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The studio behind Madagascar, How To Train Your Dragon and Shrek, DreamWorks Animation has an unerring knack for launching animated franchises that run… and run. But the studio’s latest effort is unlikely to add to that illustrious roster, flopping in the US despite straining every sinew to dazzle.
There’s plenty to like in its punky mash-up of 3D and hand-drawn animation styles – the spirit of the Spider-Verse and the most recent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies is writ large here – and the sweet story of two teenage besties fixing their fraying relationship on a fantastical island. And there’s a very rare and refreshing use of the Philippines as the setting for a big Hollywood movie. But this mythological adventure is an exhausting watch, a fantasy adventure paced like a panic attack.
Filipino-American animator Januel Mercado and his co-writer/director Joel Crawford, the filmmaking pair behind Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, give us two BFFs who meet at their Manila high-school and bond over trips to the principal’s office, viewings of Predator and hangouts on the beach. They have their own catchphrase (‘Waboosh!!’) and friendship bracelets that will take on a powerful new symbolism. Raissa (voiced by Liza Soberano) is the studious one, who dreams of moving to California for a career at Caltech; the punkier Jo (H.E.R.) is all imagination and impulse, upset that her friend is thinking of flying the nest. Jo’s kindly grandma, Lola (Dolly de Leon), tells them stories of Nakali, a magical folklore world she claims to have visited. Enjoy her mellow scenes, because there will be no further chill until the credits roll.
It’s a fantasy adventure paced like a panic attack
The best friends are drifting apart when, lo, a portal opens and sucks them into this dayglo wonderland inspired by Filipino lore. They wake up with no memory of what happened the night before and a host of colourful creatures to navigate and/or survive. Among them is the Dave Franco-voiced ‘were-aspin’ – half boy, half dog, all annoying – and the duende, adorable-psychotic pixies who fulfill a similar role to Moana’s coconut pirates. Then there’s the genuinely terrifying Batibat demon (voiced by Jenny Slate), scaring them across the island and no doubt younger children clean out of the cinema.
For a specific demographic, Forgotten Island will be catnip. It articulates the euphoria, chaos energy and heartaches of young friendship about as well as any coming-of-age movie. And not many kids’ animations can lay claim to riffing on The Hangover as a story beat. If only it had remembered to take a breath.
In UK and Ireland cinemas October 16.