‘Forgotten Island’ turns children’s animation into a song to friendship and roots: ‘Diversity makes us stronger’

There is nothing a good plate of lechón (piglet) can’t achieve. So can a story that has been in the works for a decade and speaks of friendship, migration, change, roots and food (yes, lechón too), one that is animated and aimed primarily at children, yet carries a message not only for kids. It was over dishes like that and other traditional Filipino foods that Forgotten Island was cooked up for years. Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, who are friends, colleagues and something like compatriots, have been passionately shaping the story all these years, and finally on September 25, 2026, it is opening in movie theaters worldwide.

Crawford and Mercado have known each other for 15 years. They were brought together professionally, as both worked on Kung Fu Panda 2, and their friendship later deepened through family ties: Mercado was born in California to Filipino parents, while Crawford has been married for more than two decades to Kathy, who arrived from the Philippines as a child. All of that inspired them to tell the story of a community as underrepresented as it is important: with more than two million people, Filipinos are the fourth-largest immigrant group in the United States, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Mercado and Crawford are the writers and directors of a DreamWorks film full of humor and touches of emotion. A supercharged, ultra-colorful animated adventure that tells the story of two teenagers — Jo, the more artistic and wild one; Raissa, the steady, studious counterpoint about to leave for university in the United States — who on their last night together discover the entrance to an island they thought existed only in legends.

Diving into it will bring doubts, new friends, problems and will put their friendship to the test, which they must maintain with all their will and memories. “Hopefully they feel real,” Mercado pleads with a laugh over the fact that two grown men created these two so-human heroines, “because they are inspired by the women in our lives and in our families. We talked a lot about how my sister inspired Jo,” he says of the more rebellious one. Crawford takes up the point: “And also my wife, Kathy, who grew up in the Philippines, and having two teenage daughters, their relationships with friends,” he explains. Both sat down for an interview with EL PAÍS a couple of weeks before the premiere.

As he recounts, it all began when they wanted “to tell a story about friendship and celebrate Filipino mythology, and those wonderful women in our lives.” The subject was about “celebrating a whole culture that hasn’t had the center stage yet. So it felt right to do it as a love letter.” Very close to Latino culture, Filipino culture is often underrepresented in Hollywood films, and the directors wanted to embrace the colors, customs, legends and reality of an open, warm people. “It’s the culture we grew up in, the one Joel grew up with. We wanted to share the truth of our experience, with big family parties, the food...,” Crawford lists. “We wanted the film to reflect that: that you’re at a Spanish party or a Filipino party, eating together and enjoying each other’s company — that’s what life is about.” Because, after all, focusing on a culture means showing the richness they possess.

“There is a certain pressure, yes,” Mercado acknowledges about representing their people, “but we always say that rising tides raise all ships, and we want to see more personal stories, more from other cultures and their perspectives; it’s refreshing. I’d like us to inspire others to do cool stuff.” That Hollywood, “a closed circle,” they say, would back something like this comes at an important moment for the visibility of other peoples, cultures and migrants. “I think there is a bigger community, more allies, more inspiration; we have become a melting pot of cultures and we are beginning to see that, in reality, diversity makes us stronger,” he ventures.

This mix and diversity are also present in their brand of contemporary animation, which adopts elements of more traditional styles, as well as manga and emoji — a mix DreamWorks seems to have wholeheartedly embraced. “I think they saw our excitement for continuing to push visual storytelling and just like with art, we don’t want everything to look the same,” says Crawford, reflecting on the great freedom they were given to tell the story their way. “With the medium of animation, with all these styles, only your imagination is your limit.”

The filmmakers sought to celebrate their premiere in a big way. The usually elegant and discreet Los Angeles hotel where interviews took place was filled with tropical plants, drawings of Jo and Raissa and the various friends they meet on the island, stations to make friendship bracelets like the ones they have had since childhood, and areas to leave a post-it note with memories, essential to them and the film’s development. A full display on their part, but above all by DreamWorks, the animation studio that has been part of the Universal giant since it was bought in 2016. This film is its major box-office gamble of the year and for awards season in a year when animation is strong — and in which they have invested about $80 million.

It’s true they have worked at the company for years, and from their minds and pencils have come the latest Puss in Boots, several Kung Fu Panda films, The Croods and Trolls. That is where the confidence comes from. As Mercado explains, after a decade and a handful of films together and with DreamWorks, they always look for new challenges to present, which the studio usually accepts. “Yes, I wish there had been stories like this earlier, but we are very grateful that so many people are getting behind it. It doesn’t feel like just a movie, but really a moment.”

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