Forgotten Island (2026)
Is Forgotten Island woke? Yes. Woke Score 62/100 (Woke).
Directed by Januel Mercado · $10.1M domestic
Yes · Woke
How we score movies →Consciousness Markers
The voice cast is a near-comprehensive assembly of prominent Filipino and Asian talent, including Lea Salonga, Liza Soberano, Dolly de Leon, Jo Koy, Manny Jacinto, and Ronny Chieng. The film was explicitly marketed around this casting as a landmark for Filipino-American representation in Hollywood animation, and the production made no effort to be subtle about it.
The diaspora experience is a load-bearing thematic pillar: Raissa leaving for an American university is framed as a sacrifice with genuine cultural and personal costs, and the film's engagement with immigration and identity was singled out by critics as its most resonant emotional register. This is not incidental texture; it is the point.
The film centers two young women whose relationship, emotional labor, and grief over separation form the entire dramatic engine. Jo is specifically coded as a tomboyish outsider while Raissa is the academic overachiever, a pairing that invites readings about female identity and ambition, though the film does not appear to editorialize about it at length.
The diaspora and identity themes are woven into the narrative rather than delivered as speeches, but critical coverage consistently framed the film's representation as a statement, and the production's own promotional discourse leaned heavily on its cultural significance. The film appears to know what it is doing and is not entirely shy about it.
The film is set in the late 1990s Philippines and draws on Filipino folklore and mythology as its primary world-building material, which implicitly centers a non-Western historical and cultural lens. This is more cultural reclamation than revisionism, but it earns a modest score for reframing whose myths get to anchor a major Hollywood animated feature.
Critics characterized the central friendship as a 'butch-femme' dynamic, and the emotional intensity of Jo and Raissa's bond drew some cultural commentary about queer coding. There is no explicit LGBTQ content, but the framing is present enough to register a token score.
No evidence of climate, environmental, or ecological messaging in the film's content or critical reception.
No anti-capitalist themes identified. The film does not appear to interrogate economic systems, corporate power, or class structures in any meaningful way.
No body positivity themes or commentary identified in the available research or critical reception.
No neurodivergence themes or representation identified in any available material.
Synopsis
While celebrating their last night together, high school graduates and best friends Jo and Raissa stumble upon a mysterious portal that transports them to the fantastical island of Nakali. When they discover that the memories of their entire friendship are the price for returning home, Jo and Raissa must race to find a way to leave the island before they forget each other forever.
Why it received this score
DreamWorks Animation, an institution that once asked us to laugh at a talking donkey, has now delivered a film set in 1990s Philippines built around Filipino folklore, a predominantly Asian voice cast, and the emotional devastation of the diaspora experience. The studio has come a considerable distance. Whether this distance represents artistic growth or a carefully calibrated market expansion is a question the film declines to answer, which is, arguably, the correct decision.
The film's genuine strengths are inseparable from its cultural project. The integration of creatures like the aswang and the kapre into an animated adventure framework is executed with evident care, and the central friendship between Jo and Raissa carries real emotional weight precisely because it is grounded in a specific cultural moment: the particular grief of watching someone you love leave for America. This is not a universal theme dressed in Filipino costumes. It is a Filipino theme, and the film is confident enough to let it remain so. That confidence is the most interesting thing about it.
Where the film accumulates its score on our instruments is not in any single act of sermonizing but in the cumulative density of its intentions. The casting is a statement. The diaspora framing is a statement. The critical reception, which treated the film as a landmark rather than simply a movie, is also, in its way, a statement. None of this is a flaw. It is simply a film that arrived with its cultural credentials already pressed and framed. The Guardian called it over-energized and frantic, which is a reasonable criticism of the pacing, and also, we note, a description that applies equally well to the broader project of representation cinema in the mid-2020s. The film is in a hurry. It has a lot of ground to cover. We understand the urgency.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Critic Reviews
“Forgotten Island is a terrific movie that delivers an effective, emotional story about the memories we make with our friends mixed with a big, funny, and sometimes dark adventure through a land of creatures culled from Filipino folklore.”
“Deeply felt and fully satisfying, Crawford and Mercado’s odyssey is a wonderful cinematic experience — but for best results, watch it with a friend.”
“Forgotten Island, a fantasy adventure built around the friendship between two teenage girls, is another winner from the team that oversaw “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” It does an equally honorable job of tackling issues you might not expect a family-friendly animated feature to address. ”
“The filmmakers have lashed together as many ideas as possible from Filipino mythology without worrying too much about the overall effect, which is akin to stumbling through a toy store full of freaky stuffed animals that are too weird to be sold. ”