The 2020-2021 Film Journal Entry #26: "Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle"

2020-2021 Film Journal Entry #26

by Xavier E. Palacios

"Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle"

3.5 out of 5

Directed by Tetsuo Yajima

Premise: In this third stand-alone installment in the rebooted Pokémon film series, Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum (voiced by Sarah Natochenny) continues his adventurous travels with his best friend and mouse-Pokémon partner, Pikachu (voiced by Ikue Otani). Embarking into the Forest of Okoya, home to the ape-like, selfish, and mighty Zarude Pokémon, the two encounter a wild child named Koko (voiced by Kimlinh Tran), who was raised by a Zarude affectionally called "Dada" (voiced by Edward Bosco). As Ash and Pikachu welcome Koko to the human world and help him discover his past, they, like the jungle's many Pokémon denizens, face a deadly threat from the Biotope Company in a coming-of-age conflict which will decide Koko's identity and future. While perhaps the weakest of this new film series, the anime film nonetheless continues this era's all-ages, positive, and good storytelling nature I have come to expect.

"G"

My Thoughts

Part 1: Me and Pokémon

I have waited more than a year for this film, pushed off thanks to the pandemic, and my patience has been rewarded! For this latest installment in this era of Pokémon films continues to prove that this new series exemplifies some of the best parts of this long-beloved world with a charming, all-ages, and positive attitude and story, along with humble but inviting animation!

As I noted in my entry for Sailor Moon Eternal: The Movie Part 1, the second anime/manga series that shall always share Sailor Moon's place among my all-time favorites is the Pokémon franchise of related shows, films, manga, and video games. The show, which began in the nineties and is still ongoing, was the very first of anything anime I ever knew. For the likely scant uninitiated, the Pokémon stories tell of adventure, friendship, and sports; they are environmentally conscious with dashes of science fiction and fantasy. The setting is an imaginary world relatively familiar, where mysterious animals, called "Pokémon", thrive. The many stories in the franchise, with various degrees of quality, center around the interactions between humans and Pokémon; their relationships representing the current balance of nature.

Pokémon is to my generation as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is to my much older cousin's. The franchise is a part of my DNA. I never could fall in love with the main video game series like my brother, the biggest Pokémon fan I know, but I am very familiar with them, having helped him finish a few installments. I was much more a fan of the many spin-off games like Pokémon Snap, Pokémon Stadium 2, or Pokémon: Mystery Dungeon. Last year, I recently discovered the franchise's best creation, the manga series, Pokémon Adventures, (volume fourteen, which ends the series' third story arc, is one of the best comics I have read all year). My primary connection with Pokémon is the anime show I started watching when it first aired on the Kids WB network in the late nineties. During the start of my troubled adolescents, the show symbolized my aching nostalgia for happier times. Today, the somewhat terrible show remains a cherished part of my early childhood. Yes, I grew up with old Pokémon music CDs, can recite much of the very first movie, developed a few friendships thanks to the franchise, traded some cards on my kindergarten's playground, and once named the clouds above me as different Pokémon on my way to school as a little boy. If I ever am not pumped up for Christmas time by the opening theme song for the Pikachu's Winter Vacation special, I am truly dead in spirit.