How DreamWorks Snuck a ‘Predator’ Cameo Into Their Next Animated Movie [Exclusive]

DreamWorks Animation’s Academy Award-nominated directing duo Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado returned to the Annecy International Animation Film Festival this year after leaving the fest in awe with 2022’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. This year, they debuted exclusive new footage of their ‘90s nostalgia throwback, Forgotten Island, and Collider’s Steve Weintraub had the pleasure of chatting with them afterward to get all the movie magic details about this epic animation feat.

Following in the footsteps of the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Crawford and Mercado steered the Puss in Boots franchise straight to the Academy Awards, earning a nomination for the Best Animated Feature Film for a movie that pushed beyond a familiar limitation within the medium. “Having these classic CG animated movies for so long,” Crawford explains, “you had a limited set of tools.” With Forgotten Island, this duo set out to surpass their own creativity, using a blend of animation styles to visually tell the story of BFFs Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano), who are about to set out on different paths. On their last night together, the girls discover a portal that whisks them off to a whimsical island called Nakali, but to escape, they’ll have to give up every memory from their friendship. With the help of a hapless weredog, Raww (Dave Franco), and a few new pals, Jo and Raissa embark on a race to find a way off that island without sacrificing their memories.

Check out the full conversation below, where Crawford and Mercado discuss the different styles of animation and how each one serves the story, delivering audiences ‘90s nostalgia, and drawing inspiration from films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and even The Hangover. They explain the Filipino folklore that Forgotten Island is based on, with details about the two antagonists who rival even The Last Wish’s sinister Wolf (Wagner Moura), plus the music that captures the heart of Jo and Raissa’s bond, including a brand-new track from H.E.R. In addition, towards the end of the conversation, they reveal why they included a clip from Predator in the movie.

‘Forgotten Island’ Wouldn’t Exist Without ‘Puss in Boots: The Last Wish’

The Shrek spin-off was critically acclaimed upon release.

COLLIDER: Annecy is fantastic. What is it like for you guys being here? Also, I think you did a signing today. What was that like? I would imagine there are a lot of students here who really want to do what you guys are doing.

JANUEL MERCADO: This is our community, right? Animation and people who are just so passionate and love the art form, and this diverse collection of storytelling and points of view.

JOEL CRAWFORD: We fell in love with this place and the festival in ‘22 with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. That was the first time we came here, and, man, did that get a great reception. It was amazing to be able to present the sneak-peek stuff this morning to this audience. You just feel the love and passion. From the stage, we couldn’t help but want to give it back.

MERCADO: They totally get what we do, which is we just want to tell stories that mean something, and we just want to keep pushing the medium of animation.

I want to go backwards. How did this movie happen? You’re telling an original story, and with studios, there’s that constant balance of original versus sequel and IP that they know.

CRAWFORD: It’s interesting. Going back to 2020, we had finished The Croods: A New Age, and Januel and I started actually kicking around the idea of Forgotten Island, going, “Let’s tell something based on Filipino mythology.” We then actually stepped away from Forgotten Island for a little bit when we took on Puss in Boots and directed that. I’m super grateful for that experience with the studio because Puss in Boots pushed some boundaries for animation, but for DreamWorks, in terms of not just the style, the look of it being more painterly, but also the introduction of we’re telling a story about life and celebrating it, and so we introduced a character in Wolf that is death incarnate and was pretty scary. One of the coolest things was the honesty to go, “If you’re going to tell a story that celebrates the light, you’ve got to go to the dark a little bit,” and how well received and how that character resonated with audiences.

Because of that trust we gained from that experience with Puss in Boots, it was great that we got to jump into Forgotten Island after that, because now we have this shorthand with them, where we go, “We’re creating a big adventure comedy.” But really, there were no challenges on, like, “We know this is going to be a nuanced ride. It’s not going to just be all levity.”

CRAWFORD: I think they knew that we could deliver the goods. I mean, it took some convincing still, because originals, right? It’s so hard to get started, and even completing a movie is a frickin miracle, right? Let alone a good one.

The Puss in Boots movie was fantastic, so I think there’s probably faith from the studio after you deliver something like that.

