Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko

Pom Poko is one of my favorite anime movies, although that's not to say it's a perfect movie. The documentary-style opening , complete with uninspired narration, will lull most people into a false sense of security before the second half. If you can stay awake for the second half, prepare to be blown away.
The Tanuki's transformation prowess here makes for some of the of the most imaginative and unrestrained animation I've ever seen. A careful eye will notice Kiki, Totoro, Porco Rosso, and Galaxy Express 999 during the parade sequence. The tanuki themselves fluidly turn without restraint into hyperrealistic, humanistic, and charicature forms. ... (the third being a homage to a classic manga-ka)

The characters for the most part aren't very notable, more important is the interactions in the community.

Pom Poko is easily the most misunderstood movie put out by Studio Ghibli. While there is some environmentalist message there, I feel this movie is more about adapting. In fact, while the main characters are raccoons, they represent the Japanese society, and how it has to cope with tradition being overtaken by technology. The older raccoons wear traditional kimonos and plan to wipe out the humans developing on their land. The grand masters apparently inspired Japanese deities-(the oldest master being 999 years old.)

Eventually the tanuki learn to hide among the humans (modernize) but, not before one last battle. Most people view the battle as humorous, and it is indeed the most commented part of the movie (because of what, exactly the tanukis transform.) But I see it as an act of desperation, putting their very manhood on the line for one last hopeless push. The aftermath of the battle is all the warriors' dead bodies being dumped in a huge pile, more reminiscent of Auschwitz than a Disney movie.

Because of the overwhelming circumstances the main characters must fight against, I found this movie to be sadder than Grave of the Fireflies, Takahata's much more famous work. This isn't Fern Gully or Avatar however, the tanuki are full of flaws. When they steal a TV to learn more about humans, they become couch potatoes instead. In another scene, they feast upon stolen McDonalds hamburgers.

This is a very Japanese movie, it is filled with references to Japanese culture, mythology, yokai, folklore, and culture. This can make it dense and unappealing to some. They say that a truly good film is universal, but after seeing this film I disagree.

Truly a great movie, one of the best. However, it might take a little patience on the viewer's part to fully enjoy. One of the best- but you might want to watch it in two parts.

Stories about anthropomorphic animals behaving like human beings have always been a form of storytelling that different types of authors, narrators and storytellers used to employ back in the old days to convey a message to their audience. This was done by using the animals as some sort of metaphor to represent human society and the flaws that show up within it’s systems. Perhaps the most famous example would be George Orwell's magnificent social commentary on Communism that is the timeless Animal Farm. From there, this form of storytelling would go on to get adopted by many other storytellers that came after the man. Fortunately ... enough, one of the storytellers to pick up on Orwell’s unique form of narration was none other than the late and great Isao Takahata, a man I like to nickname as “The great innovator of Ghibli”.

Isao Takahata is a name that needs no introduction whatsoever. The man was studio Ghibli’s greatest asset, and he was the one responsible for some of the greatest movies and TV series to come out of both Ghibli’s discography and the Anime world in general. Though Takahata has had many celebrated works throughout the course of his life, he’s also had works that have somehow managed to slip under the radar when it came to audiences and viewers everywhere. Beneath the eminent and prominent works that were Akage no Anne, Grave of the Fireflies and Omoide Poroporo, there was also a work that was just as thematically rich as those three, yet never got the recognition it deserved. That work is of course none other than the brilliant 1994 Anime movie, Pom Poko.

What is Pom Poko exactly? Pom Poko would be the result of Takahata replacing his cast from his previous works with anthropomorphic animals - as in the characters have all the charm and humanity that the other Takahata characters possess, the only difference here being the fact that they are not human. Just like Takahata’s other movies, this movie was ahead of it’s time in the way it handled it’s narrative and used it to convey it’s central theme to it’s audience -- which was environmentalism -- unlike any other Ghibli movie that came before and after it. While Princess Mononoke was a great experience both in terms of visuals and direction, it didn’t quite hit the mark with it’s environmentalism theme, and it delivered the theme quite poorly might I add. It was an excellent film both narratively and visually, but Miyazaki became overindulged with those aspects of his work that he forgot to deliver the message that he preached about in a quality fashion. Unlike Princess Mononoke however, Pom Poko never concerned itself with a grand story nor did it explore the various political factions or the many landscapes and mythical creatures within it’s narrative. Pom Poko focused narrowly on a small, select group of raccoon dogs called the Tanuki species, where these Tanuki would shapeshift endlessly to take the form of humans and use those shapeshifting abilities to stop housing construction on their homeland. This was of course brilliant in reinforcing Takahata’s message regarding environmentalism. By focusing solely on his central theme and giving it more importance than other aspects of the work, he managed to deliver that theme quite perfectly in the end.

