By Matthew Moorcroft

Strong Recommendation

• Directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado
• Starring H.E.R., Liza Soberano, Dave Franco, Lea Salonga
• PG

With some of the company’s most vibrant, hyperactive animation ever, Forgotten Island feels like the natural extension of DreamWorks’ current modus operandi after the surprise hit of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and it turning the tables on what people expected from the company after several years of seeming stagnation. Director Joel Crawford, and newer co-director Januel Mercado (who seems to be real mastermind behind the Filipino origins of Forgotten Island in many ways), clearly want this to be if not the house style of DreamWorks but one of the main ways they continue to separate themselves from the rest of the crowd in a growing and crowded animation market.

And while Forgotten Island skips some of the meat to get there, which is odd considering it’s also DreamWorks’ longest film ever at 108 minutes, it’s also so consistently entertaining and visually arresting that it doesn’t matter. Every frame is loving crafted and brimming with detail, even the ones that are only on screen for a split second – for which there are many – and the ones that are more in focus have color, character, and a sense of place so pronounced that it makes up basically anything else the movie could throw.

Which it throws a lot. The story of two girls who are at a key crossroads in their friendship; one wants to leave for the States and the other has no real direction after the tragic passing of her grandmother, and the two get whisked away to an island from their childhood dreams and have to find their way back. While this is a classic setup for an emotional gutpunch, and there are the gut punches in the back third of this, the film also uses that premise for a comedic romp that is basically “The Hangover but for kids” with even the setup of “we did a bunch of crazy stuff last night and we don’t remember any of it” as it’s baseline adventure hook. It’s also a celebration of Flilipino folklore culture. And on top of all of that, it’s also a film that has three major antagonistic forces all vying for screentime against our leads, who themselves have enough conflict going around to fill an entire movie.

Forgotten Island has enough movie for your buck, that’s for sure, and that’s part of the appeal here. For those that like more movie in your movie, Forgotten Island is certainly going to be the real deal, and thankfully most of that stuff is really strong. The vocal performances are stellar and give a ton of personality to characters that already have a lot of fun visual ideas going on, with Dave Franco in particular as a half-man, half-dog character who gets most of the big laughs in the picture. The use of music is inspired and smartly placed, both diegetic while also completely fitting of the tone of the flick. And, helpfully, it’s consistently very funny, mostly thanks to some strong line reads and excellent visual gags that pepper throughout it’s runtime.

But even with all of that, it’s not until the last third that the aforementioned emotional weight of the flick really begins to elevate it. It mostly sticks to it’s guns as well, with a consistent internal mythology that means that, outside of one or two well placed reveals and Chekov’s guns, the film maintains a certain level to it’s rules that the times it is broken it feels earned and necessary. Crawford’s approach to that rulebreaking is very similar to his work on Last Wish, even if Forgotten Island is much more obvious about it and to a much greater thematic level.

Those thematics are really the central reason as to why Forgotten Island isn’t a bust, as it’s sheer kineticism will likely be overwhelming to many who prefer their family entertainment gentler; Toy Story 5 and The Sheep Detectives are probably your go to in that regard for this year. But the film is smart enough to lace said kineticism with it’s discussions about the nature of memory and the importance of friendships in the modern age, and it’s eventual conclusions about both will likely ring true for both kids and adults in different ways.

Could Forgotten Island have used some slow down in order to let itself breath a bit? Absolutely. But this is a great example of maximalist family entertainment that actually maintains it’s energy well as opposed to it just being noise for the sake of noise; it’s energy is heightened as feature, not an aftershock of poor attention spans. And frankly, if we are going to get faster paced animated features, I would rather them have the heart and intelligence of something like this instead of the usual. Definitely worth a look if you have kids or are looking for a nostalgic trip down memory lane, just like our protagonists.