Forgotten Island (DreamWorks Animation)

 Originally posted 9/24/2026.

“The power of our friendship opened up a portal through the fabric of time and space!”

“Just space. There was no time travel involved.”

Forgotten Island is a dazzling hallucination, a kaleidoscope of color and a motion picture packed with more mythological Filipino creatures than one could shake a stick at. Partially taking place in the Philippines during the ‘90’s, it is also a fairly accurate snapshot of Gen X style and music, with a soundtrack featuring acts like Journey, INXS and Montell Jordan. Forgotten Island is an earnest, hearty exploration of the power of friendship, the meaning of memories and the reverence of respected ancestors. Entertaining, evocative, silly, stirring, and fun, Forgotten Island shouldn’t be ignored.

“How is he supposed to help US recollect the night’s events when HE cannot recollect the night’s events?!?”

Forgotten Island is a 2026 DreamWorks Animation production written and directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado. H.E.R. and Liza Soberano lead a talented cast of voice actors including Dave Franco, Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng, Lea Salonga, Dolly de Leon, Manny Jacinto, and Jenny Slate.

“I can’t wear an explosive on a plane!”

Raised by her grandmother Lola (de Leon), Boisterous and artistic Jo (H.E.R.) believes every word Lola says when she tells the girl stories about the mystical island of Nakalimutan and its mysterious inhabitants, including the ferocious, winged Manananggal. At school, Jo meets the introverted, incredibly intelligent Raissa (Soberano). They click immediately. Like Rick and Captain Renault in Michael Curtiz’s 1942 classic, Casablanca, it’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship. They exchange charm bracelets, and as the years go by, the inseparable pair add many trinkets and tchotchkes to the bands.

Lola passes, leaving Jo alone. Soon the pair graduate High School. Jo plans to remain local, having already gotten a job at Yum Yum Bird, a fast-food franchise. Raissa intends to attend Caltech, which saddens Jo. Raissa tries to mollify Jo’s fear of loss by telling her, “No matter how far apart we are, we’ll always be together as long as we remember.”

Later that night, down by the beach, the pair find a cerulean glowing sand dollar, the “Jewel of the Sea”, just like Lola once said. A magic portal shatters dimensional walls like glass, and the two tumble through, landing on the pristine sand of the Nakali shore. The next morning, they wake with no knowledge of the night before. They simply can’t remember anything after the portal. They’ve lost track of twelve hours. They can’t find the jewel, and they both look different. Jo has a giant, carved, wooden spork, a spiked pauldron, and a crown on her head. Half of Raissa’s hair is shaved off, and a set of spooky, animated wings are clutching her shoulders.

They encounter a were-dog named Raww (Franco) who cannot control his lycanthropic powers. He tells the pair that they hung out the night before, and the matching “Wild Pack” tattoos and symbols the three all share strongly support his assertions. Before they can get to the bottom of things, the owner of the wings perched on Raissa’s shoulders comes looking for them. It is the fearsome Manananggal, and the pair only escape the monstrosity with the aid of Batiba (Slate), a magical, cat-like memory demon.

In her lair, surrounded by surrendered trinkets and artifacts of her previous clients, Batiba explains that she can restore the memories of their missing 12 hours for a price: Batiba demands both friendship bracelets with all of the tchotchkes included, a fee that will forfeit both girls' memories of their lives together and their entire friendship.

They balk at the expense and bail; Raww assures them that there are others on Nakali with memory powers and guides them to the Kakaiba Market where they can meet Bungi (Jacinto), a blue-skinned, 200-year-old baby demon who can help them. They simply have to find that sand dollar, and they have no time to screw around. Raissa’s flight to Caltech leaves in five hours.

Can Jo get her friend home safely? Will Raissa compromise her future by missing her flight? Can the pair recover their lost memories?  Will the Manananggal hunt them down before they can make their escape? Please see Forgotten Island to find out.

“You know, friends can be family, too.”

Forgotten Island is a sumptuous visual festival. It is a very pretty, very trippy, sparkle-spectacle of a picture with hefty emotional weight anchoring the rainbow-trails and black light glow. It is a fascinating exploration of Filipino mythology. The magical flora and fauna are artfully realized and well rendered

Stealing a chest from the Duwende warriors results in a scene lifted straight from 1981’s Raiders of the Lost Ark. The exotic, magical Kakaiba shopping market seems to be a nod to the multidimensional Big Market in Luc Besson’s 2017 film, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. Amidst the more appropriate humor, Forgotten Island is peppered with adult oddities, including a “kick to the nards”, a line about pegging a boy with a plantain and a giant’s torn-off nipple ring turned crown.

Many of the character designs are excellent. Batiba bears more than a passing resemblance to the Cheshire Cat in Tim Burton’s Wonderland movies. King Truffle-Wuffle of the Duwende is a dead ringer for Mario’s friend, Toad from the various Nintendo games. The soundtrack successfully weaves basic Gen X bangers into a more conventional musical score, and it works quite well. The biggest problem this reviewer had with Forgotten Island is that the cascade of abrupt face-turns by several of the characters in the closing reels just defies belief. There’s no basis for any of them, but one character’s change of allegiance and alignment is particularly hard to swallow.

The rules of the magic world are not clearly articulated. There does not seem to be consistency across the board, logic or any sort of understandable hierarchy. This is all shown quite vividly in the Wild Pack’s final battle with Manang. That being said, these are relatively minor nitpicks. Forgotten Island is a fun flick with something to say about the value of friendship, the importance of family, proper veneration of progenitors, regard for the past, and the race to the future.

Forgotten Island is in theatres 9/25/2026.


https://fanboyfactor.com/2026/09/forgotten-island-is-weird-wonderful-and-worth-remembering/