Some movies feel too much like an imitation, a repetition of something that has come before. Movies that try to cash in on our love for something that already exists. But other movies entice you in with a surreal familiarity that you can’t quite explain, a feeling that this is a story you must have heard before, and when you finally find yourself in the dark theater, you’re delighted to find that it surprises you in ways you couldn’t have imagined.
That may seem like effusive praise, but Forgotten Island balances the plot of a classic adventure movie with effusive 1990s nostalgia and wildly colorful Filipino folklore. I saw the movie on opening day in a packed theater, seated alongside parents with their kids, groups of teenagers, and adults out for a date night. Everyone was completely engrossed, the whole auditorium alternately rocking with laughter and vibrating from the intensity of our terror at another appearance by Manananggal.
Forgotten Island opens with young Jo, one half of our protagonist pair, giving a presentation to her class about Nakali, the Forgotten Island where the mythical creatures of Filipino folklore live. After getting in trouble for fighting with a classmate over whether Nakali is real, Jo meets Raissa, who also believes in Nakali and got in trouble for arguing with their teacher over whether it would be physically possible for a Manananggal to fly. After this, the two are best friends, and we see a sequence of milestone memories, each marked by a charm added to their friendship bracelets.
However, just before Raissa is meant to leave for Caltech, as she and Jo are saying goodbye, a portal to Nakali opens, and, keeping a promise they made as kids, they take the leap together. This is where the movie begins to depart from what many fans of similar movies from the 80s and 90s might have expected. The “crossing of the threshold” is very much intentional, although editing from the trailers may have made it look more accidental. Additionally, when they wake, they discover they’ve been in Nakali for twelve hours, but have no memory since entering the portal. A lot of the plot going forward is a little Hangover-esque in a kid-friendly fantasy flavor.
The animation from the jump has an expressive style, drawing from Filipino art and 1990s graphic design, using techniques like simplifying facial expressions, radial motion lines, and floating punctuation to emphasize reactions. Many of these were used in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, but some might think that the hand-drawn quality of the character designs and their movement might seem more reminiscent of the Spider-verse movies. Sony Pictures Imageworks actually did assist with the animation in some of the shots throughout the film, which may explain the familiarity! There are also multiple stylized 2D sequences during flashbacks which are meant to emulate classic anime series, inspired by Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon (not in the same sequence) and these were handled by a Manila-based studio, Snipple Animation.
The designs for the different mythical creatures were all beautifully done, but the Kapre, the Sarimanok, and the Manananggal were particularly well done in both their visual design and their movement. The Sarimanok is striking enough to be a major part of the trailer as well as the first creature we see on Nakali, not just towering over Jo on the beach, but fluffing its feathers as a luminescent ripple flows over its colorful plumage. The Kapre manage to be a unique incarnation of tree people, many unique designs each with the gentle and graceful movement needed to interact with the smaller creatures around it. But the crowning glory of the movie is Manananggal, voiced by the amazing Lea Salonga (who performed the singing voice Disney Princesses Jasmine and Mulan). The unnatural, jerky movements as she turns her head, observing her potential prey, the sudden, unnerving approach as she scuttles up and down cliffsides like an insect, the completely incorrect way she rises from being knocked down, rising like a contortionist, legs first, rolling each vertebrae up the wrong direction with unsettling cracks. Even the outline of the character vibrates, incomplete in some places. If their goal was to create a kids’ movie bad guy to join the ranks of the Skeksis from The Dark Crystal and Gmork from The Neverending Story.
I won’t spoil the ending, but I do think, for all its positives, Raissa gets a full character arc, while Jo gets most of a story arc. Jo’s resolution is rushed, probably for lack of time. It’s almost like we get a lot of Jo before the midpoint and a lot of Raissa after, with them getting equal spotlight in between? However, I think the story delivers really well on the intended message: valuing your friendships and seeing their needs, not necessarily so you can sacrifice yourself, but so that you can help meet their needs while communicating your own. No one has to completely sacrifice themselves or their dreams at the end of this movie, and another of the points that they make is that even those who do harm may be doing so because they are hurting and don’t understand the impact of their actions. And they do all that while making a lot of jokes about merman nipples. Like an uncomfortable amount of merman nipple jokes.
Overall, I think everyone will be able to enjoy this movie, even if you don’t know what a Trapper Keeper is, even if you aren’t really excited to hear Sophia from KATSEYE cover “Never Tear Us Apart”, even if you can’t identify the movie that Jo and Raissa are watching during their sleepover, and even if you’ve never heard any Filipino folklore before. It’s a story about childhood friends being afraid of saying goodbye to each other, and of how far they’ll go to save each other. You may not know what “Tayo Na” means, but you know what it feels like to try to figure out who you are growing to be alongside someone who has known who you have been all along, for better or for worse.
FilmObserver Score: 9/10 – Outstanding
We Recommend Forgotten Island
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