‘Forgotten Island’ Review: DreamWorks Spins The Hangover With A Good Moral

DreamWorks Animation’s latest film tasks itself with imposing good lessons on its audience, all the while making impressive animation blend with creative characters.

Forgotten Island follows two young Filipino women as on the brink of a big change, get transported to Nakali, the Forgotten Island, and have the night of their lives, but soon must find their way back home with the help of new friends along the way. The film was developed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado based on their life long friendship and explores the importance of friendships, memories, and on a meta level, the importance of Filipino cultural representation. Read the synopsis below:

Two best friends become stranded on the mystical world of Nakali, where their only escape might cost them their shared lifetime of memories.

With nothing but a first teaser in mind, and expectations of millennial cringe, Forgotten Island is a pleasant surprise, using a variety of influences to assemble a creative amalgamation of heartbreak, humour, and memories. It’s animation style is not exactly unique, emulating aspects of the Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse style, something director Joel Crawford previously began doing with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, but here it’s much more pronounced with its bright landscape, stylised motion and onomatopoeic appearances.

Where this film thrives is beyond the metaphysical, but within the strong emotional core between these two characters, Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano), who are life long friends sharing an interest in Filipino folklore and arts. Raissa’s fight to preserve their relationship by the end of the movie is sob-worthy, whilst Jo attempting to sacrifice herself so Raissa can thrive is equally heartbreaking. This relationship is why the movie works, without it the movie would flail at every turn and be a slog for the entire two hour runtime. There is also an underlying relationship that drives the values and love for the Forgotten Island itself, Jo’s relationship with her Lola who raises her after her father abandons her for America. It’s for this reason that Jo is so desperate for her friend not to leave her to do the same thing. When Raissa realises this in the third act, its hard not to be moved.

Outside of the strong emotional core, Forgotten Island feels like a direct recreation of Todd Phillips’s 2009 studio comedy The Hangover, where a group of men must retrace their steps to discover what happened the night before after being roofied. Forgotten Island follows the exact same plot, with the two girls at the centre of the story retracing their steps in order to find the key to getting their life back (here it’s a sand dollar that serves as a portal key, while in The Hangover it’s their friend Doug). The similarities go further than that too, with characters getting tattoos, meeting eccentric characters and even threats to their lives.

In their quest, the girls befriend many of these eccentric characters, most of which are likeable or funny enough for what they are: Raww (Dave Franco), a socially confident but insecure werewolf; Bungi (Manny Jacinto), a giant 200 year old demon baby; Prince Mermahn (Kevin McCann), a vain and chiselled merman; and Batiba (Jenny Slate), a reclusive memory demon with a dark secret. These characters are the cause of a lot of the humour of the story but at the same time become a little infuriating with how continuous some of the jokes are. Bungi in particular is the cause of a lot of this frustration and he gets old (metaphorically) really quickly. That being said, Manang (Lea Salonga) is a great villain, extremely reminiscent of Prowler in Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse and while not much is said about the character, her design carries a lot of history and what is left unsaid speaks numbers about her. Really cool villain.

I feel like the incorporation of cultural representation into this film is really well done too. With many films, exploration of underrepresented cultures can come off as blunt or performative, but Forgotten Island does neither and strengthens itself as a movie because of it. The beachside town in which the movie is set is a pleasant setting on its own, but is really made into its own by authentic representation of the people within the film, including a loving father doing really bad karoake — a bit that I think is probably the best of the film. It is also helped that at the screening I attended, the Brisbane Premiere, a really cute little speech was given about the world of the film and how important it can be to Filipinos.

Forgotten Island continues DreamWorks streak of incredible films, sitting up there with The Wild Robot and Puss in Boots: The Last Wish as emotionally resonate films with sincere storytelling and incredible filmmaking. Forgotten Island may seem simple on the purpose but the film transcends what will likely be an enjoyable film for under-10s but a great film for all ages, and for those who look deeper, can find much more meaning.

Forgotten Island is directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado and stars H.E.R. as Jo, Liza Soberano as Raissa, Dave Franco as Raww, Jenny Slate as Batiba, Manny Jacinto as Bungi, Kevin McCann as Prince Mermahn, Lea Salonga as Manang, and more. The film releases in US theatres on September 25, 2026.

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