The Media Man Reviews: Forgotten Island

Here we are folks, time to review a brand new DreamWorks movie, and it's an original DreamWorks animated film this time, and hopefully a better one than Ruby Gillman: Teenage Kraken!

Forgotten Island is a rather interesting new addition to the DreamWorks Animation Library for it's an animated film that takes inspiration and cues from Filipino culture, a rarity in mainstream movies in general, not just animation, and is this big coming-of-age story focusing on the close friendship between two girls. I remember when I first watched the trailer for this movie and being hooked instantly. I just thought "I've gotta see this!", wowed by the beautiful looking animation and the intriguing sounding story. The trailer also suggests this'll be one of those times DreamWorks releases an absolute masterpiece like they did with The Prince of Egypt, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Kung Fu Panda 1 and 2 and Shrek 2. It's always like that with DreamWorks for whatever reason, they'll release an absolute masterpiece and then release a bunch of crap afterwards.

Sadly, despite the huge amount of intrigue for this film and the hype behind it, Forgotten Island ended up proving to have a very appropriate title for it's being...well, forgotten at the box office. Due to competition with other films and the fact original animated films don't attract as much attention anymore (unless they release on streaming), it's been doing really badly in terms of box office gross. It's so funny how the internet keeps whining about wanting more original animated films, and yet when they do get more original animated films, they don't go and watch them... (rolls eyes)

Now you may be wondering "What took you so long to review this film?" It's simple: the film didn't come out in the UK until October the 16th, so we Brits are quite late to the party. Also I had a two-week holiday in Florida to get out the way and didn't want to mess around uploading blog posts while I was away, so I've had to save this review until after I got back, hence here we are. I hope this review made the wait worth it. :)

So is Forgotten Island a truly unforgettable adventure? Or should we forget that we ever saw it? Let's take a trip through our memories and review this film...

Section 1: The Story

It's the story of two friends from the Philippines named Raissa and Jo, two girls who bond together over a love of pop music, hairbrained schemes and above all else, a fascination with the tales of Nakali, the titular Forgotten Island. To the duo's surprise, they do end up in the world of Nakali during a chance encounter one day. But the two need to get back to the real world for Raissa's sake as she has a plane to catch to get to America. It's not an easy trip, especially when they have a memory demon and the monstrous Manang, the Dreaded Manananggal to deal with...

The first thing that everyone and their mothers has noticed about the movie, and one of the first things I can name about what makes Forgotten Island stand out from other animated films, not just DreamWorks' library, is that it prominently features and depicts Filipino culture, much like how Disney's Moana did for Polynesian culture. It's all there from the presence of Batiba and the Manananggal and a whole host of other strange, fantastical beings. I'm no expert on Filipino culture, so it was nice to see a movie about this sort of thing, especially in animation as animation is THE place to bring old stories, myths and folklore to match. I can't say if the Filipino representation is spot on of course for I'm not Filipino, but it still made for a fascinating watch, and it seems it struck a chord with audiences to the point even Filipinos that aren't that well-versed in their own culture have taken an interest in learning more about it! Talk about impactful!

But representation isn't everything. Of course, the story is, and thankfully I can say this is among the good DreamWorks movies. The last time we had a great DreamWorks movie was The Wild Robot, and I can easily say Forgotten Island is another movie worthy of the studio's legacy. The story is a fast-paced, comedic, action-packed adventure that delivers a lot of over-the-top expression, laughs and action scenes that can get surprisingly tense in places, and it's all delivered with very lively and energetic animation that is unapologetic about how over-the-top and animated it can be. Sadly, the overly energetic tone does hold the story back for me a little since at times it feels like the movie's on a sugar rush the same way the potion fairies were after tasting Jo's energy drinks. I was just constantly wishing the movie would just calm down a minute and stop giving us overly cartoonish faces and lively moments between the cast and take a breather for a minute. Thankfully, that's most in the first half. The second half is where all the good stuff is.

