Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Pokemon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle finally enjoys its U.S. debut via Netflix, after its late 2020 Japanese release. It’s the 23rd feature-length anime film in the deathless franchise, which also recently launched the 24th season of its TV series, Pokemon Master Journeys, on Netflix. That’s a whole lot of content; one envisions the Pokemon wing of the Library of Congress to be stuffed and bursting out the doors and windows. Secrets of the Jungle is notable for introducing a new Pokemon, the monkey-like Zarude, to anime viewers, and it promises to be an epic, action-packed saga. Let’s see if it fulfills that promise.
POKEMON THE MOVIE: SECRETS OF THE JUNGLE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: The Forest of Okoya: The Zarude stomp and chant to establish their territory. They live in a majestic tree near a spring with special healing powers. One of the Zarude hears a baby crying, and finds it on the banks. It’s a human baby, I should note. The Zarude scoops him up and shows he’s unlike the rest of his Pokemon species by not being a hostile jerk — he vows to find the child’s parents, which results in his exile from the tribe. No dice on the paternity search, so he just raises the kid as his own. A decade later, he’s Dada and the boy is Koko (voice of Kimlinh Tran). Koko thinks he’s a Zarude, which sets him up for a serious identity crisis. Meanwhile, I’m confused as to why Koko, Dada and the Zarude have been speaking English this whole time, because don’t Pokemon only speak variations of their species name?
Also meanwhile, intrepid Pokemon franchise protagonists Ash (Sarah Natochenny) and Pikachu (Ikue Otani) are right where the plot needs them to be, in nearby Milyfa Town. Pikachu puts on an adorable hat for a trek through the woods, where they meet some researchers for the Biotope Company, which is analyzing the spring’s healing powers. Also also meanwhile, Ash and Pikachu’s antagonist squadron, Team Rocket, plans some hijinks and talk among themselves about how dastardly they are, a level of actualized self-awareness most serial villains don’t possess.
Not too far into the bush, Koko tumbles into his identity crisis, right on time, causing a rift between him and Dada. Angst and tears, I tell you, ANGST AND TEARS. Koko swings off and knocks himself unconscious and falls into the drink, where he’s rescued by Ash and Pikachu and brought back to the city. When Koko awakens in the hospital, we then realize he can’t actually speak English — he speaks Pokemon language. So the whole time we were hearing him and the Zarude speaking English, it was actually Pokemon language conveniently translated for the sake of us, a human audience. Phew: the language we hear is wholly contextual. I was concerned that a narrative rift had opened in the Pokemon universe that might be too vast to traverse.
Anyway, Ash and Pikachu befriend Koko, and we get a culture-shock musical montage. They end up back in the woods farting around with a Skwovet as Team Rocket dresses up like Biotope employees in order to wreak random havoc like the mischievous agents of chaos they are; one pictures them laughing as they light a mountain of cash on fire. Ash and Pikachu and Koko meet up with Dada, who reveals the little he knows about Koko’s origins. Turns out his parents were researchers for Biotope, so all this stuff is connected. And surprise surprise, Team Rocket aren’t the only total jerkwads in this plot, but that’s where I stop because otherwise Pikachu will electrocute my hiney for playing spoiler.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Secrets of the Jungle is essentially the Tarzan story or The Jungle Book shoved through the Pokemon IP filter.
Performance Worth Watching: What’s that little rodent squirrel thing? Skwovet? It does all kinds of cute crap. And there’s enough ANGST AND TEARS here to justify all kinds of cute crap.
Memorable Dialogue: Ash says all kinds of things that make us wish Ash would shut the h-e-double-hockeysticks up, e.g., “I’m not giving up until we win!” and “Components are so cool!” CAN IT, ASH. WE ALREADY KNOW YOU’RE MR. P.M.A. GO WRITE A SELF-HELP BOOK OR SOMETHING.
Sex and Skin: None.
Our Take: Action! Drama! Intense emotion! Who knew a Pokemon movie could be so (relatively) watchable for the lowly outsider who’s a franchise dabbler at best? Its 2D animation is pleasing to the eye, it boasts universal themes that aren’t beholden to the deepest crannies of Pokemon lore and its 99-minute run time isn’t nearly as oppressive as it appears. Of course, Secrets of the Jungle functions wholly within the confines of thee age-olde raised-by-wolves plot, which merges with the almost as age-old save-the-natural-habitat-from-corporate-malfeasance plot, except this time, those plots are knee-deep with cute weird fictional gibberish-speaking animals.
Perhaps all this has greater significance in the franchise’s grand narrative arc, which is so colossal, it’s probably bent past Saturn by now. The secrets in the title are definitely dark ones, so without all the totes adorbs Pokemon hijinks and Ash’s annoyingly ineludible zeal, forever trumpeting the righteousness of teamwork like a total collectivist maniac, this thing might’ve spiraled into despair. But I sense Koko’s big-picture impact to be huge, huge I tell you, huge — I mean, isn’t he the first human being who can speak Pokemon language? He’s like the missing link. That’s gonna ripple far into the future — and the Pokemon story sure seems endless.
Our Call: STREAM IT. Pokemon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle is reasonably well-written and directed, and for a tiny piece of a prodigiously titanic franchise, it stands pretty well on its own. Parents in the room while their children are watching will find it surprisingly tolerable, which is high praise for this kind of thing.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: <a