The comedy is pretty spot-on as well. Almost every shapeshifting scene was fun and hit the mark in terms of making me laugh, and never did a scene go to waste. The comedic timing is almost perfect here, from the lady Tanuki shapeshifting into a malicious fox to instruct the young, juvenile Tanuki to use that specific transformation to scare off the pesky humans when their identity is discovered, to the elder Tanuki stretching his testicles to form a mattress so that the other Tanuki can sit on them. They were all lighthearted gags that never ceased to amaze me. Though the comedy managed to hit the nail on the head at most times, the testicles gag did become old and stale halfway through the movie, and it lost it’s charm due to the overuse of the gag, which is a shame since it was pretty hysterical when it hadn’t become an overused trope. It is pretty ironic though that the funniest thing about this movie is not the various creative transformations that the Tanuki made use of, rather the fact that Disney renamed the term “testicles” to "pouches". It is a pretty bizarre and awkward stance, and it gets even funnier the more one thinks about it. It was not an unnecessary change though, since most Ghibli movies are directed and are made for children at the end of the day, and western audiences are cultured differently from Japanese audiences, so it makes sense.

The animation here is pretty consistent just like most other Ghibli movies. It does the job and it does it well enough to assert itself among it’s contemporaries. It has many well animated scenes, but my favorite one has to be the parade sequence the Tanuki perform near the middle of the movie’s run, where even by Ghibli’s standards it looks quite excellent and stands out from the rest of the scenes. Although the animation was pretty consistent for the most part, my biggest gripe with this movie was the absence of any originality or creativity when it came to the character designs. It looked like Takahata never placed any thought into making his characters as uniquely looking as possible, rather, it looked like he churned out the same character design over and over again until he got the main and supporting casts ready for use. Every character here looks like the typically animated raccoon that you would see everywhere on animated television, and all the characters look like they were copied and pasted off of one another, which makes matters even worse since the characters were well written in their own right. Now granted, this is a movie about raccoons and not humans, but it still isn’t a valid excuse for the vapid character designs. Many anthropomorphic animals are drawn in a very distinguishable and unique way in other media, so why should there be a problem here? In addition to the trite character designs, the soundtrack was pretty forgettable as well, which is a shame since most Ghibli movies are recognized by their main themes – Spirited Away had the hauntingly beautiful “The Name of Life”, Princess Mononoke had the haunting yet so ever-present “Legend of Ashitaka” and Kiki’s Delivery Service entranced it’s viewers with the beautiful orchestral melody that is “A Town With An Ocean View”. It seems here, with Pom Poko, not one track stands out from the rest. All of them are uncreative Japanese folk music tracks, they flow smoothly with one another and do well at being a coherent and cohesive soundtrack for the film, but fail to make an everlasting impression on the viewer.

Not going to lie, the characters were pretty charming and were all full of wit and personality, and the creative dialogue between them was ever present. It just felt weird watching this movie and knowing that it was produced by Studio Ghibli, since there was no female protagonist to save the day in this one. Regardless, the most interesting aspect about this movie is the fact that it’s so focused in Japanese folklore, and it’s a pretty great introduction for anyone who would like to know more about Japanese mythology as a whole. This movie is a well-known representation of Tanukis in their fairy tales/mythology. For Japanese children, this is just a normal depiction of one of the many animals from their fairy tales. It is a good starting point for anyone who wants to learn more about them in their famous Japanese stories.

Overall, it’s not that hard to see why Pom Poko is pretty obscure and niche compared to the other Ghibli titles. It does not have a standout heroine, it is underproduced in terms of audiovisuals compared to some of it’s contemporaries, and it focuses solely on it’s main theme - which is environmentalism - rather than focusing on developing a compelling narrative. However, I also think that this is what makes it the most unique work out of all of them. If you want to vicariously experience the theme of environmentalism, then no other movie does the theme justice more than Pom Poko. In it’s thematic exploration, it is rather excellent, and unlike Princess Mononoke, the message never felt forced whatsoever. Don’t expect this to be on the same level as other Ghibli movies in terms of anything else though, it delivers it’s central message quite perfectly, but that’s about it.