Once we learn the truth about Raww and Batiba and piece together how the main leads lost their memories of their first night in Nakali, the tone becomes more serious, they tone down the over-the-top animation, the stakes suddenly feel much bigger than before and it gets a lot more emotional too. That in turn makes for a very engaging watch and given the movie was mostly being energetic and crazy at first, the second half ends up hitting all the harder. It's like the movie is telling us "OK, fun time's over, now we get serious". While I'd say this film doesn't push the envelope as much as say, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish did, the darker moments do feel more effective, and they manage to give us a pretty creepy villain that changes the tone of the scene completely when she shows up. And with what I said earlier about the story slowly piecing together the mystery behind the girl's lost memories, it all adds up when it's revealed and it's pretty clever how they built-up and paid it off. I even applaud this movie for giving us a creative new take on the liar revealed trope. I won't spoil what the lie was, but the most I'll say is that the fact the character forgot they even did it in the first place makes it as big a blow for them as it does the audience. They secretly betrayed the other and yet they didn't even know about it for a good chunk of the movie. I thought that was interesting. Given DreamWorks LOVES using the liar revealed trope, it's impressive they managed to find an interesting twist on it for this story.

And of course, with this coming-of-age story about two friends who grow up together, their relationship to one another is the heart of the story, and I can say that Raissa and Jo's bond is so wholesome that it keeps you watching from beginning to end. We see how much their friendship means to one another, how close they've become in the years they've spent together, and most importantly...how much their memories mean to them. The importance of memories, the power a memory has and cherishing the ones we make with the people we love and the time we have to spend together is something beautiful and wholesome, and it makes Forgotten Island an overall touching and sweet experience. If you have a best friend, remember a best friend you once had, or knew someone with a best friend, this movie will really pull at your heartstrings.

And with this being a DreamWorks movie, of course there's plenty of comedy to be had, and as mentioned earlier, the over-the-top tone for the first half and frantic nature delivers a lot of gags that will have you chuckling or full-on laughing. From comical expressions to exaggerated poses to slapstick and even some surprising adult humour that has no shame in the fact kids could be watching, this is not a dull movie to watch by any means and you'll find something to laugh about as you watch.

So yeah, Forgotten Island is another hit from DreamWorks. Do I have anything to criticize? Not a whole lot aside from the first half being too over-the-top for its own good thankfully. I do feel that the movie could've been more effective and hit harder emotionally if it calmed down a bit during the first half and wasn't being as crazy as possible.

But the biggest criticism for me is that the way Raissa gets back to Nakali after being sent home felt like a bit of a deus-ex-machina. They do try to explain it yes, but I dunno, I didn't really buy it and it felt a bit of a cop out. That and I feel maybe the movie would've benefit more if Batiba and Manang were straight up villains rather than being morally grey.

As is, Forgotten Island is certainly anything but forgettable with the way it told its story and gave us a fun ride that hits us in the feels and teaches us the value of memories, while also giving us a look into Filipino culture. That makes it worth a watch in my eyes...

Section 2: The Characters

This is a movie with quite a quirky, colourful cast, and you won't be forgetting them anytime soon.

Let's start off with our main leads, Jo (voiced by H.E.R.) and Raissa (voiced by Liza Soberano). If you're doing a story about friendship, the relationship between the leads is always paramount, and these two are more than strong enough to carry this movie on their shoulders.

Jo is the reckless, rebellious girl with an attitude who is obsessed with stories about the land of Nakali and was very close to her grandmother before she passed away. Despite being a party animal who loves to live life as if it's one big party, she has clear deep-seated insecurities with how she doesn't seem to have a clear goal in life and has abandonment issues due to something from childhood. This makes it easy to understand why she's so attached to Raissa and is worried about the prospect of losing her when she moves to America. Despite her reckless nature, Jo's just so easy to like because of how friendly she is and how she's quick to make friends, whether it's Raissa or the residents of Nakali. She's the proper example of someone who's a bad girl, but you can't help but love her anyway and want to hang out with her, even if it can mean trouble. That and she gives us a lot of the film's comedy, so that's a plus.

