Forgotten Island turns a childhood friendship into a meditation on memory: why God commands us to remember, what He chooses to remember no more, and why “it’s just my nature” never gets anyone off the hook.

Are You Just Watching?Episode 178: Forgotten Island

For the full show notes please visit areyoujustwatching.com/178

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What happens when the memories that hold a friendship together start to slip away? That question sits at the heart of Forgotten Island, an animated adventure steeped in Filipino mythology. In it, two childhood best friends, Jo and Raissa, are swept away to an island where a memory demon named Batiba steals the memories of everyone who visits. It looked like a fun family film, but Eve and Tim found it surprisingly deep, and better suited to adults than to little kids. Tim explores what makes a friend a friend, from the lopsided weight Jo hangs on the friendship to the burdens Galatians 6 calls us to carry for one another. Eve, still processing her father’s recent Alzheimer’s diagnosis, traces the importance of remembering through the memorials God commanded Israel and the Lord’s Supper. She also lands on the remarkable truth that God chooses to remember our sins no more. They close with the film’s “it’s just their nature” villains, and why our sinful nature condemns us rather than excuses us.

Take aways:

  • Deeper than it looks. Eve thinks the film was made more for the generation that grew up in its era than for children, and she warns that the Manananggal is scary enough to give young kids nightmares. The animation shifts into an anime/manga style to show what characters feel inside. Tim notes that much of it was animated in Philippine studios known for anime work, as an homage to that industry.
  • Friends carry burdens together. Jo hangs her whole lifeline on Raissa after learning her father will never send for them. That leads Tim to Genesis 2:18 and Galatians 6:2–5, where Paul’s word for “burdens” (baros) means a crushing load, while “his own load” is our everyday portion. We carry our own share, but lean on each other when it becomes unbearable. Tim’s new church family proved it by helping him haul a dresser home.
  • Different hearts, same commitment. Jo lives in the past and present, while Raissa plans for the future, and neither fully understands how the other sees the friendship (Proverbs 14:10). For all Raissa’s planning, the island upends everything (Proverbs 16:9). In the end, their loyalty looks like Ruth’s pledge to Naomi (Ruth 1:16–17).
  • Love wrapped in a lie. Raissa’s “kind” lie about Caltech triggers the friendship’s collapse. Tim warns against stretching Proverbs 17:9 to cover white lies and calls back to the Rental Family episode: speak the truth in love, with grace rather than brutal honesty.
  • A little bit codependent. Eve shares how a college friend had to push her out of the kind of dependence Jo had on Raissa. No single friend can meet all our needs, and a healthy friendship has to be give-and-take.
  • Memory as identity. The film says memories make us who we are, which hits hard for anyone watching a loved one with dementia (Tim brings up Regarding Henry). Eve’s point is that, for Christians, the identity that ultimately matters is in Christ.
  • God commands us to remember. Like Jo and Raissa’s charm bracelet, Scripture is full of memorials: the stones from the Jordan (Joshua 4:4–7), the stones on Aaron’s ephod (Exodus 28:12), the feasts and memorial offerings of Leviticus, and the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:19–20). God knows we’re forgetful (James 1:23–24), so He tells us to pass His works on to our children (Deuteronomy 4:9) and warns of what follows when we forget Him (Deuteronomy 8:19).
  • What God chooses to forget. God promises to remember our sins no more (Isaiah 43:25–26; Hebrews 8:12), and we’re to stop dwelling on who we were (Philippians 3:12–14; Luke 9:61–62). Tim adds that God doesn’t simply forget our sins: He removes them and laid them on His Son (Psalm 103:12; 2 Corinthians 5:21).
  • “It’s just their nature” isn’t an excuse. It’s our nature to sin, but that nature condemns us; it doesn’t clear us (Ephesians 2:3; Romans 3:23; James 1:14–15). In Christ, the old self is put to death and we’re made new (Romans 6:6–7, 12; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Corinthians 6:9–11). Tim notes that the Manananggal’s stolen core memory didn’t excuse her murders, yet the film never holds her accountable. Eve calls it an easy movie to get to the gospel from.
  • Where the hosts split. Eve struggled with the pop-cover soundtrack and had to dig to find score cues by Nathan Matthew David that she enjoyed. Tim liked the stylized covers and barely noticed the score, which for him means it’s doing its job.


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