I am a proud Filipino American nerd. As such, I grew up here in the US searching for, but never quite finding, mainstream Hollywood movies that propelled the voice of the Filipino community strongly.
While there have been some exceptions (the less said about Easter Sunday the better), they are still few and far between. Which is why I’m so incredibly grateful Dreamworks Animation has decided to believe in Forgotten Island; an original concept rooted in Filipino folklore from directors Joel Craford and Januel Mercado (the team behind Puss in Boots: The Last Wish).
Getting a bit personal for a moment, if I may, I’ve enjoyed every aspect of the coverage I’ve provided for The Nerds of Color since 2018. Being able to write about and share nerdy content and hot takes with everyone who loves and feels passionate about the same geeky crap I love makes it so incredibly rewarding.
However, when word first came up about Forgotten Island, coverage for this film, for me, extended deeper beyond just the passions of a comic book nerd obsessed with movies and X-Men. Covering this movie means being able to get the opportunity to finally celebrate the cultural pride I have as a Filipino American with a work of real cinematic art and animation. In other words, this time, it’s even more personal! This is why when Universal and Dreamworks Animation invited us to attend the trailer debut of Forgotten Island, it meant everything to me.
Forgotten Island is an original story, cooked up by Mercado and Crawford. It centers on two lifelong friends in The Philippines who, after being faced with the idea that adulthood is going to separate them, are thrust into a grand adventure to a mysterious island populated by legendary folklore characters from Filipino culture. Unfortunately, however, in order to get home, they must put their friendship and their memories of one another at risk, to escape the forgotten island.
Dreamworks just released the trailer for the film, which you can view here:
The trailer event, which took place at the Dreamworks campus in Glendale, CA, became the first time audiences outside of the filmmakers were able to get a first glimpse of the film. In addition to seeing the trailer, we, along with other members of the press, were treated to a sizzle reel, a clip of the film, and a rousing and wonderful Q&A with Mercado, Crawford, and the stars of the film H.E.R (who plays Jo in the movie) and Liza Soberano (who plays Raisa). Together, the group dove into what made this Filipino-inspired adventure so incredibly special from any other film the studio has released.
“It’s, dear to our hearts because it’s a story set in the Philippines,” stated Mercado. “But like, Joel was saying, we feel like this theme of friendship is a very specific thing that we’ve all experienced. A universal thing that we all relate to. So we’re excited to tell you this story that we all can connect to.”
Mercado and Crawford essentially created the film as a tribute to their own long-standing friendship. Meeting during their work on Kung Fu Panda 2, the duo became close friends, serving in the trenches of several high profile Dreamworks projects together, such as Trolls, The Croods: A New Age, and as previously mentioned, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.
“We’ve been friends for, almost two decades here at Dreamworks. We started together on, Kung Fu Panda 2,” started Crawford. “And, I’m going to embarrass Januel for a second here. We were storyboard artists, and we were put together, in the same office. And it was one of those things where Januel has this superpower, which is he, has its ability to make everybody feel safe and feel seen. And, I found so quickly a kind of, a kindred spirit in my stupid humor, in my movie references and just, more than anything, a great friend who made me feel like I could be myself around him. And that, honestly, is a gem that he has gifted me for almost two decades. And when given the opportunity to tell a story of original story, I was like, ‘friendship, man. It’s got to be about that.'”
Mercado continued, “We all know how how hard and challenging it is to create something and to make a movie. And it’s it’s one of the hardest things. And to start from a point where you’re making it with your best friend and you’re having a good time – suddenly all that high pressure and stress – you forget about it because you’re in the moment and you’re spending it with people you love and you trust. So it felt like a no brainer to make a story together and be inspired by our friendship and the connections in our life.”
In order to perfectly encapsulate the spirit of that friendship, Crawford and Mercado searched high and low for the perfect Filipino actresses to play their lead characters, Jo and Raisa.
“As, writers and directors on this movie, it came from such a personal place,” added Crawford. “And we’ve always seen these characters so specifically drawing from so many inspirations that we know. But, the amazing part about about filmmaking is it’s collaborative. And although we wrote these characters and we had a specific look in mind, we really were excited to introduce you to the the two leads of our film.”
At that point, the duo brought out the other duo that will be lending their voices to the dynamic friends in Forgotten Island: music superstar H.E.R, and Filipino icon and scene stealer, Soberano.
When asked about what it was like to get the script for Forgotten Island, H.E.R stated, “I was so excited. You have no idea. We were in the Philippines in 2019 and my mom was literally trying to scare us by talking about the mananangal [a vampiric creature from Filipino folklore] and all these other stories. I literally grew up on them. So I just thought it was so cool. I get to share a piece of my childhood in this work and with the world. That’s super rewarding to me.”