CRAWFORD: Forgotten Island exists because Puss in Boots existed. But for us as filmmakers and storytellers, we’re like, “Let’s go further. Let’s dig deeper emotionally. Let’s see where we can take this medium of animation.” And one of the coolest things was creating this story that takes place in the ‘90s, and then it’s centered around memories and nostalgia. We get to actually tap into a lot of things from our formative years, of even ‘90s anime.

The Movies That Inspired ‘Forgotten Island’

“You have more ways to articulate a more nuanced story.”

I really think that the Puss in Boots movie and Spider-Verse really opened the door in terms of pushing animation forward because it was taking more creative risks and doing things we hadn’t seen. Do you think that both Spider-Verse and Puss in Boots are opening the door, especially to executives, the people who are greenlighting, and showing them we can go further?

MERCADO: That is a great question, because you’re right. We’ll flat-out say confidently, especially with Spider-Verse, how inspiring that was and how groundbreaking it was. Again, we’re just such fans of animation and our peers. To see something that blows your mind, I’m like, “Hell yeah! I want more of that.” I want people to step up right and inspire each other, you know?

CRAWFORD: It definitely inspired us, and inspired so many other filmmakers to then elevate and do their own version of breaking the box of what animation is supposed to be. I think one of the coolest things, not just stylistically, is when you also just visually say animation doesn’t have to just look like this. It also opens the gates for stories that could be told and themes that can be addressed because you’re not just back to the expected.

In a weird way, it felt like having these classic CG animated movies for so long, you had a limited set of tools, and these are the tools that you can tell this story with. Then all of a sudden, when you go, “Wait, you can use anything?” You can have paint brushes, you can have an airbrush, and you can have the mix of these things. You have more ways to articulate a more nuanced story. And I think that’s been the gift that Spider-Verse brought, that came along with Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, with Wild Robot, KPop Demon Hunters.

That’s another one. Not only is the story so important, but the animation of that movie and the way the eyes and the reactions, all of that stuff, is bringing in a whole new audience who are seeing animation in a new way.

CRAWFORD: It’s kind of cool because there’s been so much of what’s been done in the West, independent of what anime has been doing for decades in storytelling, like you mentioned, pushing the chibi pushed expressions and how you’d have dramatic stories in anime, and all of a sudden they turn into cute little characters, and you can do these tonal shifts.

MERCADO: Blood shoots out of her nose and waterfall tears.

CRAWFORD: [Laughs] What’s so cool with the international audience now consuming all kinds of animation is that this is a vocabulary that’s not foreign to anybody. For us, when we started Forgotten Island, we’ve been consuming so much anime for so long that we were like, “We think the Western audience is ready to actually get these references and these influences,” and that really opened the doors for us in our storytelling, of our timing, of our sensibilities. Because when you can actually break the model of a character and change them from very grounded and realistic looking, and they look cartoony and simple, and they’re missing their nose, within 13 seconds, you’re able to hit emotions and expressions that if you were grounded would take so much longer and would not have the emotional impact.

MERCADO: It wouldn’t be as interesting, too.

CRAWFORD: Yeah. It’s exciting.

‘Dragon Ball Z’ and ‘The Hangover’ Were Major Influences on ‘Forgotten Island’

Anime overall plays a key role in the film.

Image via Toei Animation

I want to get specific for fans who are not here, who have not seen what I saw, which looks awesome. Tell people about the different styles of animation and the things that they can look forward to in this movie.

MERCADO: If you’re a fan of animation in general, and the breadth of styles and storytelling tones, you’re in for a treat, because Joel and I’s sensibility is that we’re kind of maximalists, and it’s coming from a place of, “I love this. I love that. Let’s put it all in our movie!”

When specifically talking about the styles of animation, we have this amazing display of traditional CG performances, as well — subtle acting that you’ve seen in DreamWorks’ filmography — and we also have these pushed anime moments that now can be rendered in the 3D world. We also have 2D elements and classic 2D, ‘90s anime, inspired by the anime that we grew up watching. And that’s, to your point, too, people who don’t know anime think it’s all the same, but there are so many different styles of anime, and we haven’t even scratched the surface in our movie. It’s just, like, three shows and Street Fighter video games in the ‘90s.

