‘Forgotten Island’ Brings Filipino Folklore to DreamWorks; One Monster Is Not the Whole Tradition

What the film confirms

DreamWorks’ ‘Forgotten Island’ is scheduled to open in theaters Friday, September 25. Reuters reports that the story follows friends Jo and Raissa, voiced by H.E.R. and Liza Soberano, after they become trapped in the invented world of Nakali, where escaping may cost them a lifetime of memories.

Lea Salonga voices Manang, a Manananggal. The creature is commonly described as a frightening figure that separates its upper body and takes flight. H.E.R. told Reuters that stories about the Manananggal were among the Filipino folktales her mother used to tell her as a child.

Co-director Januel Mercado named Jo for his sister, while co-director Joel Crawford has described inspiration from the Filipina women in his family. Those production facts support calling the film Filipino-inspired. They do not mean every creature, place or rule in Nakali is a direct transcription from a single source tradition.

Adaptation is interpretation

The Philippines includes many languages, islands and regional storytelling traditions. A studio fantasy has to combine, simplify and invent. The useful viewing question is therefore not whether the movie is a perfect encyclopedia, but which elements it adapts, who shaped those choices and how the film signals invention.

The Manananggal can vary across tellings. Treating one screen design as the definitive version would flatten the same cultural range the film is trying to make visible. Families familiar with the stories may recognize emotional or visual references while disagreeing about details—and those differences are part of folklore’s life.

The movie is also the first major Hollywood feature-length animated film centered on Filipino culture and mythology, according to Reuters. That milestone concerns scale and studio distribution; it does not erase earlier Filipino animation, independent films or community storytelling.

A family viewing checklist

The cast and premise are confirmed. Reviews, box-office forecasts and claims that the film represents every Filipino tradition should remain separate judgments.

• Check the final rating and theater advisory before bringing young children; folklore creatures can be scarier than the colorful animation suggests.
• Ask children which parts seem to come from family stories and which belong to the fictional island of Nakali.
• Use museum and library collections after the film to compare regional accounts instead of treating a character biography as settled history.
• Credit the voice cast and Filipino creative contributors when discussing representation; a studio label alone does not explain who made the choices.

Why the release matters

A widely distributed family film can give Filipino American children a rare point of recognition while introducing other viewers to names and creatures they may never have encountered. It can also send audiences toward deeper sources if coverage is precise about the boundary between folklore and adaptation.

That makes the best companion to ‘Forgotten Island’ neither reflexive celebration nor a purity test. It is curiosity: identify the borrowed elements, listen to people from the traditions represented and allow a fantasy film to be both culturally meaningful and creatively invented.