‘Forgotten Island’ Critics Are Falling Hard for DreamWorks’ Filipino Folklore Adventure
Original animated movies rarely get an easy ride at the multiplex, and DreamWorks knows that better than most. ‘Forgotten Island’ arrives this week as a rare example of original animated storytelling in a sea of IP and sequels. The early buzz around the film is already turning heads.
The project comes from directors and co-writers Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, who previously teamed up on 2022’s ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’. Set in the Philippines in the 1990s, the story follows two schoolgirls, the mischievous Jo and the more serious-minded Raissa. The film opens in theaters on September 25.
Now the first wave of reviews is in, and it is glowing. DreamWorks’ ‘Forgotten Island’ has debuted with a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes. The Tomatometer reflected 20 reviews at the time of the post, while the Popcornmeter was still waiting on more than 50 verified audience ratings. Rotten Tomatoes lists the film as a PG-rated Kids & Family release with a runtime of 1 hour and 49 minutes.
Early reviews focus on how much visual creativity the film packs in. Screen Rant’s review argued that the script is genuinely funny and that the writing and animation work in lockstep, with the film overflowing with visual creativity. The outlet also places the film within a wider shift in studio animation toward a kinetic, often anime-influenced style.
The Hollywood Reporter’s take was similarly warm, calling the film a dazzling original and another winner for Crawford and Mercado. It also warned that audiences may have a hard time keeping up with everything going on thematically and visually. Reviewers on the Rotten Tomatoes page pointed to emotion as much as spectacle. One suggested that DreamWorks seems to have embraced the storytelling model their rivals at Pixar perfected years ago.
DreamWorks’ ‘FORGOTTEN ISLAND’ debuts with a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 Read our review: https://t.co/8QOtq9BW8p https://t.co/9PbcrvpKxt
— The Hollywood Handle (@HollywoodHandle) September 21, 2026
At its core, the movie is a friendship story dressed in mythology. On their last night together before college, Jo and Raissa are transported through a portal to the island of Nakali, home to magical creatures they grew up hearing about from their Filipino families. There they must face The Dreaded Manananggal, voiced by Lea Salonga, and discover that the memories of their entire friendship are the price for returning home.
New trailer for DreamWorks' ‘FORGOTTEN ISLAND’.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) June 23, 2026
The film follows 2 best friends trapped in a mystical world but their only way of escape is to erase all their memories of each other.
In theaters on September 25. pic.twitter.com/T22I4wB9bc
Crawford summed up the emotional hook on Rotten Tomatoes’ Seen on the Screen podcast, describing it as “a story about these two lifelong friends who grew up in the Philippines” and are drifting apart. That grounded premise gives the fantasy its stakes.
The voice cast is stacked. H.E.R., Liza Soberano, Dave Franco, Jenny Slate, Manny Jacinto, Dolly de Leon, Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng and Lea Salonga all lend their voices to the adventure.
A spotless critical debut is one thing, but ticket sales are another. Boxoffice Pro’s long-range forecast put the film’s domestic opening weekend at $20M to $30M, placing it near ‘The Bad Guys’ ($23.9M) and ‘Abominable’ ($20.6M). The same report noted that DreamWorks’ bigger recent openers, ‘The Wild Robot’ and ‘Dog Man’, were based on popular children’s books, whereas ‘Forgotten Island’ will have to start from scratch in building name recognition.
More recent tracking is more cautious. A post from MovieHub put the opening at $15M domestic, and another outlet has pointed to a range of $15M to $20M. The film also opens against ‘Avengers: Endgame Encore’, which makes strong word of mouth all the more important.
That is where a perfect Tomatometer could matter most. Families deciding between an unfamiliar original and a re-released blockbuster may lean on those early scores, and reviewers have already urged audiences to see it on the big screen.
Are you excited to see DreamWorks’ Forgotten Island?
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