CRAWFORD: We put all these things we love, but we make sure everything has a thematic and metaphorical reason to be in this story. One of the really fun things was going, “This is a story about memories and how we experience them and how we celebrate them and how they become part of our DNA.” We all will remember the same situation in different ways and be able to utilize the medium of animation to stylistically change it depending on who’s telling or retelling a moment, going from, yeah, we have the weredog, Raww, who’s retelling a moment, and his sensibility is he sees himself like Goku in Dragon Ball Z. He’s going Super Saiyan.

MERCADO: And he’s going Super Saiyan over a high five. It’s just his internal wish of, like, he wants to be a part of a group.

CRAWFORD: He wants a connection.

MERCADO: He wants a pack. He wants friends.

CRAWFORD: We love taking the fantastical and making it about the most relatable and nuanced thing, which is Raww wants connection. He wants a high five. When he tells a story, that high five is the biggest deal, but being able to put that into pushed anime.

There are other styles of a very narcissistic, handsome merman, who, if he retells a story, it might look like Sailor Moon. There’s going to be a lot of giant eyes with Vaseline on the lens and a lot of extra highlights in the eyes. Or there’s a giant demon baby, who is so naive and sweet, and we found a style that’s an anime called Crayon Shin-chan, which has rounded lines and a very soft, naive tone. So, being able to just find inspirations that tell your story has been so freeing.

Something that I don’t know if you guys realized, but I realized watching the footage today, is that there’s a little bit of the movie The Hangover. There’s a little bit of a plot similarity. They’re searching, and like, “What the hell did we do last night?” And these kids are searching, like, “What happened last night?” When did you guys come up with that story idea? By the way, I’m not trying to…

MERCADO: No, no, no. You’re on the money.

It’s a great plot device. When did you guys come up with that idea? It’s almost like teaching kids about a hangover — I’m joking around.

MERCADO: The great thing about that is the answer is always magic. [Laughs]

CRAWFORD: I’m excited for you to see the full movie. For us, we take this idea of being forgotten, like at the root of Jo and Raissa’s story is the fear that when you grow apart, the other friend will forget you. What we love is taking that theme, and really letting it ripple throughout the story in different tones. Like you mentioned, The Hangover is essentially a story of forgetting, but through a comedic lens. There are other inspirations we’ve taken, like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I saw a clip of that today where she’s trying to reach for the memory, but it’s disappearing.

CRAWFORD: Mhm. For us, it’s taking every angle of memories and exploring them through all of the tones of our film. So, I think it has the comedic lens, like you mentioned, but has so much more when people see the full movie.

‘Forgotten Island’s Villain Is Ripped Straight From Filipino Mythology

“When diving into this world of Filipino folklore, that was one of the creatures that really stood out to us.”

Image via Universal Pictures

One of the things that I learned today is that there are two villains in the movie, and one of them seems pretty badass.

MERCADO: The vampire demon that splits in half?

Yeah. Talk about this antagonist and powers and how this character ranks against classic villains and antagonists from animated films previously.

MERCADO: That’s an excellent question. So a Manananggal — the demon vampire — is from Filipino folklore. They have a variant of a woman demon vampire that is able to split in half, and that is called a Manananggal. When diving into this world of Filipino folklore, that was one of the creatures that really stood out to us, of “I’ve never seen a character like this!”

I’ve never seen a character like this in a major animated release from a studio.

MERCADO: To your point, that is so unique, this type of vampire, and that feels like a really badass villain to follow up our wolf. Also, on the other side of it, there are noticeable archetypes about this villain, too, of her looking like a villain, just her design, but how she ranks as a villain is that she seems like this most badass, just evil thing, but there is something deeper with this character that relates to the themes of this movie.

I’m sure this is not just a villain to be a villain. Antagonists can be badass, but they need to have a reason. You look at Hans Gruber in Die Hard. That’s one of the best antagonists in any movie, because he’s just doing it for money. He’s such a badass, but he wants the money. It’s just very simple anyway.

MERCADO: You are on the money.

But there are two villains, so who’s the other villain?

MERCADO: The other villain is Batiba. You have, on one spectrum, the vampire demon that looks evil and looks like the bad guy, and the other end of the spectrum is this character, Batiba, that looks like a giant Totoro. [Laughs] Like a cat, fluffy Totoro thing. So you have the vampire, and she’s essentially a witch that plays with magic and is obsessed with the power of memories.

