{"id":631959,"date":"2026-09-22T01:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631959\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T01:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:06:11","slug":"forgotten-island-review-dreamworks-animation-h-e-r-dave-franco","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/631959\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Forgotten Island’ Review: DreamWorks Animation H.E.R, Dave Franco"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tYou have to give points to DreamWorks\u2019 latest animated feature, Forgotten Island<\/a>, just simply for being an original from a studio system that rewards familiarity. And it comes from writer\/directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado who proved with their own sequel, 2022\u2019s Puss In Boots: The Last Wish that you could find clever ways to renew and energize existing IP, rather than just settling for what the audience expects.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\tI suspect this one though will have the most appeal to a teenage female audience as it is centered on the BFF relationship of two young girls, besties since grade school in the Phillipines, who have lived a life of memories (they have matching charm bracelets to prove it) since being little kids inseparable from each other. Now on the cusp of seeing life taking them down separate paths, they are about to embark on their greatest adventure together ever. But will they even be able to remember it? That is the hook here as the opening of the film introduces us to the wild and wacky Jo, and the more serious-minded Raissa with dreams of being a scientist one day.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt home in Manila they both dream of a mythical place that in their minds absolutely exists. During their lives they have been fed epic stories by the beloved elder Lola (Dolly DeLeon) which are vividly shared with her class by Jo. The film jumps ahead to the end of their high school years where Jo (the older version voiced by singer H.E.R.<\/a>) and Raissa (Liza Soberano<\/a>) are at that inflection point. Raissa is accepted into Caltech in America and is going to be leaving, while meanwhile Jo is stuck in a menial job at a fast food joint. This will be their last night and they are going to make the most of it when they come upon a magical portal on the beach, the portal it turns out to, Nakali, that Forgotten Island.<\/p>\n

\n\tNext thing you know they have landed there, with absolutely no idea of just how they got to the place of their imaginations. They are about to find out in this play on memory and the importance of it in all of our lives. With colorful new appearances (Raissa now has wings and half a head of hair) they have gone down the kind of rabbit hole that infamous characters like Alice and Dorothy have tread in literature and movies before, but this place is something else. In quick and whirring succession they meet some real doozies starting with Weredog, Raww (voiced with style and fun by Dave Franco<\/a>), who claims he had just spent the previous 12 hours with both of them. He is a bit of a mess, embarrassed by his ever-changing appearance from human to dog and back again, mostly dog though. He will be their self-appointed guide thorugh Nakali, but he has competition from another new acquaintance, Bungi (Manny Jacinto<\/a>) a cycloptic giant blue baby still stuck (literally) to his mother after all these years. We also meet the more restrained cave dwelling Batiba (terrifically voiced by Jenny Slate<\/a>) who is agoraphobic to her core, but lives with a collection of knick knacks it turns out have been stolen from other peoples memories, just not her own since she is deathly afraid of venturing out into the world. She promises to help Jo and Raissa get back to their own world in return for their own memories.<\/p>\n

\n\tAlong the way we meet Daju (Jo Koy<\/a>) leader of a tree brigade; King Truffle Wuffle (Ronny Chieng) lording over his own feifdom; and the impossibly vain and slick Prince Mermahn (Kevin McCann). As in every single cartoon aimed at kids there is also a villainess, and here it is The Dreaded Manananggal (Lea Solonga<\/a>) who can magically divide herself down the middle and other horrific talents. She\u2019s the wicked witch and evil queen of the piece but of course there is a reason she got to be so bad and we will find out in due time.<\/p>\n

\n\tJo and Raissa must navigate all of this in order to get back to where they came from in this uber frenetically-paced journey. Crawford and Mercado (who clearly has added the Filipino flavor to this story) pack way too much visually, especially in the first half perhaps sensing today\u2019s younger moviegoers have a bit of attention deficit. I thought this thing, beautifully animated with different styles creeping in and out and as colorful as it could possibly be, would never slow down to take a breath. But finally in the second half when the girls\u2019 own hopes and dreams come front and center, and the emotional elements take charge, it does cool its jets just enough to take it all in. The main theme of saving our memories, and keeping them close comes through loud and clear and there is nice resoloution to all of this. The busy soundtrack has lots of catchy tunes, old and new, including an original or two from H.E.R. herself.<\/p>\n

\n\tIs this an animated movie I will keep in my memories? Not likely, but I think its younger (much) target audience will indeed be the ones who will find some cool things to remember and some sharp life lessons about the value of friendship.<\/p>\n

\n\tProducer of the DreamWorks Animation production is Mark Swift.<\/p>\n

\n\tTitle: Forgotten Island
Distributor: Universal
Release Date: September 25, 2026
Director\/ Screenwriters: Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado
Cast: H.E.R., Dave Franco, Liza Soberano, Jenny Slate, Manny Jacinto, Dolly DeLeon, Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng, Kevin McCann, Lea Solanga
Rating: PG
Running Time: 1 hr 47 mins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You have to give points to DreamWorks\u2019 latest animated feature, Forgotten Island, just simply for being an original…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":631960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[24591,93,67336,267794,61,60,96885,161801,268275,268276,71413,270],"class_list":["post-631959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-dave-franco","tag-entertainment","tag-forgotten-island","tag-h-e-r","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jenny-slate","tag-jo-koy","tag-lea-solonga","tag-liza-soberano","tag-manny-jacinto","tag-movies"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=631959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/631959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=631959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=631959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=631959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}