We all have a certain friendship that we know will last through thick and thin, a person who likely means more to us than anyone will ever know, whether it’s someone who you’d never think you’d be acquainted with or someone who’s virtually like family. One of the things that further cements any great friendship is the unforgettable memories we collect along the way, where even ones that may seem like a footnote at first glance still carry weight as memorabilia that can be important to who you are as a person.
Forgotten Island taps into the true core of this idea as a story about the memories of our friendships being crucial to them retaining true meaning. The narrative is told through two genuinely realistic-feeling characters within their dynamic and nuanced conversations. The animation here is dazzling and oozing with style, albeit at points throughout the middle portion of its narrative, the hyper energy bouncing off Forgotten Island can lean from charming to obnoxious as more characters are introduced within a fantastical world that the movie can’t quite juggle. Still, what keeps Forgotten Island afloat are the genuine, profound emotions between its central characters, Jo and Raissa, leading to a wonderful ending that sticks the landing. With awe-inspiring visuals and an embrace of Filipino roots to boot, Forgotten Island is a lovely time, even if it has a few too many hiccups that keep it from the best of the best within DreamWorks Animation.
The film takes place in the Philippines sometime in the 90s, but we first start with the birth of the inseparable friendship of young Jo (Kailey Crawford) and young Raissa (Kayla Teruel). The two hit it off from nearly the get-go with their shared love of Philippine folklore and stories told by Jo’s grandmother, Lola (Dolly de Leon), about a mystical island named Nakali. When they head to the principal’s office, the two girls hang out at Jo’s house whenever they can and even cement their friendship by imitating a firm handshake they see while watching 1987’s Predator on TV.
Now both in their teenage years, post-high school graduation, Raissa (now voiced by Liza Soberano) is college-bound to study rocket science mechanics at Caltech, and Jo (now voiced by H.E.R.) is working fast food and mascot jobs. As the entire community celebrates Raissa heading to college, her parents unfortunately see her friendship with Jo as a hindrance and view Jo as beneath her, which leads to tough conversations between the two friends on the beach as they spend what might be their last time hanging out.
Suddenly, however, a portal appears in front of the duo out of nowhere, and they’re sucked into the world of Nakali and discover all the myths they’ve been told about their entire lives are true. The catch is, when they wake up, the two realize they’ve already spent a full day on the island and can’t remember anything from before, including where they placed the only mystical object that can help them return home. With the clock ticking before Raissa needs to be on her flight to America, the two get guidance from weredog Raww (Dave Franco) to retrace their steps across the island and discover just how important their years of memories are while on their journey.
The first thing many will marvel at is the pure visual splendor to be found within the animation, and in that regard, the film might take the cake as the best visuals that DreamWorks has ever produced for the silver screen. The crossing between 3D models and 2D flourishes is something we’ve been seeing quite a bit post the Spiderverse films, and DreamWorks themselves have been consistently experimenting with the style with films like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Wild Robot, Dog Man, and the two Bad Guys films.
Forgotten Island is probably the most successful they’ve been at integrating much of the style so far. Key flourishes of anime and manga pop out in spades from character expressions (there’s a specific moment of remembering that takes heavily from Dragon Ball), Filipino culture truly feels at one through every step within the world of Nakali, and the utilization of frame rate in certain scenes is extremely clever in making more action-oriented scenes thrilling. Likely the biggest feat of animation is the character of Manananggal (Lea Salonga), a demon who is almost constantly at a different rate of animation than all the other characters, making the stakes rise anytime they’re on screen.
Unfortunately, there do exist a few caveats to the consistent hyper-stylization, as some of the charm does start to wear thin when the film tends to overuse its style to the point of exhaustion. Once the two girls are transported to the island, the movie doesn’t completely nose-dive, per se, but it does enter a bit more of a lull as it piles more chaos on itself in both the amount of humor within new characters introduced, like Bungi (Manny Jacinto), the demon baby, and the presence of others like the aforementioned Raww. The film obviously still has a good amount of laughs, but there are nearly as many jokes that are more grating than they are humorous within the kinetic style, and it holds things back enough to keep the film from reaching a level of truly great.
Luckily, the reason the weight of emotions still hits so hard by the time Forgotten Island reaches its conclusion is that the film never forgets the core of its ultimate story and message surrounding the importance of our memories, and the film portrays some of the highs and lows of friendship in such an honest way. Both Jo and Raissa are such well-realized characters, and it’s always clear that the conversations they have and the focal point of the memories they create through their friendship bracelets always feel as if they come from a personal place for co-directors Januel Mercado and Joel Crawford. The climactic sequence near the film’s conclusion is where everything really hits home as the film invokes Eternal Sunshine of The Spotless Mind with a delve into the mind of memories that genuinely looks incredible and fully sells the importance of Jo and Raissa’s bond.
Forgotten Island may have a few key qualms within its hyper-manic energy that keep it from hitting the full impact that it might want, but the film ultimately succeeds because, amidst all the chaos, it never forgets the message at its center that keeps the entire thing lovely to watch till the end. And with wondrous animation and an adoration for the Filipino culture that surrounds the entire thing, the final result is anything but forgettable.
Forgotten Island will debut exclusively in theaters on September 25, 2026, courtesy of Universal.
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Forgotten Island may have a few key qualms within its hyper-manic energy that keep it from hitting the full impact that it might want, but the film ultimately succeeds because, amidst all the chaos, it never forgets the message at its center that keeps the entire thing lovely to watch till the end
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GVN Rating
Lover of film writing about film. Member of the Dallas Fort-Worth Critics Association. The more time passes, the more the medium of movies has become deeply intertwined with who I am.