CRAWFORD: Like you mentioned, you’ve never seen this in an animated form before. One of the coolest things is that just by not going to the same well of European folklore and mythology, and by just going into and celebrating a different culture’s mythology, you get these unique stories. Like Januel said, the Manananggal is one of the most popular and iconic ones, and we felt like, not just because it’s terrifying, but to represent Filipino culture, that has to be one of the ones that we showcase in this. Batiba was actually derived from a different mythological thing, which is what was called the Batibat, which is even more terrifying, but we took some liberties.

MERCADO: This creature, it is a big, heavyset creature, which our version is still this big heavyset animal. The original creature is one that, kind of like Freddy Krueger, preys on the victim’s nightmares. It preys on the nightmares, and because we’re developing this story around memories, we thought we could put our twist on this creature and make this one prey on memories.

‘Forgotten Island’ Directors on the Film’s Unique Music Choices

The directing duo also discuss how they got a clip of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s ‘Predator’ in the movie.

Image via Universal Pictures

There is a montage in the first act of the film where you’re seeing the girls growing up and what’s happening in their lives. It’s a really well-done montage. For a sequence like that, how long does something like that actually take to put together? I know that with that sequence, every bit you’re putting in these frames is designed to move the story along and not waste any frames, and it’s so well done, but that takes time.

MERCADO: 100%, yeah.

CRAWFORD: Aww. Thank you. That means a lot that you recognize that. Game recognize game. Even the song choice. Everything about that moment.

MERCADO: INXS.

CRAWFORD: When we started writing the story six years ago, we had written in INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart.” Thematically, it felt so right, and it’s interesting because that was a love song, but all of the lyrics and the vibe of it really represented the story of this friendship. So we carried that with us in the script until we started, years later, storyboarding it. We even had to convince story artists because it isn’t the conventional, what you might expect in the first act. It doesn’t have the pop kind of feel that you would expect in a montage of seeing them grow up together.

MERCADO: Very mundane, right? Two girls growing up and their friendship developing.

CRAWFORD: The goal was really to establish the bond that these two take on as they grew up together and what they do for each other, so that you see that they are kind of like two puzzle pieces that perfectly match each other, and neither one would be who they are in the present without that experience. So, there was a lot of reworking with our story artists, them pitching and redrawing and coming up with these moments. It’s one of those beautiful moments that, when you watch the full movie, that scene is such a setup for where the movie goes that we had to get it right.

MERCADO: To your point, too, Steven, you nailed it, where it was actually quite easy to write this because of the story we’re telling about friendship and the point of view of these two girls and the bond, but it was one of the hardest scenes to execute. We were spinning, like, “What happened? This works on paper, and this works for the movie, for sure. Why is it so frickin hard to board it and to cut it together?” That was the crazy thing. So when you asked that question, it was like that was the experience, right there. It was the hardest one to nail, to crack.

It’s just hard. Every single frame matters when you’re putting together a montage. One of the reasons why the movie works for the audience today, and I was so impressed with it, is that you’re telling a story that people can follow, but you’re breaking the conventional rules while you’re telling it. You’re not reinventing the wheel, but it’s the way you’re telling the story and the music you’re using.

CRAWFORD: Thank you.

What percentage are you done with the movie right now?

CRAWFORD: We’re pretty close. What’s going to be screened tomorrow is probably 90% finished. We actually just came from Skywalker Ranch right before. We were mixing the movie just a few days ago. For us as filmmakers, it’s so hard when we’re showing an unfinished movie, even though to everyone’s eyes, they’re probably like, “Oh, yeah, that looks mostly done.” There are some effects missing. There are some scenes where the lighting is not final. We haven’t color-finished anything.

But more importantly, the artists up at Skywalker Ranch, just to craft the sound, the original score that we have from Nathan Matthew David, the sound effects of some of these creatures and things that just bring everything to life, and sonically tell the story, for us, that’s not even represented yet. So, technically, by the middle or by the end of next month, we’ll be done with the movie. We’ve got so much to do.

It’s also a sign that the studio really believes in the film that they’re showing it at CinemaCon. They’re showing it at Annecy. They’re trying to tell people, “We have something here,” because they would not be screening this if they didn’t think they had something.