Soberano, who broke out to US audiences as the scene stealing Taffy from Lisa Frankenstein, added, “It’s been a longtime dream of mine to be able to be in a project that really represented the Philippines in a very accurate way, but at the same time is universal enough for people outside of Filipinos in the Philippines to be able to relate to. And so, aside from that, just to have Filipino culture displayed or showcased by a major studio, I think is very exciting because we don’t really get that often. So, it meant a lot to me. I was very excited and very honored to be part of this project.”
“Filipinos are very proud to be Filipino,” stated H.E.R. “And I think that, like you said, we haven’t gotten many big platforms to show our culture… I’m from the Bay Area, so I grew up around a lot of Filipinos. But as soon as I left, I moved to New York and went around the world, and [I discovered] there aren’t that many people that know about what we’re about. And also don’t realize how similar we are to other cultures in our values, like family and friendship. And so… to see it in a film… it just hits different. And it’s definitely very emotional and it’s very special.”
To truly capture the look and spirit of The Philippines, Mercado and Crawford took a trip with their crew to experience the sights, sounds, and culture first hand. “Having the crew come with us to experience the culture that Joel and I grew up — with me being Filipino American. Joel, your wife Kathy being Filipina, and your kids being Filipina — We wanted to take our crew, producer Mark Swift, production designer Ryan Carlson, our technical director, Chris Grun because we wanted them to experience first-hand the beautiful world and culture of the Philippines,” stated Mercado. “The idea of going back to the Philippines… We had a big family reunion and it was very emotional for my family over there, because we obviously didn’t even see each other when my dad passed away. So we got to not only, celebrate this movie that we’re making, but celebrate my dad. And then to have Joel and his wife and his family and the crew be there with our family and celebrate it together and be welcomed by my family again; that continued to just inspire the beating heart of this movie, which is [about] making memories with the ones you love and solidifying those connections.”
Crawford also added, “Januel’s family out there in the Philippines… they threw a big block party for us. There’s lots of karaoke, lots of food. And, it was so nice. They invited my wife’s family from another town over to come to this party. And, for me, all the inspiration from the research trip of seeing the beautiful locations in the Philippines was wonderful. But it was the spirit of what that trip was that stuck with us. The seeing my wife be able to be reunited with family that she hadn’t seen, you know, over 30 years. It was so impactful. And I think that’s a big thing that has stuck with us about memories and those moments we make.”
H.E.R and Soberano were both asked about their experiences recording for the voices of Jo and Raisa.
“It was the best part of my day, to be honest,” stated H.E.R. “I can’t believe I’m here. I’m so grateful to be here. I can’t believe I got to work with you guys, but this was fun. And they pushed me to jump up and down and scream, and do all of these crazy things. And I just felt like a big kid. These are the best guys to work with. And of course, [Liza] you’re amazing and I feel like we are so much like our characters. It was so natural. It didn’t feel like we were really acting, to be honest.”
“Honestly, same,” added Soberano. “Because every day, it just felt like it was too short. The amount of time that we were recording… I feel like during these sessions, four hours never feels enough because it does genuinely feel like we’re just playing. Joel and Januel are so much fun to work with and riff off of because they’re just like big kids at heart… Recording with, Gabi (H.E.R) was really fun, too, because apparently that’s a rare occurrence. You don’t always get to record in the same booth together. So that was a really cool experience. And it actually did draw something special out of those scenes, because we actually got to react to each other in real time. And so that was very fun. It was just overall very fun. And I wish we had more recording sessions. I lost my voice once, because I went all out.”
Being set in The Philippines, Jo and Raisa do, of course, speak Tagalog throughout the film. We saw in one clip, for instance, the mutual mantra of “Tayo na!” or “Let’s go!” being declared by both characters.
“I loved [speaking in Tagalog],” stated H.E.R. “Being able to speak Tagalog in the movie. That was so cool. I actually put ‘Tayo na’ on my nails today in honor of the film.”
Soberano added, “I felt so proud being able to speak in my mother language. It’s fun because… I moved to LA two years ago from the Philippines. And so I’ve been speaking a lot of English. And this was a great refresher course. Basically to be able to speak in Tagalog through this film.”
Hearing directly from Mercado, Crawford, H.E.R, and Soberano about how special Forgotten Island is in terms of honoring Filipino culture was not only a truly memorable experience, but an emotionally cathartic one as well. Given everything we saw from the footage and trailer they showed, to hearing the team’s personal accounts of how their own connections to Filipino culture and The Philippines as a whole influenced the story and characters of the film, every beat of Forgotten Island seems immersed in the roots of Filipino authenticity. And for a movie-lover who has waited his whole life to see the industry support a project like this, I simply could not be more grateful or elated.
Forgotten Island will be hitting theaters September 25t 2026. Stay tuned to The Nerds of Color for much more on the movie, including direct interviews with H.E.R, Soberano, Crawford, and Mercado coming soon!