Another Studio Ghibli masterpiece, and produced by anime genius Hayao Miyazaki, Pom Poko brings something new to the table: Animals who, instead of fleeing from the deforestation that threatens them, choose to resort to a different method by turning the tables on the humans that shamelessly and thoughtlessly tear away at their homes. Based on the Japanese Tanuki folklore, many of the raccoons featured in Pom Poko have magical shape shifting powers, some a little more rusty than others. These creatures begin to notice their food and shelter becoming scarce after the invasion of their land by the crew of new housing construction, and must ... call on their elders, the masters of transformation, to teach them how to change their shapes. They hope to use these abilities in many different ways, but all for one sole purpose: to reclaim the land that is being stolen from them.

Though in the film they are introduced as raccoons, the Tanuki folklore is centered around a very different breed, known as the raccoon dog. In either case, the creatures in this movie are far too plump to be easily identified, doubly so with the fact that in the movie, the raccoons do not possess the famous ringed-tail that raccoons are known for. Studio Ghibli's depictions of the Tanuki are nonetheless charming and adorable. Even the mean and stuffy raccoons are hard characters to hate.

Also featured briefly in the film is another creature of folklore known at the Kitsune, a transforming fox, which in the film tries to convince the raccoons to stop their personal war with the humans and instead use their shape shifting abilities to change into humans and begin new lives. This decision is widely argued over in the film, partly because of the raccoons' inability to transform into convincing humans.

I think a child would thoroughly enjoy this movie, however, here's where the warnings begin to come in. I had not been familiar with the Tanuki folklore before I watched this movie, so was surprised to discover that until about an hour through the movie, I had not noticed the raccoons' exposed genitalia. I later learn that this exposure is a prominent detail of the Tanuki in folklore, representing good luck financially. Though it may seem overly risque to the unknowing, their exposure is never, in the lore or the film, intended as sexual, and the film does not illustrate them sexually either. Rather, in the film they use what is referred to in the English dub as their "Pouches" to contribute to their shifting, such as parachutes which are seen later in the film.

Other material in the film include the deaths of humans and several raccoons, and though there is occasionally blood, it is never graphic. Additionally, there is a short scene narrated by one of the raccoons talking about how, because of lack of food and sheltering, they must halt breeding. While the raccoon talks about the female raccoons making sure this rule is kept, we see male raccoons charging at female raccoons, some seemingly drunk, and the female raccoons using karate moves to fight back, which implies their attempts to cease reproduction. Some female raccoons also have exaggerated breast size with occasional cleavage.

This movie I predict would otherwise be a delightful watch for children, even if they have to watch for 2 hours waiting for the conclusion. I extend yet another ovation for Studio Ghibli and Miyazaki.

Fans who remember Isao Takahata best for his relentless tearjerker, "Grave of the Fireflies", could very well react with surprise and shock upon viewing "Pom Poko". This lavishly animated tale about raccoons battling for their homeland (which was the biggest hit of 1994 in Japan) isn't so much a heartwrenching tragedy as it is an interesting amalgam of humor, drama, and action--all delivered in a way that is daringly original for animation. At times, the viewer gets treated to scenes which recall the one-two-three emotional punch of "Grave of the Fireflies", but even though the tone of the movie is somber, a handful of lighthearted ... moments elevate the overall production out of depression.

As this is a Studio Ghibli film, production values are spectacular. Backgrounds are painted with a tasteful mixture of simplicity and art, and the raccoons are as cuddlesome as you would expect--especially when they shape-shift from "ordinary" animals to Saturday-morning-cartoon style critters in the style of shows such as "Care Bears". (If you're scratching your head while reading this, don't be alarmed--according to Japanese folklore, raccoons have the power to transform into anything--including human beings!) The actual animation is as colorful and imaginative as you might expect from a Ghibli movie--and there is one scene where we are treated to cameo appearances by Porco Rosso, Kiki, and Totoro.

While "Pom Poko" has a story to tell and a meaningful message for one to think about, its character and plot aspects may come across as a bit off-putting to viewers expecting a typical animated feature. Indeed, while some raccoons identify themselves with distinguishable names and/or personalities (for example, Gonta is a burly, rough-and-ready raccoon who is always looking for a fight, while Oroku is the "wise woman" of the tribe), the story offers little in the way of character development. In fact, most of the action in the story is narrated (by Maurice LaMarche in English, Kokondei Shinchou in Japanese), which elevates the overall effect of the movie to that of a semi-documentary. For the most part, this approach works to a very interesting degree and is a refreshing change of pace. However, there were some scenes in the movie where I wished the narration could have been reduced a little bit, as it sometimes gets in the way of appreciating the beauty of the visuals onscreen.

