Forgotten Island

So many studio features limp into theaters with too few ideas that it seems somehow ungrateful to point out one that has too many. There’s a lovely central story in Forgotten Island, about two lifelong best friends whose relationship may or may not survive one of them going abroad for college, and the movie buries that story in so much plot, mythology, magical creatures, and mini-quests that it dares viewers not to lose the thread.

Still, this DreamWorks Animation takes some big chances, almost guaranteeing that it will find some cult audiences along the way, from lovers of cinematic excess to fans of legendary Filipino monsters and demons to women who can relate to the close bond (and butch-femme dynamic) of its wonderfully eccentric protagonists.

When Jo (voiced by Kailey Crawford) and Raissa (Kayla Teruel) first meet in grammar school in their unnamed beach town in the Philippines, they couldn’t be more different: Jo loves to scare classmates with the stories her grandmother Lola (Dolly De Leon) tells her about folklore creatures like the shape-shifting Aswang and the vampiric Dreaded Manananggalm, while Raissa is a soft-spoken, straight-A student. Opposites attract, and when the two get sent to the principal’s office after one of Jo’s class projects goes awry, they immediately bond and share friendship bracelets. Each adventure together brings a new charm to their wrists, and as the years go by, they push each other out of their respective comfort zones with an encouraging “Tayo na!” (“Let’s go” in Tagalog).

Cut to the summer after high school: Jo (H.E.R.), completely on her own after Lola’s death, flounders through job after job with no real ambition to leave their small town, while Raissa (Liza Soberano, Lisa Frankenstein) is heading off to college in California with the blessing of her doting, ambitious parents. As the two pals spend one awkward final evening together — with much unsaid and unexpressed between them — their friendship reaches such a crisis point that it opens up a portal to Nakali (short for Nakalimutan), a mythical island that’s host to all the magical creatures Lola once told them about.

Jo and Raissa wake up on a beach with no memory of what was apparently a wild night — half of Raissa’s head is shaved, Jo has a tattoo — and try to get information from Raww (James Franco), a weredog with more than a passing resemblance to Poochie from The Simpsons. To make their way back home, and to mend the fences between them, Jo and Raissa will need help from a memory-stealing Batibat (Jenny Slate), a three-eyed demon baby named Bungi Tiyanak (Manny Jacinto), tree giant Datu (Jo Koy), and a vain merman with starfish pasties (Kevin McCann as Prince Mermahn, accent on the second syllable). Standing in their way are the adorable but deadly duwende, led by King Truffle Wuffle (Ronny Chieng) and, of course, that monstrous Manananggal (Lea Salonga).

As someone whose entire experience with Filipino folklore is a single Lynda Barry comic strip about the Aswang, I did find the cavalcade of lore and mythical creatures a lot to take in, even as the monsters take their turns acting as metaphors for Jo and Raissa’s friendship crisis. (Batibat all but drools over taking their charm bracelets and making the girls forget each other.) To their credit, writers-directors Joel Crawford and Januel P. Mercado (the team behind Puss in Boots: The Last Wish) aren’t just throwing in all this folklore willy-nilly, but there comes a point when metaphor can step aside and just let the main characters speak for themselves.

While this magical world is portrayed with dazzling color and broadly imaginative strokes, I found myself wanting less of the lycanthropes and vampires and more of Jo and Raissa, who are so wonderfully fresh and funny and quirky and not the usual female leads of mainstream animation. In addition to the many bizarre beings the two friends encounter along the way, the script throws way too many video-game style “go the place and get the thing and give it to the other person” subplots that feel distracting and eventually exhausting.

Still, Forgotten Island makes some great choices along the way, from not giving the leads romantic interests (or, worse, one boy for them to fight over) to not making the film a musical, although this ’80s-set comedy heavily indulges the thematic connections to “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Never Tear Us Apart.” The directors never go overboard on the MTV-era setting, but little inclusions like mixtapes and neon-colored accessories (including Raissa’s Sally Jessy Raphael eyeglasses) provide little grace notes of who these girls are and the world they live in.

Visually, the film is a non-stop treat, with the animation team capturing the Filipino seaside community with as much detail and delight as the island of Nakali. And when the side characters make room for Jo and Raissa, Forgotten Island is a lovely celebration of outsiders and magic and lifelong bonds.

Directors: Joel Crawford & Januel P. Mercado
Screenwriters: Joel Crawford & Januel P. Mercado
Cast: H.E.R., Liza Soberano, Dave Franco, Jenny Slate, Manny Jacinto, Dolly De Leon, Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng, Kevin McCann, Lea Salonga
Producer: Mark Swift
Head of Character Animation: Sean Sexton
Head of Story: Steven MacLeod
Head of Cinematography, Layout: Scott Cullen
Production design: Ryan Carlson
Editing: James Ryan
Music: Nathan Matthew David
Sound design: Leff Lefferts, re-recording mixer/supervising sound editor; Randy Thom, sound designer
Production companies: DreamWorks Animation
In English
101 minutes