Forgotten Island isn't even out yet, but it's been stealing the world's attention and hearts ever since its first screening at CinemaCon earlier this year. The movie, which is Dreamworks' latest animated venture, follows H.E.R.'s Jo and Liza Soberano's Raissa, two Filipino friends who find themselves unexpectedly stranded in the legendary mystical world of Nakali.
One of the first people they meet on the island is Dave Franco's Raww, a local weredog who self-appoints himself as their guide in this strange new world. It shouldn't come as a surprise that the moment audiences saw this character in action, they fell in love.
The Direct sat down with Forgotten Island co-directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, the duo behind the fan-favorite movie Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, to discuss what it's like to create another iconic animated character in Raww, as well as the process of designing Dave Franco's weredog.
Creating a New Animation Legend With Raww the Weredog
"I'm Very Honored That People Are Gravitating to Our Characters..."
- The Direct: "So, last time we talked, one of the things we talked about was raw, and so you know, DreamWorks has Shrek, Toothless, and Puss in Boots. How does it feel to create another icon in animation?"
Januel Mercado: I'm very honored that people are gravitating to our characters, especially Raww, and celebrating our cast, and especially Dave Franco, who's the voice of Raww and has become a friend of ours. He cares so much about the movie, and he was even texting the other day. He's like, 'Are people like gravitating to Raww?' Because it means so much to him. And we're like, 'Oh yeah, people love that character. He's a fan favorite.
Joel Crawford: I know we're early and we haven't released the movie yet, but I feel like there are many characters in this that are iconic because of different points of view, [and] being able to relate to them. Like Jo and Raissa, that friendship I feel like is really going to resonate with a lot of people, and the way Liza [Soberano] and her have really brought themselves to it, that it's a friendship that feels alive. And then I think of Manong, the Mananangal in this movie, which already—people's reactions feels like she will go down as one of the iconic DreamWorks villains, which is really exciting.
- The Direct: "[With] Raww, I'm just curious because characters I can imagine with these characters in this movie specifically go through so many design iterations. What were kind of some of the alternate designs of Raww? Was it kind of always in that ballpark, or did you kind of have drastically different ideas?"
Mercado: When we started drawing Raww, when we were just kind of preliminary sketches of what this dog boy looks like, he had his red vest. The red vest was there from the beginning... Again, children of the 80s, ['Back to the Future' and Marty McFly]. But like we started drawing him, [he]was like really young, like he was like three heads tall. He [was] kind of like this cute puppy creature.
Crawford: But as his personality evolved, and really telling this story of somebody who's been around for centuries, and has this longing for friendship, it felt like there was a sophistication that we needed to—
Mercado: —to age him up closer to the girls, especially [for] this kind of party adventure, where it feels like a coming of all ages story, a rite of passage, like the John Hughes aspect of it.
Crawford then revealed that one key visual element of the character's design, his rat tail, was "a late addition:"
Crawford: A late addition in the character design that really kind of completed the perfect look for Raww [was] the rat tail on the back. We didn't have the rat tail originally. That was just like, oh, what's the missing piece? Now I can't see him without it—Party in the back.
The full spoiler-free interview can be viewed below:
