‘Star Wars: The Acolyte’ Star Manny Jacinto Opens Up About the Weight and the Pride of Bringing Filipino Culture to ‘Forgotten Island’
DreamWorks Animation has spent decades building beloved worlds, but rarely has one of its releases carried the kind of cultural weight now surrounding ‘Forgotten Island.’ The animated fantasy adventure, directed by longtime collaborators Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, marks the first major Hollywood feature-length animated film built around Filipino culture and mythology.
That distinction matters more than a simple marketing footnote. According to a USC Annenberg study, Filipino actors made up just 6.1 percent of AAPI actors across 200 top-grossing films released in 2018 and 2019, a statistic that makes a studio feature centered on Philippine folklore and led by a largely Filipino and Filipino American voice cast feel like a genuine milestone.
Universal Pictures held the film’s world premiere this week, and star Manny Jacinto used the moment to reflect on what the project means beyond the screen. Speaking with DiscussingFilm on the carpet, Jacinto said he was grateful for the support Filipinos have shown the film, noting that a lot of Filipinos are coming out to support it, and that it’s huge.
Manny Jacinto tells us he’s grateful for all the support the Filipino community has given to ‘FORGOTTEN ISLAND’.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 24, 2026
“The fact that a lot of Filipinos are coming out to support… it’s huge. We don’t get a lot of chances like this, and there’s like this pressure to do well.” pic.twitter.com/rN8BUX00N8
Jacinto didn’t stop at gratitude. He went further, explaining that opportunities like this one don’t come around often for the Filipino community in Hollywood, which is exactly why there’s real pressure riding on the film’s success. That tension between pride and pressure has become a recurring theme in how the cast has talked about the project throughout its rollout.
Jacinto, who was born in Manila and is of Filipino-Chinese descent, voices Bungi, a 200-year-old demon baby based on the Tiyanak from Philippine folklore. He has previously described the casting process as something he’d been “waiting for his whole life” to do, joking about the surreal experience of being asked to play a giant three-eyed baby demon for a major studio release.
‘Forgotten Island’ is set in the 1990s in the Philippines and follows childhood best friends Jo and Raissa, voiced by H.E.R. and Liza Soberano, who stumble through a mysterious portal into the mystical realm of Nakali on their final night together before Raissa leaves for college abroad. The name Nakali is short for the Tagalog word “nakalimutan,” meaning forgotten, and the land itself gradually feeds on the memories of anyone trapped inside it, forcing Jo and Raissa to race against time before they forget each other entirely.
The voice cast also includes Dave Franco, Jenny Slate, Dolly de Leon, Jo Koy, Ronny Chieng, and Lea Salonga, who voices the feared Manananggal chasing the girls across the island. The film draws directly from stories both directors grew up with, with Crawford’s wife being Filipina and Mercado himself Filipino American, giving the project a personal foundation that extends well beyond research.
The response so far has matched the emotional stakes Jacinto described. ‘Forgotten Island’ debuted with a 100 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes across nearly two dozen reviews, making it the highest-rated DreamWorks animated film in the studio’s history. Critics have described the film as dazzling, praising both its storytelling and its immersive depiction of Filipino culture.
Wapoosh! 🤜🤛 From the directors of Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Experience @DreamWorks Forgotten Island only in theaters September 25! pic.twitter.com/FTdXOE35N3
— DreamWorks Animation (@Dreamworks) June 23, 2026
Despite that critical reception, ‘Forgotten Island’ isn’t expected to dominate the box office right out of the gate, with tracking estimates putting its opening weekend in the $15 million to $17 million range domestically as it competes against bigger releases like ‘Avengers: Endgame Encore.’ Still, given the reception ‘The Wild Robot’ eventually built through word of mouth, there’s real hope within the community that ‘Forgotten Island’ could follow a similar trajectory toward lasting cultural impact.
What are you most excited about in Forgotten Island?
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