Aside from this, the biggest controversy about "Pom Poko" seems to be centered on several scenes where the raccoons can inflate and/or transform their testicles(!) for multiple purposes. One particular scene involves a raccoon flattening his testicles against a truck, causing its driver to crash. Such moments may be alarming to children, but it is important to remember that while we see the testicles at times, the movie is, after all, animated. Even still, while a Japanese audience may take such scenes naturally, squeamish viewers in America could react differently. In fact, as a solution to handling this kind of translation issue, the English language version (produced once again by Disney) refers to the testicles as "pouches". That's a somewhat awkward decision, but it sure beats digitally removing the testicles from the scenes they're in.

"Pom Poko" was obviously a nightmare for English dub writers Cindy and Donald Hewitt to translate (especially since much of the movie is rooted in Japanese culture), but I really have to commend them for their efforts. There is some Americanizing here and there, but there was little, if any, that I could find missing in their script. In fact, I was most impressed at how they handled the songs; while at least two of them come across as a little contrived and/or corny, others flow so naturally that you never would have sworn that these were originally Japanese folksongs.

Another interesting aspect of the dub is the voice acting. With the exception of Jonathan Taylor Thomas (star of TV's "Home Improvement"), the cast consists of veteran performers who are known for cartoon voice work; Tress MacNeille, John DiMaggio, Russi Taylor, Andre Stojka, and Clancy Brown, to name a few. Whether this was done to cut down on costs for big-name stars or for avoiding aural distraction is unclear, but when listening to the spirit and energy that the aforementioned voice artists give their characters, it really doesn't matter.

"Pom Poko" may be an unusual entry from Isao Takahata, and its foreign aspects may not appeal to everyone, but if given a chance, the film offers a colorful display of imagination and pathos as well as an experience unlike many that one will find from ordinary cartoons.

Many reviewers take what is to me an odd angle on this film. The usual complaint is that the movie is not about anything especially, but some environmental overtones, and that it meanders, but has great visuals, especially during the festival scene. I stand before you right now and tell you not many many movies have made me cry. I am something of a tough guy, I like my heavy metal, I sport a beard at times. This movie had me crying, not once, but again upon rewatch, and I mean my eyes weren't just watering, I mean sobbing. I am going to take a ... different angle in my approach in my review to this movie. One that is based on industry and the fragmentation of modern society.

Pom Poko is a movie about the trials of a group of people (they are tanuki, mythical shapeshifting racoon people) as they try to survive the encroach of man on their forest they call home. The tanuki are a whimsical bunch, they try hard, but they are easily distracted by games and good food. They try to get along with each other, but they are often divided on various issues. However, when man starts to push in on their living space, various smart leaders in their ranks realize what is happening and that to survive they will need to unify in order to remain. This starts as general pranks and mischief on the construction workers and people moving to the area. This stalls progress somewhat, but the gears of the machine continue as people continue to move into the area and food begins to become scarce. The tanuki have to start controlling their population and their rations of food.

At about this point the tanuki are forced to make one last stand something to impress and awe the visitors of that area and get their attention. They make festival of sorts using the help of a powerful elderly tanuki that had responded to their cry for help, something that says adamantly "We are here, this is us, this is our way of life". Unfortunately, this is cunningly misinterpreted by the news as a publicity stunt for a new theme park, and progress on the destruction of their homes continues.

At this point, many in their ranks turn to violence, and they decide if it is going to end this way they would prefer to go out with a bang. Many of them are killed, some run away. At this point the few tanuki left, the very advanced shapeshifters, submit themselves to a life of living tiring lives as humans, essentially having at that point been conformed, an idea a smart shapeshifting fox presents to them who has long given up on maintaining his original way of life and now uses his abilities for himself in human society.

The real heart clenching moment in the movie though is when just for a moment the magic of tanuki are able to reveal what the forest used to be. A boy and his mother step out of their house and examine the tanuki and is able to appreciate the forest as it once was.

For me, this is a movie that shows what happens when even the best efforts of genuinely hard working and sincere people can fall straight through the cracks of a fragmented society. I think it is representative of how easy it is to get swept up in the machine and not to realize their is something very special right in front of your eyes. The movie doesn't condemn those that don't go out of their way to examine the world around them, as a matter of fact it acknowledges how tiring and how difficult it can be to live in human society, as the remaining tanuki shapeshifters find the hustle and bustle of daily life difficult to deal with and the pressures it puts them. But if I had one moral to draw from this movie, it wouldn't be cherish the forest or stop destroying the homes of wild life. No, it would be, take a look around you every once in a while. It is a call for conscientiousness. Don't allow those that live differently to get trampled underneath by a machine, and don't allow yourself to easily become swept up in deindividuated.

