‘Forgotten Island’ Brings Filipino Folklore to a Friendship Quest

DreamWorks Animation is taking moviegoers to a fantasy realm shaped by Filipino folklore in Forgotten Island, an original adventure opening in theaters on September 25. The film centers on Jo and Raissa, best friends whose approaching separation turns into a frantic journey through the mythical island of Nakali.

A friendship story with a supernatural engine

Jo, voiced by H.E.R., expects her life with Raissa to continue as it always has. Raissa, voiced by Liza Soberano, is preparing to leave Manila for college at Caltech. Before that departure, the pair enters a magical portal and awakens on Nakali with no memory of how the previous night unfolded.

Reconstructing those missing hours becomes the story’s comic mystery. Their route home is crowded with creatures drawn from Filipino traditions, including a shape-shifting weredog voiced by Dave Franco and the manananggal, a vampire-like being voiced by Lea Salonga.

Filipino mythology moves to the foreground

In an NPR interview, Salonga described recognizing creatures she had heard about in childhood and welcomed seeing them given a central role in a major animated production. Directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado place those legends inside a contemporary story about memory, change and the pressure friends can feel when their lives begin moving in different directions.

The voice ensemble also includes Manny Jacinto, Jenny Slate, Dolly de Leon, Jo Koy and Ronny Chieng. Deadline praised the film’s colorful animation and emotional second half while finding its early pace extremely busy. IndieWire likewise described the movie as overloaded and relentless, but said the bond between Jo and Raissa keeps its central message intact.

An original release in a franchise-heavy season

The film arrives as a standalone story rather than a sequel or adaptation of a familiar property. Its PG-rated, 107-minute adventure blends teenage comedy, fantasy creatures, music and a coming-of-age conflict without treating Filipino mythology as a decorative backdrop.

Early reviews do not agree that every rapid-fire idea lands, yet they converge on the value of the film’s cultural specificity and its friendship at the center. That combination gives Forgotten Island a distinct identity: a bright studio-scale fantasy where remembering a shared past becomes part of learning how to move forward.