Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle
tohoSince the release of Pokémon: The First Movie in 1998, the Pokémon cinematic franchise has expanded with an incredible 23 films being released, including the newest Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle. Perpetual 10-year old Ash Ketcham (Sarah Natochenny) is traveling through Milyfa Town nearby the Forest of Okoya alongside his companion Pikachu (Ikue Otani) when he meets a mysterious boy named Koko (Kimlinh Tran). Koko not only looks out of place, as he doesn't dress in human clothes, but also seemingly can only communicate with Pokémon, not humans. It turns out that this is because Koko was raised inside the Forest of Okoya by a Pokémon named Zarude (Edward Bosco). Now Ash must work with Koko to save the forest as the villainous Dr. Zed (Billy Kametz) is threatening to destroy it for scientific endeavor.
Being the 23rd film in the already more forgettable Pokémon franchise, it should come as no surprise that the plot of Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle feels rather forgettable and paint by numbers. Taking clear inspirations not just from popular projects like Tarzan, but also the Pokémon franchise itself with Pokémon 4Ever; the environmentalism angle of the film feels as dull and paint by numbers as it sounds. There is little that happens within the film that is hard to predict or expect from a story of this nature continuing the franchise's recent struggles to create truly unique identities for its projects. While at one point it felt like the Pokémon franchise was willing to take risks and create unique feeling films such as Pokémon: Destiny Deoxys being a large scale action dystopian or Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai playing more into the supernatural horror genre, the past handful of films have blended together and feel far staler in identity than they really should.
The one thing to stand out at times within Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle is the relationship between Koko and Zarude. Boldly, Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle gives audiences one of the first instances of being able to understand what Pokémon are saying specifically when it comes to Zarude, whose dialogue gets translated into English. This allows Zarude to become a larger character than most other Pokémon characters and allows his relationship with Koko to become quite fleshed out. While nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking, this relationship is rather sweet and the major emotional moments connect as well as one could hope for a film like this. It also does help that, in comparison to this drama, there is Dr. Zed who is immediately forgettable as a villain. There is simply nothing interesting with his arc and his drama feels more like filler for the runtime than anything meaningful.
It also should be mentioned how lackluster the film is on a technical level. There was a time not long ago where an animated Pokémon movie meant a huge step up in animation and technical craft really feeling like a cinematic experience even if it was meant for TV audiences. More than anything else, Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle feels like an extended episode of Pokémon TV with a serious lack of craft or quality. Even the setting of this jungle, which is a more unique location for a Pokémon story to take place, feels wildly basic with the traditional forest animation for Pokémon being reused with only a few extra vines being included. While the general public has quite unfairly been reductive to the franchise which has created some genuinely great films in the past, it is a shame to see the franchise itself embrace this identity. Until there is a major shakeup, this franchise will never find the same inspired outings it had decades ago with projects like Pokémon 3: The Movie or Pokémon Heroes and, sadly, the audience for these films will slowly drop off more and more as their qualities continue to drop into low effort mediocrity.
While Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle might be far from the worst Pokémon film so far, it strangely feels like one of the more frustrating efforts. The formula being used to create the feature might be effective to a certain level but it feels so uninspired and paint by numbers. The Pokémon franchise has largely lost the heart and soul that made the early efforts both in the feature films and TV work so charming, and while it maintains the ability to be watchable, it is far from inspiring.