Otherwise the film is a very good looking and sounding one. English dubs are excellent. The design of the tanuki is very characterized and far from simplified. Many tanuki have been given different personalities. It isn't something I would watch on a lazy Saturday morning, but I would recommend it to anyone for its general viewing power (PG rating), and its powerful message.

I watched this a long time ago /w all of the other Ghibli films, when I was young. Out of all the Ghibli films, Pom Poko is still the work that I have the most memories of (in terms of Miyazaki's work, I remember Kiki the most because it has the best Ghibli loli). In a way, it represents what Ghibli/Miyazaki could have been, but never was - because of their adherence to a certain frame of style. While Takahata's other works, like Grave of the Fireflies & Only Yesterday, were thoroughly grounded in the real world - Pom Poko showed me the possibility of ... a Ghibli fantasy totally drunk off its ass and crass in the best way possible. Ghibli on drugs, in other words, headed by a cast of bawdy Tanuki with their flying ballsacks and mischievous metamorphoses - showing that 'dirtier' aspect of Japanese folklore that was missing even from gory works like Princess Mononoke. Yet, the crassness is never extreme, and there's still great beauty found in it. The Night Parade scene is etched into my visual memory forever due to how exhilirating it is, and even though Satoshi's Kon later take on dream imagery would be more insane and hallucinogenic - I felt that Paprika was lacking considerable... 'heart' I guess? Takahata simply knew better about things like creating a sense of robustness that escapes superficial sheen, or gives the sheen 3-dimensionality.

Speaking of Princess Mononoke, I like the take on environmentalism present in Pom Poko more than anything Miyazaki - because there's a kind of mature balance and lack (or, rather, lessening) of the heavy-handed aspects that frequently drags down other Ghibli works. I like the snarky half-documentary approach that it takes. I like the rough edges more than the cleanliness of your standard Ghibli movie. I love how much they muted any romance aspect or riveting action narrative (even though there is some) in exchange for a more thorough look at a fantastic society. Ethnography over excitement. The jokes are the best kind of slapstick, and they fit the way the bodies bend and warp in infinite transformations. As time goes by, it's Pom Poko and Only Yesterday that ripens beautifully, while the rest of the Ghibli oeuvre starts to seem a bit too sweet for my liking (and Grave of the Fireflies too bitter)

Pom Poko is defiantly a great movie and is from Studio Ghibli. It had a rather unique and different view on the animals and had a vary good story. Its a wonderful movie about the raccoons trying to save there home from humans who are trying to destroy the forest, while the protect the forest they use shape shifting and other things to try and scare away construction workers and even the people in the city.

It's not easy, staning in the shadows of a mastermind. Well, the same goes for Isao Takahata. He is not only one of the Co-Founder of the Studio Ghibli, he also is the man for the "Different Works". He proofed this with one of the greatest animated classics ever, Grave of the Firflies. It was the first time Studio Ghibli made a movie with such a thematic, and it was their last. That haven't changed, not even in 2014.

But Takahata is not only known for "Grave of the Firieflies". He made other fine movies like "Only Yesterday" or the most unique Ghibli Work "My Neighbors ... the Yamadas". To sad, all these movies are underrated. It's such a pain to see Takahatas work for Ghibli is not so much appreciated compared to Hayao Miyazakis work.

For me, Pom Poko is equal to the great works of Miyazaki. Maybe, he surpasses Miyazakis work in this movie. The art ist stunning, I've never seen in an animated movie (besides of Chihiro) so much love and magic. The dialogues are packed full of funny moments but it is the Story, the Moral itself, which stands out in this movie. Pom Poko is not an obvious Tearjerker like "Grave of the Fireflies". You have to go deep into yoruself to fully understand the Moral of Pom Poko. It's such a nice mix of traditional japanese lifestyle and pahntastic myths from the old Japan. And yes, I've almost shed a tear at the end of the movie.

At the time of it's release, Pom Poko was on the Shortlist for an Academy Award. And I will not debate, this movie deserved an Oscar. Maybe this is the most underrated Ghibli Movie ever created. Don't let all these disappointed Reviews disappoint yourself. If you like Ghibli, no, if you like magic, animated movies and a great story, you will love Pom Poko.

