‘Long overdue’: could this film be the next KPop Demon Hunters?

Liza Soberano grew up thinking there were small goblin-like creatures in the drain of her kitchen sink. They were the “duwende”, the actor’s parents would tell her, mischievous creatures from Filipino mythology that must be treated with respect lest they afflict with you an incurable rash or fever.

“Whenever I’d pour hot water down the sink, I would always say ‘tabi-tabi po’, which means ‘excuse me’. I still do that to this day,” says the Filipino-American star, who starred in 2024’s Lisa Frankenstein .

If you come from the Philippines, chances are you were told similar stories while growing up. From the “duwende” and shapeshifting “aswang” to the terrifying vampiric “manananggal”, folklore and mythology have long taken centre-stage in many Filipino households.

They have also taken centre-stage in DreamWorks’ latest animated film, Forgotten Island .

Pegged as the first major animated Hollywood production to centre on Filipino culture, the film follows best friends Jo and Raissa (voiced by Soberano) as they become trapped on Nakali, a mystical island that feeds on their memories and tests their friendship. While trying to find their way back home, the pair encounter a string of creatures, from nature spirits known as “diwata” to the tree-dwelling giant “kapres”. But with fading memories and the “manananggal” – a bloodthirsty creature with a detachable torso – hunting them, their chances of making it back to the real world appear more fantastical than the island itself.

For Soberano, taking part in a film like this was a no-brainer. Not only was it driven by the very culture she grew up in, it also retold stories she had heard time and again in classrooms, friends’ houses and while tucked under her blanket at bedtime. The same could be said of her co-star Gabriella Wilson, a five-time Grammy Award-winning musician known globally as H.E.R., who voices Jo.

“My mom specifically would scare me with the manananggal,” Wilson says. “We went to the Philippines a few times, and when we’d see bats in the sky, she’d say, ‘it’s the manananggal’, and I’d be like, ‘oh my god!’.”

The film goes far beyond the folklore, though. From beginning to end, Forgotten Island is filled with specific Filipino cultural references. There are the jeepneys – World War II military vehicles repurposed for personal use in the Philippines – and a lechón baboy, a whole roast pig. The characters frequently speak Tagalog, one of the main languages used in the Philippines, and purse their lips to point someone in a certain direction – a gesture Wilson says is common throughout the country.

But of all the references, it’s petroleum jelly and Jesus that stand out to Wilson and Soberano the most.

“When I saw the petroleum jelly, I thought, ‘oh my gosh, that is literally our childhood’.