On Christmas Day last year, Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle hit Japanese theatres, telling a new story in which series protagonist Ash Ketchum meets a feral boy named Koko. Actually called Pocket Monsters the Movie: Coco in Japan, the film launches on Blu-ray and DVD in the region this week.
Thanks to this latest release, we finally have our hands on screens showing a cool little cameo which has been spoken about, but never truly seen, until now. As you can see in the images below, shared online by Twitter user @DogasusBackpack, Rita and Phil from New Pokémon Snap can be spotted in the background of one of the film's scenes; the pair can be seen snapping photographs together, which makes a whole lot of sense.
The cameo's particularly interesting for a couple of reasons. Firstly, as pointed out by Serebii's Joe Merrick, the film came out four months before New Pokémon Snap actually launched on Switch, technically making Pokémon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle their first appearance.
And secondly, New Pokémon Snap features a similar nod to the film; as we've reported on previously, concept art from Secrets of the Jungle can be found in the game's laboratory. A New Pokémon Snap loading screen notes that "landscape photos taken by Rita can be seen in the lab. They don't appear to be photos of Lental, but it's not clear where exactly they were taken."
If we put two and two together, then, it looks like Rita was taking photographs in last year's movie, and these snaps ended up on the wall of the lab in New Pokémon Snap. The Pokémon movies and games don't always feature crossover material quite like this, so it's a very nice touch indeed
Secrets of the Jungle is also planned to launch in the west later this year; the first English-language trailer can be viewed here.
[source twitter.com]