Diving into the Ghibli works outside of Miyazaki comes with an inherent risk. However, I am usually the one disappointed by non-Miyazaki Ghibli films. That being said, Pom Poko is the non-Miyazaki film that proves itself.

While many Ghibli films have an underlying environmental theme, Pom Poko addresses this theme with full force. Avoiding subtlety isn't bad. This is great. Watching Totoro and Spirited Away give us a nice warm emotional hug from the beautiful scenic displays of nature and old Japan, but then we walk away from it into each films fantasies, and then back to our 21st century lives. Pom Poko humanizes the tanuki ... to turn a Japanese myth into an ecological looking-glass for the damaging industrial expansion of mankind. It is not suggestive. It is informative.

The production quality is as expected of any Ghibli movie. Plus, the animation quality and musical score are not just stacked on top of the story but are actually quintessential to the development of the film: each tanuki varies in animated complexity throughout the film, and much of the music arises from moments of the film (the party music, and the parade for example).

The development of the tanuki as characters is nothing short of brilliant. The use of their transforming ability allowed the artists to establish motifs across their different physical forms. These thematic forms act as an indicator for what type of creatures are in contact with the tanuki at any given scene. They have a comedic cartoony form, a serious battle form, even a mating form. Noteworthy among these is their realistic form, where they embody how we humans see animals in reality: they rely heavily on their instincts, and struggle to consciously analyze their environment. They usually take this form when they are being seen by humans, and thus it emphasizes that these moments are how we see tanuki, as opposed to how other beings in nature see them. The scenes with tanuki in their realistic forms tend to be the scenes in which we pity them most, and they are often hurt or patronized by the human world. In these scenes we directly see how our actions, which we have the ability/responsibility to make consciously and wisely, should be more considerate to the remaining world. This world of organisms may not be as inherently clever as we are, but still experiences the emotions that all humans and animals are endowed with.

Throughout the film there are many key figures in the tanuki community, but the film never revolves around any particular character. This can be problematic for many films, but this works well for the themes of Pom Poko. Pom Poko is centric around the tanuki as a group, and it is another nudge toward being less ego-centric as human beings, and being mindful of our ecosystems as a community. By the end of the film we still end up being very attached to a handful of the tanuki who have experienced a coming of age throughout the story, without ever realizing that we were following these characters. The development of character and attachment to these characters is a reflection of how an honest community works. We don't choose our friends and loved ones at the beginning of our lives, but we build them as we go through our trials and tribulations.

(Review originally posted to Letterboxd)

Seriously one of Studio Ghibli's true materpieces, and yet one of its least-known titles just because the tanuki have large testicles.

It's seriously a 10/10 from me, something that is incredibly rare by any standard.

Pom Poko is a satirical war epic that is so steeped in Japanese culture and folklore that no other country could produce something similar. It has the same basic plot of Hollywood kids' movie dreck like Over the Hedge or Furry Vengeance--animals trying to subvert humanity's march toward progress as their home is being decimated--but takes a much darker turn. This may be rated PG with the ... MPAA somehow but it's most certainly not a kids' movie; the tanuki actively try and often succeed to kill humans destroying their forests, and the story isn't wrapped up in a nice little bow to make you feel good about the outcome.

The animation, music, and voice acting is all superb, as is standard for a Ghibli production. The movie is distinctly Japanese but should resonate with any culture for its allegorical struggle between modernity and traditionalism, or its not-so-allegorical fight for environmentalism. It accomplishes all this by being both hilarious and heartbreaking, which is a feat few films can pull off.

First, a brief message:- What I like about anime is the fact I get, well, normally get, movie-quality art, sound and character in bite-sized chunks, over the amount of time of a TV series. Basically, I'm not a massive movie-fan. I like movies, but, like anime, the huge volume means half the stuff is average, and the big time-scale to try and portray an epic tale just bores me sometimes. However...
STUDIO GHIBLI.
I came to find Studio Ghibili when my mums boss lent me Howl's Moving Castle, on DVD, and then Spirited Away. Fast forward a few years and I'm a big anime fan, and Studio ... Ghibli productions never cease to amaze me. And so I come to Pom Poko. Let's jam...:-

STORY:- The story, in brief, is about a bunch of TANUKI. Many, including the narrator in the film, refer to them as raccoons, and they tanukis are "raccoon dogs", but raccoons, in the American sense, do not have the folklore surrounding them that the Japanese do. So, with the history lesson over, this is a story of many themes: family, destruction, regret, passion - well, you'll see when, not if, you watch the film. The tanooki are trying to save their home when constructors destory their land to make way for new home projects. There. I went off on a tangent, but that is the story. Sorted. 8/10.

