Soberano and H.E.R. lead DreamWorks' friendship voyage to Forgotten Island
Best friends Raissa and Jo are about to be split by college abroad when DreamWorks Animation's Forgotten Island pulls them somewhere else entirely.
The film centres on two teenage best friends facing separation when one has to leave to study overseas, Soberano and H.E.R. told Variety in an interview published on 25 September 2026. Liza Soberano voices Raissa and H.E.R. voices Jo. The pair end up stranded in Nakali, the film's mystical forgotten island.
It was written and directed by Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado and produced by Mark Swift, according to the same interview. The story draws on Filipino folklore and follows the friends just after high school. It is set in the 1990s, Variety reported in June. DreamWorks had the film set for release in September 2026, according to NBC Insider.
Both leads said the goodbye at the heart of the film felt personal. Soberano said she related to it from growing up in the Philippines and from leaving a career there to move to America three years before the interview. H.E.R. said she grew up near Vallejo, California, and left at age 17 for New York when her sister was 8.
That link carries through the detail on screen. H.E.R. said seeing the Filipino sun, the word “pasalubong” — a gift brought home for family — and small touches like petroleum jelly made her emotional and proud to be Filipino. Soberano pointed to the film’s despedida, a farewell party, as an accurate portrait of a Filipino house party, with lolas and lolos, grandmothers and grandfathers, kids running about, and titos and titas, uncles and aunts, playing mahjong or singing karaoke.
Music is part of the job too. Soberano and H.E.R. both lend their voices to the soundtrack. H.E.R., the group Bini and Lea Salonga lead the soundtrack line-up, Variety reported in June. Dave Franco is also in the voice cast alongside Soberano and H.E.R., according to Variety.
For fans, this means a familiar set-up with a specific cultural root. Two graduates. One move. One island that will not let them leave quite yet.
