Forgotten Island review
By Joel Humphries · Watched 09.20.26
★★★★ 4 / 5
Spoiler-free review
Hip-hop pulses through Forgotten Island’s 1990s mixtape vibe, pairing boombox swagger with bright, personality-forward animation that taps the Spider-Verse/GOAT era’s freedom to mix styles and color. H.E.R. and Liza Soberano’s performances ground Jo and Raissa’s lifelong friendship, and Dolly de Leon’s Lola frames a leap into Filipino mythology that feels fresh instead of recycled. DreamWorks delivers a big, funny, energetic fantasy that never loses its emotional center: two best friends staring down the moment life pulls them apart. The stacked voice cast clicks, the visuals pop, and the heart lands. It’s kid-friendly without requiring a kid, and an easy genre recommendation I expect to connect with audiences.
Full review — contains spoilers
Saw Forgotten Island early access and really enjoyed it. This is a DreamWorks animated movie about two Filipino girls, Jo and Raissa, who have basically grown up together. It’s explicitly set in the 1990s, which explains something I picked up on immediately while watching it. The whole thing is very influenced by that mixtape era. The girls share music, there’s a boombox, and hip-hop is baked into the style and energy of the movie. One is more free-spirited, the other is more serious and academically driven, but they’ve been best friends since they were kids and the movie spends enough time establishing that relationship that you actually care about what happens to it.
H.E.R. voices Jo and Liza Soberano voices Raissa, and we basically watch them grow up together until they reach that point where childhood friendships get tested by adulthood. They’re graduating from high school and about to go in different directions. Throughout their childhood, their Lola, voiced by Dolly de Leon, has told them stories about this mysterious place called Nakali, an island filled with creatures from Filipino mythology. They grew up hearing the stories without really knowing how seriously they were supposed to take them. Then, right as they’re facing the possibility of being separated, they stumble into an adventure that takes them to the island themselves.
That’s really all the setup you need. Once they’re on Nakali, the movie becomes the big, colorful fantasy adventure DreamWorks is selling you, and I thought it worked. This is beautifully animated. It’s bright, funny, energetic and visually interesting, and the Filipino mythology gives the filmmakers a whole world of creatures and imagery that we haven’t already seen recycled through 40 other American animated movies. You’ve got Dave Franco, Manny Jacinto, Jenny Slate, Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng and Lea Salonga filling out the voice cast, and everybody is doing what they’re supposed to do.
Stylistically, this reminded me a lot of GOAT from last year and obviously the Spider-Verse movies before that. Not because the stories are the same, but because we’re in this period of animation where everybody has finally figured out that computer animation doesn’t all have to look the same. You can mix styles, play with color and movement, bring in hip-hop influences and let the animation itself have some personality. Forgotten Island is tapping into that same general ethos, and it does it really well.
More importantly, the movie has an actual emotional center underneath all of that. This is ultimately about two people who have spent their entire childhood together reaching the point where life is going to separate them whether they’re ready for it or not. The fantasy stuff is built around that friendship rather than replacing it, which gives all the beautiful animation something to hang onto.
I think this should be a hit. I don’t really have any control over what the American people decide to watch, but if you’re going to see something in this genre, this is an easy recommendation. It’s kid-friendly without requiring you to bring a kid. I had a really good time with it.