Growing older has a way of revealing which friendships were chapters and which became part of the entire story. Or, as Forgotten Island co-director Januel Mercado rather wonderfully puts it, perhaps we’re not getting old so much as we’ve simply “been younger, longer.” That perspective feels particularly fitting for DreamWorks Animation’s latest original adventure, a…
DreamWorks has been enjoying something of a creative renaissance in recent years, but even with the studio increasingly willing to push its visual language, Forgotten Island feels like a particularly special swing. Vibrant, wonderfully strange and ultimately far more emotional than its chaotic adventure initially suggests, Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado’s Filipino mythology-inspired feature takes…
At the trailer launch for Forgotten Island, directors Joel Crawford and Januel Mercado, alongside voice stars H.E.R. and Liza Soberano, revealed a film deeply rooted in friendship, memory, and cultural authenticity – one that’s as personal as it is universal. From the outset, emotion ran high. For Crawford and Mercado, the project represents not just…
Given that it has been 11 years since we last saw Puss in Boots garner his own solo outing, it’s fair for any audiences going into this one to have certain reservations. Not that the original was bad in any manner, but Puss in Boots: The Last Wish isn’t exactly a continuation many were clamouring…
Talking to director Joel Crawford on the eve of the release of the trailer for the long-awaited sequel Puss In Boots: The Last Wish, the enthusiasm for the project was palpable. A storyboard artist for some of DreamWorks Animation’s biggest titles – he can claim his hand in such productions as Kung Fu Panda, Shrek…
Given that it’s been 7 years since the first Croods movie was released, the original target audience are all likely scattered across primary and high school now. But displaying the sense that it honestly doesn’t care about this statistic, The Croods: A New Age delights all the same, and very much presents itself as its…
To coincide with the US release of the hotly anticipated sequel The Croods: A New Age (set for a North American date of November 25th), our own Peter Gray caught up with the film’s director, Joel Crawford, to discuss the coup of reuniting the original cast and furthering the emotional aspect of the original story….
