Animated film 'Forgotten Island' features Filipino cast, hailed as groundbreaking

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’. It was so funny, so specific and niche, but just perfect,” Wilson says, explaining that most Filipino households have a massive tub that they use for everything from cuts to burns.

“One of my favourites is Jesus Christ just watching you with the disapproving face,” Soberano added, referencing a scene in which Jo accidentally starts a fire at a farewell party, charring everything but a painting of the judgemental-looking prophet.