Memory Island, an unforgettable adventure into Filipino folklore from Dreamworks

Philippines, Nineties, Jo and Raissa have been inseparable friends since childhood, having shared immense joys but also great sorrows. As they grew up, their paths progressively began to diverge: Jo remained tied to her environment and maintained an open mind to wonder, while Raissa, brighter and more realistic, is about to leave her native country to study in California. The imminent departure inevitably calls into question that bond that seemed untouchable, even if the two are determined to stay in touch. The last evening before goodbye, however, changes everything unexpectedly...

Precisely in those fateful hours, Jo stumbles upon a mysterious object, opening a dimensional portal that catapults them to the legendary island of Nakali, a magical place about which Jo's grandmother told them fantastic stories in childhood. That unknown land turns out to be populated by creatures belonging to local folklore, some bizarre and friendly and others decidedly more menacing. The problem is that Jo and Raissa discover that to return home they will have to abandon their shared memories forever, risking to lose what has united them for a lifetime.

A Friendship to Save

We are faced with a suggestive journey into the Filipino imagination that starts from an apparently simple story of adolescent friendship to arrive at a surreal dimension, where the purely playful dimension is accompanied by a more melancholic vein about growth and the abandonment of childhood and adolescence to definitively enter adulthood, with all the pros but also the responsibilities that this entails.

The new animated foray by DreamWorks Animation sees the duo formed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado return behind the camera, who had already co-directed the successful sequel Puss in Boots 2 - The Last Wish (2022). On this occasion too, the directors return to a stylistically exuberant and colorful staging, although this time the protagonists are two human girls, who magically find themselves in a world full of fantasies and oddities beyond measure. 

A World to Discover

An hour and forty minutes of viewing that showcase a project imbued with a marked cultural identity, between Filipino folklore and the typical coming-of-age story that children's animation often tells us. A wild, hyperkinetic, and irresistibly over-the-top adventure, capable of filling even the most narratively predictable passages with a continuous succession of new characters or settings: in almost every sequence of Memory Island there is indeed something to watch, listen to, or discover, with a quantity of aesthetic ideas superior to what the basic plot seems capable of containing.

Not that it's a serious flaw, as the simplicity of the premise allows for a deep exploration of the emotionality of the relationship between the two protagonists, complete with a final sortie that may recall a relative climax moment from the video game Life is Strange (the first one with Max and Chloe, to be clear), where the importance of childhood memories will prove decisive for the girls' fate.

The Eye Wants Its Share

The film does not limit itself to reusing some exotic creature as an ornament for a Western-style fantasy story, but reworks the entire indigenous culture, making it a vibrant part of the construction of this unique world. A world that allows a wider audience to discover little-known references and figures, between curiosities and entertainment for all ages. Indeed, the age of the protagonists - college-aged - makes Memory Island more appealing precisely to an audience with a few more years under their belt, who will be able to identify with the nostalgic suggestions that soon take ample space in the heart of the story. 

The contamination between 3D, 2D inserts, and passages realized in full anime style, with an impressive quantity of graphic solutions and colorful chromatics, is a true spectacle for the eyes and, as mentioned, makes even the most predictable moments of a screenplay forgettable, which, despite more or less intrusive and obvious stereotypes, manages to captivate until the credits roll.