Cert – PG, Run-time – 1 hour 49 minutes, Directors – Joel Crawford, Januel P Mercado
Best friends Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano) are transported to a magical island they’ve searched for since childhood, however returning home may cost their memories and friendship.
Forgotten Island is running on a treadmill turned up to eleven. Constantly moving and in an excitable rush like its two lead characters, best friends Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano), the world is bright, colourful and full of creatures that could well be from their imaginations. For years people have said that the magical island of Nakali is solely in their imaginations, despite Jo’s grandmother (Dolly De Leon) claiming that she once went there, but they’re determined to find a way to get there and prove it exists.
As they’re at risk of being separated, with Raissa being accepted to Caltech and flying off the next day, they find that their childhood dream puts them at risk of losing their friendship, and memories of each other altogether. Here, when delving in to this idea in the third act, Forgotten Island finds its core. It’s hinted at throughout with ideas of memory demons and trading mementos and charm bracelets to be able to get home but when it comes to the emotional aspects these points are truly brought forward with a real effect when needed most. They’re what convinced me of the film and proved it was working.
There’s a good deal to like in the humour and many sequences exploring different characters or parts of the island – Dave Franco plays were-dog Raww who acts as a guide for the pair while Ronny Chieng plays the leader of cute miniature mushroom-shaped beings, King Truffle Wuffle – and when going full force on the frantic rush of escapes or wonder it’s hard not to be caught up in the near-chaos. Especially when led by two highly likable characters who you’re made to feel part of the friendship rather than an observer.
They’re fun and jokes are gleeful, chaotic and unashamed. A shared heart is key to it, and embracing the quirks, madness and joyful needle drops (including karaoke numbers) – as they do with Nakali and what it has to offer, and at times threaten to take away from them. There are plenty of memories attached to that shared heart, and when looking at this and the emotional attachment they created in a moment and continue to have Forgotten Island is at its best. Most in-tune with those ideas of memories and having an emotional effect that makes the most of out connection to the friendship as well as Jo and Raissa’s own friendship.
While there’s enjoyment in the bright, fast-paced chaos the emotional beats truly come in when the relationship and memories of Forgotten Island’s joyful central pair are brought most to the fore in the emotions of the third act.