ART:- Art is traditional Ghibili affair, that is to say, beautifully hand-drawn and fantastically animated. The artists at Ghibli's dispirsal are of top-notch expertise, and I, as a massive fan, wouldn't have it any way. Kudos Ghibli, kudos. 9/10.

SOUND:- Wow. WOW OH WOW! I mean, the sound would have scored high for the dub alone, as it is fantastically done. I cannot compare it to the Japanese original, but, I mean, you don't need to really. It's fantastic anyway. But what really did this for me was the traditional Japanese music. I mean, with the film being centered in Japan and on the old folklore tanukis, you have to expect a certain aspect of tradional Japan, but the taiko drums I think they're called, and the lutes for example, are just so harmonious and, just, brilliant. If you're a Japan buff/otaku like me, you'll love it. P.S. Loads of singing too. Very harmonious. 10/10.

CHARACTER:- Ghibili are brilliant at creating characters. Not my favourite film due to this, but each tanuki, despite many seeming like clones, all to seem have their own character. It's truly brilliant. The humans are quite good too. I just... Can't seem to put my finger on it. Maybe because there's a massive group of tanuki there isn't the traditional character building of what Ghibli are known for, but, yeah, whatever, still awesome. 8/10.

So, overall, I'd like to give the film an 8.8, but MAL don't do .'s, so, has to be a 9. The sound is fantastic, the story is whismical and, as is Ghibli tradition, has many underlying themes, and the character is fantastic. Another Ghibli stroke of genius, and a must-watch for any anime fan. And Ghibli fans? Should you need any convincing?

This movie follows many Raccoons as they struggle to keep there forest around with the humans huge increase of towns and housing for the multiplying humans. With no care for nature they cut down trees and level land at the loss of the Raccoons home. You watch as Raccoons try to drive the humans away with little success, and watch as the Raccoons have to adapt to a new way of life. With many losses and no home the Raccoons must learn to live along side humans with there ability to transform. Throughout this movie you learn that animals can still live and be happy ... a long side humans and no matter if they lose there home Raccoons are still happy and playful creatures and go on living happy live. This series I thought was very great close to a lot of the Studio Ghibli films I give it a 8 out of 10 just because I don't think it quite met my standards of studio ghibli movies. But none the less very great movie.

Pom Poko is an excellent environmentalist film. It marries environmentalism with Japanese folklore to create a wacky and colourful warning to industrial development. Without knowing Japan's folklore, this movie may not make sense because it relies heavily on the viewer being familiar with lots of different stories and tidbits. For a movie about the tanuki's home being destroyed so that commerical housing can be built, it is hilarious. My favourite joke is when all the tanuki are sitting on a mat which is actually their master's transformed testicles. The nuanced message that we have to adapt to our changing environment is refreshing compared to the ... usual bleeding-heart tree-hugging or shame tactics that greenies like to use.
Pom Poko is a fun way for children to learn about the effect humans have on nature and understand the positives and negatives that come with this.

Pom poko was.... Slightly strange.
If the characters were humans I'd think the film was sick and twisted and should be rated much higher than what it is, but they're talking, animated raccoons...? Childish characters and a magical theme, yet a mature storyline?
I didn't really know what to make of it. X'D
None the less, good old Hayao Miyazaki once again hasn't failed to make this film utterly unique and get his morals across to viewers; I personally went away wanting to save all the woodland creatures' habitats. :) The characters were origional and the film was ... very cleverly put together in the way that it's viewers could be of any age and still be entertained and learn something from it.
It isn't Miyazaki's best, I can say that much, however it's still well worth watching and I reccomend it to everyone.

Rate a 7
English Dubbed

Story
Some of you are aware an old saying about Americans being fat. Others may have hear about Japan's one child policy. Around the world there are such relevant remarks. While they entirety they construct is somewhat true depending which you are referring to all have the same backstory. Us humans over the years are starting to reap the devastation of over population brought on by greed. This anime through the views of another nature's animals species shows us the errors of us humans ways. In the past we have shoed them from our garbage cans. Or even murdered them with our cars. ... We did all we could to sweep the problem they brought us under a metaphorical rug. Life with end. How soon it will end lies on us who are breathing. The more actions we take on the defense rather than offense will delay the ending of the battle. All of which comes to light in the fictitious animals that can't be silenced in this anime. While that message being told is sad but is quite true. Fear not though, the anime does have a kind ending that provides more light to what some of us believe to be true.

