The dazzling new film “Forgotten Island” stands out from the animated pack in part due to its celebration of Filipino folklore. Set in Manila and a magical island home to various Aswang — an umbrella Filipino term for shape-shifters and other supernatural creatures — the mainstream movie is proudly of its place.

That said, you need not be of Southeast Asian heritage to connect deeply with the latest release from DreamWorks Animation, maker of films such as “Shrek,” “How to Train Your Dragon” and “The Wild Robot.”

You just need to have had a best friend.

For all of its bells and whistles — and there are many, the hyper-paced film employing multiple visual styles in a largely effective way — “Forgotten Island” ultimately is the story of longtime besties Jo (H.E.R.) and Raissa (Liza Soberano), whose strong bond is tested as forces threaten to pull them apart.

At first, those forces are of the ordinary variety, as the smart and ambitious Raissa is set to leave the Philippines to attend the California Institute of Technology while the artistically gifted Jo bounces among food-court jobs.

In the film co-written and -directed by Joel Crawford and Januel P. Mercado, even this early development is impactful because they devote the film’s opening minutes to the sweet meeting — and instant best-friending — of the girls and their growing up together. They are filled with tales of a magical island, Nakalimutan, or Nakali for short, by Jo’s adoring Lola (grandmother) Fatima (Dolly de Leon, “Triangle of Sadness”), and, over the years, they add to matching charm bracelets that serve as an ongoing monument to their time together.

They’ve spent much of their lives searching for a magical portal key that would allow them, as Fatima had long ago, to visit Nakali. They find it on the night before Raissa is to fly to the United States, Jo pulling her reluctant friend into the glowing hole that has formed on the beach.

Moments later it’s daytime on Nakali, “Forgotten Island” establishing its unmistakable “The Hangover”-but-for-tweens blueprint. Unable to remember their night on the island, Jo is wearing a crown of some sort — is she Nakali royalty? — and half of Jo’s head has been shaved. Also, compelling evidence suggests that new pal Raww (Dave Franco, “The LEGO Ninjago Movie”), a were-dog who can’t control his shape-shifting, is being straight with them when he says the three spent a wild night together.

Raww brings them to Batiba (Jenny Slate, “Marcel the Shell with Shoes On”), a tree-dwelling demon inspired by the Batibat, who offers to restore their memory in exchange for some of theirs. That price is too steep, so they venture off with Raww to try to retrace their steps and find the missing portal key in time for the panicking Raissa to make her flight.

Along the way, they encounter more allies in Bungi Tiyanak (Manny Jacinto, “The Good Place,” “Star Wars: The Acolyte”), a 200-year-old, three-eyed, 8-foot-tall and far-too-mommy-obsessed demon baby; and Prince Mermahn (Kevin McCann, “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish”), a trying-too-hard-to-charm buff merman with what appear to be living starfish for nipples (shudder).

And while they run afoul of a childlike, don’t-call-them-“cute” warrior tribe, the Duwende, led by the, um, fierce King Truffle Wuffle (Ronny Chieng, “The Daily Show,” “Crazy Rich Asians”), their biggest concern is the most feared creature on the island, The Dreaded Manananggal (Tony Award-winner Lea Salonga), whose wings Raissa seems to have stolen.

“Forgotten Island” runs a little long and has more going on than it needs — the film can barely slow down for its big, emotionally resonant climax — but with all it has going for it, we easily can forgive a few faults.

Its consistently eye-popping, painterly, non-photorealistic 2D-meets-3D hybridized look appears to have been influenced by sources ranging from Japan’s anime to Sony Pictures Animation’s wildly impressive “Spider-Verse” films. (It would be tempting to factor in another Sony gem, “KPop Demon Hunters,” but given that the Netflix megahit arrived only last year, that’s basically impossible, as “Forgotten Island” would have been deep into its development. Regardless, there certainly are some commonalities and a similar appeal.)

“Forgotten Island” also was inspired by the real-life friendship of Crawford and Mercado, who first worked together on 2011’s “Kung Fu Panda 2” and who more recently had collaborated on 2022’s Crawford-directed “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish,” on which Mercado is credited as co-director. That Crawford’s wife is Filipina and Mercado is Filipino American contributed to their choice of the film’s physical settings. The pair also placed the story in the 1990s — “a time before social media, smartphones and when friendships often felt more fragile and maintaining friendships took real effort,” Crawford says in the movie’s production notes.

R&B singer H.E.R., a Grammy and Academy Award winner, and Soberano (“Lisa Frankenstein,” “Alone/Together”), do their part by infusing Jo and Raissa, respectively, with personality and selling the all-important friendship.

Whether you were the Jo in your best-friendship — the almost-supernatural force who was always trying to create more fun for both of you, consequences be damned — or the Raissa, who sometimes had to be pushed into having more fun but who, perhaps secretly, always appreciated the other’s efforts, you will relate to them.

And “Forgotten Island” may be one of those movies you won’t soon forget.

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‘FORGOTTEN ISLAND’

3.5 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG (for animated sequences of scary action, language, rude humor, thematic elements, some violence and brief tobacco imagery)

Running time: 1:48

How to watch: In theaters Sept. 25

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