Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle: Koko, Zarude and the latest film in the saga

The twenty-third and, to date, final feature film in the saga, Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle is also the only one that wasn't released in July in Japan. Postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic, it reached Japanese theaters on December 25, 2020. It tells the story of Koko, a child taken in and raised by a Zarude deep in the Forest of Okoya. In France, it arrived on Netflix on October 8, 2021.

Contents

• Background and release: the only Pokémon movie not released in July
• The plot, without spoiling the ending
• Zarude, the Mythical Pokémon who plays dad
• Koko, Dr. Zed and a long-awaited appearance
• Production and music: the return to traditional animation
• What the movie adds to the saga
• Zarude and Shiny Celebi in Sword and Shield
• Reception and box office
• The French release: Netflix, October 8, 2021
• The saga's last film, to date
• Secrets of the Jungle at a glance
• Frequently Asked Questions

Background and release: the only Pokémon movie not released in July

The film was announced in Japan on January 10, 2020, on the show Oha Suta, along with a first trailer and a date: July 10, 2020, in keeping with the saga's ritual, since all twenty-two previous feature films had come out in July. That schedule would not hold.

On May 13, 2020, the film's official account announced that it was being postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with no new date. In June, the production team specified that the film would come out in winter 2020; in August, a new trailer finally revealed the chosen day: December 25, 2020. It is the only exception in the entire series to the Japanese summer release slot, a detail also noted in the complete guide to the Pokémon movies.

The film belongs to the alternate continuity launched in 2017 by I Choose You! and continued by The Power of Us: it is the third and final installment. Like its two predecessors, you can watch it without knowing anything about the TV series, and it doesn't assume you've seen the other two films either.

The plot, without spoiling the ending

It all begins in the Forest of Okoya, a territory protected by strict rules where humans are not allowed to venture. A tribe of Zarude lives there around an enormous tree. One day, one of them finds a human baby washed up on a riverbank in its cradle. Unable to abandon the child, he leaves his own kind to raise him alone and gives him a name: Koko.

Ten years later, Ash and his Pikachu visit the jungle from nearby Milyfa Town. There they cross paths with a research team from the Biotope Company, a scientific organization that studies the forest and is run by Dr. Zed. Team Rocket, following them on the sly, decides to infiltrate the group to find out more.

The meeting between Ash and Koko turns the story on its head. The boy believes he is a Pokémon himself and has never seen another human: Ash takes him into the city and helps him discover who he really is. The film then traces back what happened to his biological parents, two Biotope Company researchers, and what the jungle is truly protecting. The rest, including what Zed came looking for, is best discovered on screen.

Zarude, the Mythical Pokémon who plays dad

Zarude is a Dark- and Grass-type Mythical Pokémon from the eighth generation, officially revealed on February 27, 2020, on Pokémon Day, for Pokémon Sword and Shield. A large ape with black fur and green markings, it grows vines from its neck, its wrists and the soles of its feet, which it uses to get around, grab faraway Berries and heal itself: these vines have healing properties when it uses them as bandages.

🍇 Zarude grows vines from its neck and wrists to reach Berries that are too far away; your own snack fits in a Pokémon lunch bag, which takes a lot less flexibility.

In the games, it has the reputation of a hostile creature. Zarude live in groups deep in the jungle and are feared by other Pokémon for their aggression toward any intruder — which makes the film character's choice all the more striking, as he breaks away from his tribe to raise a human child. The category it belongs to is covered in detail in the guide to Legendary and Mythical Pokémon.

The film left a direct mark on the games: Zarude has an alternate form, the Dada form, modeled on its appearance in the film, recognizable by the cloth it wears around its neck. The difference is purely cosmetic and changes nothing about its stats. Its signature move, Jungle Healing, restores a quarter of their max HP to the user and its allies on the field and cures their status conditions — a power that perfectly fits the role it plays on screen.

Koko, Dr. Zed and a long-awaited appearance

Koko, whose real name is Al Molybdenum, is the son of Chrom and Phossa Molybdenum, two researchers who led the Biotope Company's work on the healing spring, a legendary place in the Forest of Okoya said to hold water with exceptional properties. The boy has white markings on his chest and face, and his sleeves are made of rings that clearly echo Zarude's — the film tells you who he is before he even opens his mouth.

On the other side, Dr. Zed runs the Biotope Company and serves as the antagonist. The film gives him industrial resources, a field team and a scientific goal, which places him in the line of the saga's villains driven by control over a natural resource rather than by conquest. Team Rocket, meanwhile, slips into his research team through the back door.

