Did you forget to watch ‘Forgotten Island’?
What’s a Filipino-themed animated feature got to do to break through?
DreamWorks’ Forgotten Island, crafted around a witty Philippines-specific plot by writer-director team Januel Mercado and Joel Crawford, was critically loved, with a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics raved about it, yet it failed to win back its $80 million budget at the box office, slowing down at around $60 million against another Avengers reboot. Pity, because the film explodes with cultural references and a vitality that, at its best, is as engaging as that mega-smash cartoon hit K-Pop Demon Hunters.
The Pinoy-specific details are rife in this tale of school chums Jo (voiced by R&B singer H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano), who grow up listening to Jo’s lola tell tales of Nakali, a mythical island where all the Filipino mythical creatures hang out.
It has the hyperkinetic energy of a Spider-Verse entry, as directors of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish leave no pixel of screen space unoccupied in their saturated ‘90s aesthetic. There are Pinoy touches aplenty:
Karaoke.
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Lechon.
Picture of Jesus over the lechon buffet table.
A balisong knife.
Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’.
Plus: Pinoy accents! Pinoy catchphrases! (“Tayo na!”) Cassette mixtapes!
Even a tinikling dance!
Maybe it’s a bit too saturated: the pulsing neon hues and kinetics should carry a warning label for those prone to strobe light seizures.
But energy, it’s got. The voice cast is excellent, with Pinoy talents including Lea Salonga, Dolly De Leon, Jo Koy, Manny Jacinto, and others.
The story follows Jo and Raissa as they grow from schoolkids raised on Filipino myths into teens pulled apart when Raissa lands a scholarship to Caltech and Jo feels left behind.
The two get swept down a “quantum tunnel” (more neon!) and land on the mythic Nakali where they encounter Raww, a were-dog (Dave Franco) who explains that last night together was “the best ever!” But nobody seems to remember what actually happened. (“Forgotten Island,” indeed.)
With screwball nods to The Hangover, the trio tries to retrace the previous night’s adventures to recover a sand dollar that will get them back to the regular world, in time for Jo’s flight to LA.
Along the way, they’re pursued by a pissed-off manananggal, a “memory aswang,” and find they must apologize to a duende named (ahem) King Truffle Wuffle, voiced by the excellent Ronny Chieng. (They are warned to refrain from calling him or his village of duende warriors “cute.” Or else die. It doesn’t help that the king explodes with heart emojis when he’s angry.)
Finding a way back from Nakali is Jo and Raissa’s mission, but the story is really about the power of memories—those made between friends, between generations—and the point becomes to make new memories, to revive the forgotten ones.
For this first fully Filipino feature by DreamWorks (or anybody, I guess), everything local takes center stage. Film composer Nathan Matthew David spent time in Cordillera, Kalinga, and with the T’boli people, as well as employing local players on the gong, kulintang, and Las Piñas Bamboo Organ. They took it about as seriously as Disney did researching Hawaiian culture for Moana.
Yet Forgotten Island was somewhat overlooked by the viewing public, despite a strong opening. Was it a matter of branding and marketing, the kind of thing that South Korea does so well, making the local universal?
Or was it that Forgotten Island actually crammed too much Filipino content into its story, leaving viewers wondering what to grasp onto as the visual storm whips around them? There is that well-known phrase “less is more,” something the Filipino horror vacui never quite accepts.
But hey, that’s a small gripe when so much Philippine culture gets represented here in such a rich, appealing way.
I must add the comments of my sister-in-law, filmmaker Marie Jamora, on Instagram. After watching it with family in the US, she wrote: “My two kids got to see their beautiful mythology and culture represented onscreen—I loved the creative swings the filmmakers took with our mythological creatures. I appreciated the Pinoy Easter eggs like the lip pointing, mano po, lechon jokes, and Jo’s family’s OFW struggle… It was awesome hearing Nathan Matthew David use our native instruments for the score in Dolby surround. I also got goosebumps hearing the SB19 cover of Francis M’s anthem Mga Kababayan.”
As a filmmaker, she sees it not only as a point of national pride to watch Forgotten Island, but as a way of preserving culture: “This movie is a landmark moment for our community and my country. Showing that audiences support our movies will help our future, so that our kids can see themselves onscreen and know that their culture and stories matter, not just within the Asian community, but as human beings.”
So, if you haven’t checked it out, catch it while it’s still in cinemas.
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