Forgotten Island Out-of-Theater Reaction: DreamWorks' New Animated Film Gets a "Didn't Love It, But I Dug It" Verdict

Forgotten Island is the new DreamWorks animated film from the team behind Puss in Boots, and having just walked out of a screening with the review embargo still a couple of days from lifting, here are my out of theater thoughts. The film follows Rea and a childhood friend, both misfits who form an incredible friendship. Throughout that friendship they believe in an island that no one else thinks is real, but the friend's grandmother says she's been there. As shown in the trailers, they do eventually make it to the island, but the catch is they lose their memories once they arrive and have to figure out why, with crazy adventures happening along the way.

DreamWorks is getting better and better with its animation and what it's putting out. The studio seems to understand the formula for how to capture emotion and humor, and it keeps changing up its animation styles, which is exactly what this film does.

The Friendship Between Rea and Her Friend Is What Really Works in Forgotten Island

A lot of this movie absolutely works for me, and what works best in general is the relationship between the two girls and the emotion that comes from it. The ending is strong, and the whole question going in is how the film is going to deliver after building up this relationship and everything these two girls go through and how they bond across the entire runtime. By the time you get to the ending, you're wondering whether it's actually going to land emotionally, and it does.

Overall this is a strong character piece about friendship, about holding on to friendship and understanding it, and about realizing that memories, the good and the bad, are what hold everything together. "It works. It works."

The Animation Mixes Styles That Sometimes Clash

The people who made this seem to be Gen X, at least based on the music choices, though I didn't research that. A lot of the music in the film is stuff I grew up with. But the animation style itself feels more Gen Z, or maybe even Millennial, pulling from a mix of influences. There's a style that fits together somewhat like what Spider-Verse does, and then there are other elements that seem plucked right out of anime.

That mix was a little jarring for me at times, though I think other people might find it really impressive. One example is the dog character, voiced by Dave Franco, who has a lot of big exaggerated movements that seem lifted straight from anime. There are a lot of different animation styles put together in this one film, and how that lands is going to be really subjective from person to person.

Not Every Joke Landed, But the Emotion Carried It

Not a lot of the jokes worked for me personally, but that was fine because the emotional core of the story did land. I wound up enjoying the ride I was on with Forgotten Island. "I didn't love it, but I dug it."

Are you planning to check out Forgotten Island when it comes out?