{"id":15077,"date":"2026-09-25T14:42:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T18:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=15077"},"modified":"2026-09-25T14:43:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T18:43:03","slug":"forgotten-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/09\/25\/forgotten-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Forgotten Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Forgotten Island<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Comedy-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (animated sequences of scary action, language, rude humor, thematic elements, some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Nathan Matthew David\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 25, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: H.E.R., Liza Soberano, Dave Franco, Jenny Slate, Manny Jacinto, Jo Koy, Dolly de Leon, Ronny Chieng, Lea Salonga, Kailey Crawford, Kayla Teruel.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0I have no doubt that Toy Story 5 will be among the five nominees for this year\u2019s Best Animated Feature Oscar. It deserves to be. However, it\u2019s not the one I want to see walk off the statuette. No, that would be Forgotten Island<\/strong>, the newest film from DreamWorks Animation, the home of MVPs like Shrek, Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon. It\u2019s easily the best animated film of the year.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I figured I\u2019d like Forgotten Island<\/strong> based on the trailer. I didn\u2019t expect I\u2019d love it, but I did. Written and directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado (Puss in Boots: The Last Wish), it\u2019s very edgy for a so-called kids movie. I\u2019m not so sure I\u2019d even call it a kids movie. I mean, it\u2019s not not for kids. I just don\u2019t like to minimize it by labeling it as such. I truly believe teens will enjoy it too as will many adults. I guess what I\u2019m saying here is you shouldn\u2019t dismiss it as a movie for children. It deserves better.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jo (R&B singer H.E.R.) is one of those little girls with an active imagination. She loves to tell stories about a magical island called Nakali, a place her grandmother Lola (Leon, Nine Perfect Strangers) claims to have visited. Jo is also one of those kids with a knack for causing chaos wherever she goes. It\u2019s just her nature.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Jo befriends a quiet, intelligent girl named Raissa (Soberano, Lisa Frankenstein). She\u2019s the only one who sticks up for Jo after her oral report on Nakali is ridiculed by her classmates and teacher. They become the best of friends and stay that way all through school. Then young adulthood comes knocking at the door.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Raissa breaks the news to Jo that she\u2019ll be attending college (Caltech) in America which means they\u2019ll be separated. Jo, alone since her grandmother\u2019s death, can\u2019t bear the thought of it. On their last night together, she finds a glowing circular stone on the beach. It opens a portal that transports both girls to the place they\u2019ve been obsessed with finding since they were kids.<\/p>\n

\u00a0They wake up on a beach the next morning with no memory of what happened the night before. All they have to go on is a bunch of Polaroids (did I forget to mention it\u2019s set in the 90s?) and the word of unreliable were-aspin Raww (Franco, Now You See Me). He takes them to see Batiba (Slate, Zootopia 1 & 2), an agoraphobic cat-like creature who promises to send them back home. All it\u2019ll cost them is their memories. But first, they have to locate the magical stone that brought them there. To find it, they have to retrace their steps with the help of Raww.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This is what makes Forgotten Island<\/strong> so edgy. It\u2019s basically a much cleaner version of The Hangover. Who does that? Who takes the premise of a raunchy R-rated comedy and turns it into an animated movie aimed at families? Okay, the makers of Paws of Fury (Blazing Saddles set in feudal Japan instead of the Old West) did it, but who remembers it? Crawford and Mercado don\u2019t stop there. They include a scene of the girls watching Predator at a sleepover. SAY WHAT?! It takes cojones to include something like that. I LOVE IT!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Steeped in Filipino culture, Forgotten Island <\/strong>is a brilliant introduction to mythical creatures from the folklore of the Philippines like Slate\u2019s Batibat and the fearsome female vampire-like demon (Salonga, KPop Demon Hunters) who wants back what the girls took from her. Visually, it\u2019s a marvel to behold. Highly stylized and energetic, it employs a myriad of animation styles from traditional 2D to anime. All of it is vibrant and beautiful. It\u2019s not often an animated film resembles a work of art, but Forgotten Island<\/strong> belongs in a museum. It\u2019s as rich and colorful as any Matisse or Van Gogh.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I love the characters in Forgotten Island<\/strong> and the actors providing their voices are a big part of it. H.E.R. and Soberano sound great as two childhood friends navigating early adulthood. It\u2019s that precarious time when the realization that one has outgrown the other hits. As Raissa\u2019s mother puts it, her daughter is like a rocket and Jo is the boulder keeping her from taking off. The dynamic between the two girls is both authentic and believable.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Franco\u2019s natural neurotic energy perfectly suits his character, a hybrid character that can\u2019t control when he transforms. Comedian Jo Koy (Easter Sunday) earns laughs as a mer-man character who\u2019s kind of like a less self-grandiose version of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. Slate imbues her character with vulnerability and sugar-coated deceitfulness in equal measures.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Forgotten Island<\/strong> zips along at a fast pace. It positively overflows with crazy energy. It\u2019s very funny and even moving at times with its message about the bonds of friendship. I think it\u2019s one of the best movies of the year.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Forgotten Island (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Universal\/Comedy-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 109 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (animated sequences of scary action, language, rude humor, thematic elements, some violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Nathan Matthew David\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 25, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: H.E.R., Liza Soberano, Dave Franco, Jenny Slate, Manny Jacinto, Jo Koy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-now-playing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Forgotten-Island-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C981&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15077"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15081,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15077\/revisions\/15081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}