Jo Koy); Bungi, a three-eyed demon baby (Manny Jacinto, Freakier Friday); a hunky merman (Kevin McCann, Dog Man) with talking star pasties; and Batiba, a batlike memory demon (Jenny Slate, At the Sea). Even the minor characters in this world brim with personality, like the speed demon, a giant cross between a road runner and a parrot with a taste for Takis-like chips.

Batiba, who’s agoraphobic and lives in a cave full of human paraphernalia, swears she can send the girls home if they’re willing to part with an object—and its accompanying memory. That’s not too much to ask, she says … or is it?

Co-writers and co-directors Joel Crawford and Januel P. Mercado, who previously helmed 2022’s funny and heartening Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, said in press notes that they based Forgotten Island on their longtime friendship and Filipino connections. That shows in the girls’ affectionate banter and shorthand—Jo calms Raissa’s hyperventilating by having her breathe out to the “Who Let the Dogs Out” refrain—and the subtext of the character designs and animation. The animators switch through different visual styles, sometimes in the same scene, with exaggerated, anime-inspired expressions and graphic linework between photorealism and neon-like glows. When tall, shy Raissa, with her red-rimmed glasses, tells Jo about her plans to study in California, Jo’s shock and fears coincide with the grill gone wild at her fast-food job, as if her whole world’s up in flames. Batiba’s magic conjures not just glowing symbols on her fur but memories that morph, carrying over visual touches like Jo’s fondness for Post-it notes.

Anyone with ties to Filipino culture will find lots to love here, but there’s loads of universal humor. My screening audience laughed at Lola flinging a slipper at an irritating neighbor and at Bungi’s mother, urging him to literally cut the umbilical cord at 200 years old and do something on his own already. We also chuckled at King Truffle Wuffle (Ronny Chieng, King of the Hill), a two-foot-tall tribal leader whose demands for fearsome respect are at odds with his cherubic cheeks, saucer eyes, and kicking up hearts when he walks.

The soundtrack by composer Nathan Matthew David incorporates Indigenous Filipino instruments but also pop favorites, from Don’t You Forget About Me by Simple Minds to Never Tear Us Apart by INXS, some of it naturally via Jo’s boombox, covered with cyan and magenta graffiti.

Beyond the laughs, though, Forgotten Island has a broader message about how friends stay in our hearts. It’s refreshing to see an animated film deal with a young adult crossroads as the girls clash over differing dreams, not being kids anymore, and wondering if years of memories can go the distance. When you find a pal who supports you, even on a new path, of course they can—something well worth remembering.