Raissa by contrast is more bookish and nerdy, but what I love about her dynamic with Jo is that despite technically being the more sensible of the two, she's not afraid to get tangled up with her friend's antics and be a bit mischievous herself. She even adores Jo's antics with how she was the only one in her class that found them funny and wanted to befriend her afterwards. That said, she does have responsibilities what with needing to move to America in order to attend Caltech, and it puts a strain on her friendship with Jo as now she has to wrestle with her future or her friendship. This does lead to a lot of the funnier moments in the movie when Raissa has to be the responsible one trying to keep everyone on track while Jo and the other characters that join their journey want to goof around and have fun. Like Jo, Raissa's easy to like and it's through her that we learn just how important memories can be.

On their adventure through Nakali, the girls meet a bunch of quirky side-characters such as Raww the were-dog (voiced by Dave Franco), Bungi the Tiyanak baby demon (voiced by Manny Jacinto) and Mermahn (voiced by Kevin McCann). Raww is similar to Jo in how he has deep-seated insecurities due to everyone seeing him as a nuisance and they don't want to hang out with him. He tries to overcompensate for a big, macho attitude, but he is also secretly working for Batiba, something that eats away at him since he grew to genuinely bond with the girls. In the end, he does get to prove he isn't a bad dog after all.

While Raww was fine enough, I didn't care much for Bungi or Mermahn. They felt like unnecessary comic reliefs to me and the movie could've carried on just fine without them.

And then there are the antagonists of the film. While not straight-up villains, they do play an antagonistic role at first. Let's start off with the Memory Demon herself, Batiba (voiced by Jenny Slate). She sets up a creepy first impression with how overly polite and friendly she acts and how unsettlingly keen she is to take the memories of Raissa and Jo. But we learn that she's not malicious about it and that due to her crippling agoraphobia, she can't go outside and thus has to depend on the memories that she takes from people to get a feel for anything really. That and she's a woman of her word who always keeps her end of the bargain, even if she's willing to pull off a bit of trickery to get what she wants. But in the end, she's not a particularly evil creature and just needed to learn the true value of memories. As I mentioned earlier, I think she would've been a stronger character if she was outright villainous in my opinion, but I wouldn't say Batiba was badly handled here. She was still an interesting enough character.

But the real fascinating antagonist for me is Manang the Dreaded Manananggal (voiced by Lea Salonga). She is easily the scariest DreamWorks character we've had since Death in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. She's this unstoppable, vampiric creature who brings terror to the world of Nakali and has everyone quaking in their boots just at the sight of her. Even the normally brave and impetuous Jo sees she's no laughing matter! Manang is incredibly fast, can split herself in two, fly and breathe fire from her mouth and whenever our heroes encounter her, all they can really do is run away and hope she won't rip them in two. Due to her twitch, zombie-like movements, the way her body twists unnaturally and how she pursues the main characters throughout the movie, she's like a horror movie monster for kids and I love her for it.

The cast could've done with a few less comic reliefs and maybe more evil villains, but the main duo and Manang are enough of a highlight for me to consider the cast a strong one to carry this movie...

Section 3: The Animation

It's a DreamWorks Animation movie, we've come to expect amazing things from them at this point. DreamWorks is pretty renowned for experimenting with its animation and giving us unique visuals that you won't find in other movies, and this one is no exception.