Two appearances will delight longtime fans. Delia Ketchum, Ash's mother, appears in the film, and the story contains one of the rare mentions of the hero's father in the entire history of the series — the third, and the first time Ash himself talks about him. The character's full journey is covered in the feature dedicated to Ash and the Pokémon anime.

Production and music: the return to traditional animation

After the previous year's CGI remake, the saga returns to 2D hand-drawn animation. The film is directed by Tetsuo Yajima, who had already helmed the twenty-first film, from a screenplay he co-wrote with Atsuhiro Tomioka. Animation is by OLM and OLM Digital, Japanese distribution is handled by Toho, and the film runs 100 minutes. The Japanese poster was illustrated by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya.

The soundtrack is one of the most distinctive in the series. Six songs were written for the film by one and the same artist, Taiiku Okazaki — a first for a Pokémon feature film, which until then had entrusted its theme songs to different performers. The Japanese opening theme, "Koko," is performed by Beverly, and the soundtrack album was released in Japan on December 23, 2020, two days before the film.

The French version has its own set of songs. The film opens with "Je te protège" (I'll protect you) and closes with "Je ferai ça" (I'll do it), with two insert songs, "Chanson de Zarude" (Zarude's song) and "Mon nouveau copain" (My new buddy). The unusual place the story gives to songs does a lot to shape the film's tone, closer to a fairy tale than to a classic adventure story.

What the movie adds to the saga

The film racks up firsts. It is the first feature film in the saga without a single Legendary Pokémon: its two rare creatures, Zarude and Celebi, both belong to the Mythical category. It is also the first film in which a human is seen using a Pokémon move, and the first to be released outside of July in Japan.

Its subject, on the other hand, belongs to a long literary tradition. The story of a child raised by forest creatures is an explicit nod to Tarzan and The Jungle Book, and the film fully embraces that lineage. Where the twentieth film explored the bond between a Trainer and their Pokémon, this one asks a more direct question: what makes a family? Even the name of Milyfa Town is a play on the English word family.

Finally, a nod links the film to a game released a few months later. Several settings from the film — the Milyfa Town Pokémon Center, the Heart Tree, the Biotope Company building — appear as photographs on the wall of Professor Mirror's lab in New Pokémon Snap, presented as snapshots brought back from a region outside Lental. The game credits them to Rita alone, who happens to make an appearance in the film alongside her colleague Phil, camera in hand in the streets of Milyfa Town. The game is covered in the overview of Pokémon spin-offs.

🖼️ The Milyfa Town Pokémon Center, the Heart Tree and the Biotope Company building end up as photos on the wall of Professor Mirror's lab in New Pokémon Snap; your own wall deserves the same treatment, with our Pokémon decorations.

Zarude and Shiny Celebi in Sword and Shield

Like almost every film in the saga, this one came with an event distribution in the games of the day. An initial campaign had already given away Zarude in its standard form for Pokémon Sword and Shield, through a code requested on the Micromania website and received by email, from November 13 to December 13, 2020 — in other words, before the film's Japanese release.

The main distribution, however, was timed to the film's arrival in France. You had to sign up for the Pokémon Trainer Club and opt in to receive emails before September 25, 2021; the codes went out on October 7, 2021, the day before the film went live on Netflix. Two creatures were on offer: Zarude in its Dada form, at level 70 holding a Choice Scarf, and a Celebi in its Shiny form at level 60, holding a Lucky Egg.

The choice of a Shiny Celebi was no accident: the creature appears in the film. Zarude, for its part, is shiny-locked in the games and can't be obtained in that coloring, which made the Shiny Celebi all the more anticipated — the topic is covered in detail in the feature on Shiny Pokémon.

Reception and box office

Released in the middle of the pandemic, the film could never hope to match the numbers of its predecessors. It grossed a total of 2.02 billion yen in Japanese theaters, a result below that of previous films, but respectable given the conditions of a winter 2020 marked by health restrictions.

The film then found an audience abroad. Its September 2021 releases in China and South Korea brought in just over five million dollars — the only documented box office outside Japan, since the film never had a theatrical run in the West. The "worldwide total" of $23.6 million you sometimes come across adds those five million to the Japanese gross converted into dollars, without stating the exchange rate: it counts $18.41 million for Japan, whereas Box Office Mojo records only $16.05 million, for a total of $21.1 million. The two tallies differ only in the exchange rate applied to the 2.02 billion yen, and the first one doesn't even add up: 18.41 plus 5.05 makes 23.46. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray in Japan on July 14, 2021, and in North America on October 18, 2022; it never got a physical release in the United Kingdom or Ireland.