CRAWFORD: We’re so grateful for that, too, of that confidence, because we know how hard it is, also, with an original movie, to just get it to stand out, to get the audience to see it. So, on one hand, it’s terrifying for us to show an unfinished thing, but at the same time, I’m so grateful that DreamWorks and Universal were 100% behind, like, “Let’s show it.”

MERCADO: And to both of your points, it speaks to the power of storytelling. If the story is solid, if you could connect to the characters and what it’s about, then it matters at the end, but you could connect to a story at any stage, I think, if it’s a good, solid one.

CRAWFORD: We’ve actually screened our movie incredibly early, also for our cast, too. A lot of times, the cast sees the movie toward the end, when it’s mostly finished. Between H.E.R., Liza Soberano, Dave Franco, and Manny Jacinto, they’ve all seen the movie multiple times. They’ve been so engaged and locked in, invested in finding the best version of the characters. It’s been this great trust on both sides where they saw it when it was mostly storyboards so long ago, and Dave Franco’s texting thoughts and different things, and was just so invested.

Out of H.E.R. seeing the movie, emotionally, she was like, “I want to write a song.” For us, we want her for her acting performance. We would never ask her for a song. We would love one. But she was so emotionally moved watching the movie so early that we now have a song that she wrote, that also Liza Soberano’s singing on that just came organically. So, there’s been so much trust from everybody on this.

Is this song in the credits?

CRAWFORD: Yeah. It takes us out of the movie and into the credits.

There are going to be a lot of kids who watch this and are going to want to create friendship bracelets like the girls in the movie. Have you already thought about that in terms of creating something that’s movie-related that kids can get? There are going to be people who are like, “We should do that! We’re best friends.”

MERCADO: Oh yeah. The studio’s already on it.

CRAWFORD: Some of those scenes, too, that just came out of us trying to tell a story about objects, like they’re just objects until it’s a gift from somebody or means something. How do you visualize how powerful memory is? And story-wise, we came up with this bracelet that has all these charms from all these core memories. That’d be amazing to see kids celebrating, in a customized way, their own moments together.

Taylor Swift also opened the door with the bracelets. For me personally, the things that I wear are from specific things. They mean something to me.

MERCADO: We hope that Dreamworks is on the merch.

Studios seem to know how to do that. Sometimes it’s not as cool as you want it to be. That’s the issue. Sometimes, the people who are creating the merch don’t have that emotional connection, and I think for a movie like this, my best advice is to make sure that whoever is working on this watches the movie.

CRAWFORD: I think, also, it’s to understand the full scope of the audience. Because so many times, they do a great job servicing the traditional audience of younger kids, but especially as the industry evolves, as the audience is evolving, getting used to anime, 20-year-olds, young adults are wanting stuff to celebrate these movies that they’re enjoying just as much. For us, we were always saying we should have Sideshow Collectibles. We don’t have any of the Wolf from Puss in Boots.

I couldn’t believe that it’s an animated movie, but there’s a live-action clip of Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie. How did you pull that off?

MERCADO: [Laughs] That iconic handshake.

Oh, so you did it for the handshake?

CRAWFORD: Did it for the handshake.

MERCADO: Well, we also did it for Predator. We love Predator.

CRAWFORD: It wasn’t easy to get through legal and everything. But we were always trying to make sure, like, how do we tell this story so it feels like everything in it has a purpose and means something? It was just us writing from our formative years.

MERCADO: What we love.

CRAWFORD: Yeah. We wanted an emotional symbol for the power of these girls’ friendships, and thought, wouldn’t that be cool if little Jo and Raissa were clasping hands with just as much machismo as Carl Weathers and Arnold Schwarzenegger because of the pact of their friendship? So we just wrote that into the script and then found out how hard it was to get through legal.

CRAWFORD: And that feeling, too, that I think a lot of us were probably too young to see Predator, but how formative movies like this are when you see them when you’re young. “That movie was not made for me, but I’m glad I saw it, and it’s totally shaped my sensibilities of the movies that I love.”

Forgotten Island opens in theaters on September 25.

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Release Date

September 24, 2026

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Director

Januel Mercado, Joel Crawford

Writers

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Joel Crawford, Januel Mercado

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