Like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Forgotten Island goes for a Painted CGI look for its visuals, and it looks great! The art-style and the way the film is textured gives off a very 2-D look to it, almost like a comic book that's coming to life. I guess DreamWorks is still taking inspiration from Into the Spider-Verse's animation style. This is further enhanced by a lot of the exaggerated and comic facial expressions that the characters make in the film. A lot of them especially feel like the kind of faces you'd see characters make in a Japanese anime! I say that as a compliment of course, because it helps with the comedy in a lot of places and fits the film's over-the-top nature in the first half. The animation actually reminded me a lot of the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actually what with it being 3-D but having a lot of 2-D style elements that gave it a comic book feel. The difference is Forgotten Island has a much larger budget, so it naturally looks a lot better here. And not only does the film have 2-D style elements in the animation, but you get some flashback scenes when the girls are trying to uncover their memories and they're actually depicted in 2-D! That was a welcome sight to see, and it looks as good as the 3-D animation does here.

And of course, if I'm going to talk about the visuals, I need to talk about how the film is as colourful as its cast. The film is BURSTING with colour in so many scenes, both in our world and in Nakali, with Nakali being where a lot of colour is on display. The film ends up being so visually beautiful to look at a lot of the time, especially when we're in Nakali. They even make good use of the colours too. Notable examples for me include Batiba absorbing the memories of Jo and the scene is mostly dark aside from an eerie green glow from her eyes, or how the colour palette becomes darker whenever Manang is on the screen.

Now let's cover the background animation. The real world looks fine enough as the Philippines, but in the 90's, but the backgrounds really shine when we enter the world of Nakali. It's not only bursting with colour, but there's so much to see everywhere we go and it's a proper fantastical place with all kinds of weird creatures and bits of scenery to offer. It's admirable how much detail there is in the backgrounds and how much work the artists and animators put into bringing Nakali to life.

Now there's the character animation. As mentioned earlier, the film has a very energetic tone in the first half, and the character animation plays a large part in that. There is so much expression and personality from just about every character that's onscreen. Even minor characters that only show up for a scene or two manage to show a lot of personality with their movements, and a lot of the wacky character animation adds to the film's comical moments, as do the humorously exaggerated faces. But the standout animation for me is whenever Manang appears. Remember how I said she's like a horror movie villain for kids? Her character animation adds to that description with how she moves in unsettling, creepy ways. She can split herself in two by separating her torso from her legs, she twists herself in uncomfortable ways to the point you can hear bones cracking, she twitches unnervingly and overall comes off as some kind of zombie-creature with how she moves. It only made every scene she was in all the more intense for how inhuman she comes off as.

Speaking of intense, the film knows how to deliver cool action scenes and intense chases. The chase with Manang and our heroes is one such example. Despite how fast the Sarimanok can run, Manang is never far behind and at one point, Mermahn accidentally uses an invisibility potion on Manang, so now our heroes can't even see her! That was both funny and scary and made for a very entertaining chase scene that has you hooked from beginning to end. And then there's the climax with Raissa trying to stop Jo from losing her memories to Batiba. I love how she enters the memories and as they fade from one to the next, she is swept off to the next one and has to try and stop the memories from being lost, and each way Batiba tries to stop her changes depending on the memory. Those were really cool visuals.

Forgotten Island is one gorgeous looking movie and is worth a watch for the visuals alone. You certainly won't be forgetting what you see when all is said and done...

Overall

Forgotten Island deserves to be remembered and it's a pity it's doing so poorly at the box office right now. The story is a fun romp that is teeming with Filipino culture, the themes of memories and friendship are powerful, the characters are enjoyable and the animation is visual eye candy. While I think the internet has overhyped it a little, I do think Forgotten Island was worth a watch and I'm so glad I have it a chance. If you love DreamWorks Animation and want to see something original for a change, then give this a watch. You won't regret it all. This is a movie that will take you on an unforgettable adventure...

And that's it for this review. I hope you enjoyed it and I invite you all to share your thoughts down below. Did you like Forgotten Island? Did you not like it? Do tell me.

Come back to the blog this Friday, for I've got a new post talking all about my adventures at Disney World Florida. See you then media fans!

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