“Remember your training! Run!”
That’s Raissa (voiced by Liza Soberano) reminding her best friend Jo (voiced by singer-songwriter H.E.R. aka Gabriella Wilson) of their “training” when the duwende mushroom dwarf warriors led by King Truffle Wuffle were about to attack them in the movie “Forgotten Island.”
The heart-spewing—hearts emanate from him every time he walks or when he’s angry—cutesy, cuddly but fierce King Truffle Wuffle hated being called cute.
Bungi the Tiyanak (voiced by Manny Jacinto) even warned them: “Whatever you do, do not use the C-word. He’s not a toy, he’s a highly trained, deeply insecure weapon of mass destruction. If you call him cute, he will literally try to murder us.”
Jo asked what C-word he was referring to, and he said, “Cute! Don’t say it, don’t think it, don’t even look like you’re thinking it.”
Jo, of course, found King Truffle Wuffle so cute she couldn’t help but gush, “Get over here, you little cutie!” while hugging him. For King Truffle Wuffle, however, that meant war, forcing Jo and Raissa to run for their lives.
When we were kids, I remember listening to stories about the manananggal, kapre, tiyanak, tikbalang, and duwende.
My maternal grandfather, Lolo Pua, even had a duwende friend who inserted Lolo’s T-shirt into a beam that was nailed securely on both sides to parallel walls in our ancestral home. How did the duwende make that possible?
When we transferred to Cagayan de Oro, my younger brothers dreamed of the same scenario—dwarfs having fun at their own little carnival right inside my bros’ bedroom. It was only in the morning, when my bros woke up and told each other what they saw, that they realized they had the same dream! And my initial reaction was, “Oh my, the dwarfs followed us here.”
The movie “Forgotten Island” brought to animated life the mythological characters of Filipino folklore. Aside from those I already mentioned, DreamWorks added the were-dog, batibat, kataw, sarimanok, and bakunawa.
Any Pinoy may or may not be able to relate to the movie. Since it’s a Hollywood film inspired by Filipino culture and folklore, it took some creative liberties. For example, while Lola Fatima and other characters had a distinct Pinoy accent, Jo and Raissa spoke with standard American accents.
But there’s one thing the Pinoy can definitely relate to: the way he points at a location by pouting his lips. Jo arrived at Raissa’s despedida party as the latter was about to leave Pinas for college at Caltech in the U.S. Jo asked a party guest where Raissa was, and the guest used his lips to guide her.
The Manananggal (voiced by Lea Salonga), fondly called Manang, is the movie’s fiercest character, just as she was the fiercest in the stories we listened to when we were young. Those traditional tales were about a manananggal scratching the roofs of houses where a pregnant woman lived, with the goal of gaining entry to feed on her unborn baby. My maternal grandmother, Lola Insang, even had a younger brother who heard a scratching on his roof when his wife was pregnant.
The film toned down the Manananggal for a family audience, but she remained powerful and scary.
Mama’s eldest sister, Tita Auring, also had her own close encounter, seeing a kapre as she was about to “tigway” a goat.
These were the stories that entertained us once upon a time, when a full moon meant we could clearly play patintero right on our hometown’s highway. Back then, the scariest thing that could happen was falling into the canal in front of our ancestral home.