As for its substance, the film is often cited as the most moving of the recent entries, and it's this register — the adoption story, the separation, the feeling of belonging to two worlds — that left a mark on viewers far more than its action scenes. For many, it remains the best entry point into the alternate trilogy.

The French release: Netflix, October 8, 2021

The film never played in French theaters: it arrived on October 8, 2021, directly on Netflix, on the same day as in the rest of the world. It is the second film in the saga to take this route, after Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution, and the most recent. A little over nine months passed between the Japanese release and the French release.

🛋️ After Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution, Secrets of the Jungle is the second film in the saga to go straight to Netflix: so the screening happens on your couch, movie-night outfit optional and Pokémon pajamas more than welcome.

This way of reaching audiences continues a long history in France: only the first three films in the saga got a genuine theatrical release in France, in April 2000, December 2000 and June 2001. All the others arrived through DVD, television, video on demand and then streaming platforms, sometimes years later and rarely in the Japanese order — only I Choose You!, in theaters from November 5 to 17, 2017, and Volcanion and the Mechanical Marvel, in special event screenings on November 22 and 23, 2025, have since made it back to a French movie screen.

The saga's last film, to date

No new Pokémon feature film has been released since, and The Pokémon Company has not announced a follow-up: Secrets of the Jungle therefore closes, at least for now, a series of twenty-three films that began in 1998. The pace of one film every summer, sustained for more than twenty years, stopped there — the pandemic pushed back the last release, and then streaming platforms replaced movie theaters.

The film also closes out the alternate continuity trilogy, and it does so by taking the logic introduced by its two predecessors all the way: fewer Legendaries, more humanity, a story that stands on its own without any prior knowledge of the anime. It is the most accomplished form of what this interlude set out to do.

What remains is its most lasting contribution, and it isn't a cinematic one. Zarude's Dada form has outlived the film in the games, where it keeps circulating as a reminder of this adoption story. Few of the saga's feature films have left such a concrete imprint on the game data itself.

Secrets of the Jungle at a glance

Frequently Asked Questions

• What is the exact French title of the 23rd Pokémon movie?
  The official French title is Pokémon, le film: Les secrets de la jungle, known in English as Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle. The Japanese title, 劇場版ポケットモンスター ココ, reads Gekijo-ban Pokettomonsuta Koko, after the film's young hero, Koko.
• Why was this film released on December 25 and not in July?
  Because its release was postponed by the Covid-19 pandemic. The film was supposed to come out in Japan on July 10, 2020; the postponement was announced on May 13, 2020, a winter release was confirmed in June, and then the December 25, 2020 date was revealed in August. It is the only film in the saga that wasn't released in July in Japan.
• Where can you watch Secrets of the Jungle in France?
  On Netflix, where it has been available since October 8, 2021, the day of its worldwide release. The film was never shown in French theaters: only the first three feature films in the saga had a genuine theatrical run in France.
• Who is Koko?
  Koko is a boy taken in as a baby by a Zarude that found him washed up on a riverbank and raised him as his son, leaving his tribe for him. His real name is Al Molybdenum: he is the son of Chrom and Phossa Molybdenum, two Biotope Company researchers. Koko considers himself a Pokémon.
• Which Pokémon is the star of the film?
  Zarude, a Dark- and Grass-type Mythical Pokémon from the eighth generation, revealed on February 27, 2020, for Pokémon Sword and Shield. The film gave it an alternate form, the Dada form, recognizable by the cloth it wears around its neck. It is also the first Pokémon film without a single Legendary Pokémon.
• How did you get Dada Zarude in the games?
  Through a distribution tied to the film's Netflix release. You had to be registered with the Pokémon Trainer Club and have opted in to receive emails before September 25, 2021; the codes were sent on October 7, 2021. The distribution offered Dada Zarude at level 70 and a Shiny Celebi at level 60 for Pokémon Sword and Shield.
• Is this really the last Pokémon movie?
  It's the last one to date. The saga counts twenty-three animated feature films, from 1998 to 2020, and no new film has been released since Secrets of the Jungle. Pokémon Detective Pikachu, a live-action film released in 2019, is a spin-off and isn't part of that list.

In short