Art/sound
At first the viewer may feel taken back by the different forms of drawing used. With most anime a art style is picked and used throughout the show. Not here. To fully express the changes being inflicted in nature and the changes brought by the anime's message the characters to had to change.

Not an easy task to keep up with the constant changes in not only art but narrator speaker requires much effort. As long as you the viewer show proper due diligence in watching to the end will you see how parts fits nice and snug together.

Literally just a movie about raccoons (or tanukis if you wanna sound cool) swingin they massive bawlsacks around and transforming them into various things. Cool visuals and really sad ending but overall kinda boring. However, there is a scene where the raccoons inflate their bawls and use them as parachutes and then fight riot police with them so I guess that's kinda the big selling point of the movie. Very heavy-handed environmentalist moral that's sure to jerk your tears and make you wanna throw out all your wood into the dang dumpster. Cute characters and lots of fun for the whole family! Solid 7/10.

Pom Poko is one of the most bizarre feature films I’ve ever watched. Even in comparison to anime’s general willingness to push the boundaries of logic and reality, the way it carries itself and the directions it goes in are all so fascinatingly weird that I’m still working to puzzle out how much of the damn thing actually works. It’s a kid-friendly environmentalist polemic with a shockingly high body count, a spiritual exploration of Shinto faith as filtered through the lens of a nature documentary, a treatise on society where a good chunk of the characters fight with their magic expanding nutsacks. If nothing else, ... you could never accuse director Isao Takahata of playing it safe; this is a bold, brazen experiment that swings for the fences on every pitch, and even when it ends up striking out, it’s so uniquely compelling that you can’t wait for it to step up to the plate all over again. This is a film I could watch a million times and have a million different reactions to, and at the very least, that makes it worthy of recommendation.

The story, set in the 1960s, centers around a community of raccoons (or Tanuki, in the original language) living in rural Japan. But these are no ordinary raccoons; these are raccoons as envisioned by classic Shinto mythology, able to transform and perform many feats of magic, once they shake off enough of their natural laziness to actually put in the effort. They’re a society of roly-poly, bumbling couch potatoes living out their ordinary lives until their home is thrown into chaos by the arrival of humans. As Japan’s society grows ever larger, more and more land is being developed into suburbs, and the raccoons’ home has just become the planned site for one of the biggest land development projects in the country’s history. Thus, their community must come together and figure out how to stop this expansion from steamrolling their home. Over the course of years, their plans escalate and shift, their society develops and changes, and the constant threat of the forest being destroyed challenges them all in ways they never could have expected.

Still, that plot synopsis doesn’t do justice to what a spectacularly odd movie Pom Poko is to experience in the moment. The best way I can describe it is “purposefully mismatched”, like a patchwork quilt sewn out of contrasting fabrics and textures as to make the experience of the thing a constantly shifting expectations. It’s presented with a near constant narration that treats the years-long struggle between raccoons and humans almost like a historical document, like something you’d fire up on the Discovery channel after hearing a bizarre factoid from a friend and wanting to learn more about this uniquely offbeat moment in time. There aren’t really any traditional character arcs to speak of; nobody grows all that much, or learns an important lesson, with the focus centered firmly on the growth and development of the raccoon and human societies themselves. In a sense, it almost feels like an anthropological document, an excavation of this fictional community that pieces together how and why it functioned, and how and why this outside challenged forced them to change in response to it. It even goes so far as to have one of the characters speak directly to the audience in the final scene, as if to drive home the lesson that should be taken from this moment in history. Hell, in the fictional world Pom Poko takes place in, I wouldn’t be surprised if this ended up as the kind of educational film teachers would show to their kids in history class. That’s the kind of vibe it gives off.

And yet, in contrast, it’s also a film that at times feels surprisingly dark for being ostensibly aimed at kids. Now, I’m far from believing that we should sanitize children’s entertainment; they can, and should, be able to tackle media that goes to dark, uncomfortable places. Just look at Cardcaptor Sakura, a kid’s show that doesn’t shy away from just how overwhelming and agonizing being a kid can actually be. But the occasional spurts of violence that punctuate Pom Poko feel a lot more jarring, in a way that I wonder if it’s intentional or not. I mean, like I mentioned earlier, this is a film in which one of the weapons the raccoons utilize in their fight against the humans is inflating their nutsacks to ludicrous proportions and using them as blunt-force weapons, but it’s also a film where a not-insubstantion number of background characters die. In pretty graphic ways, with scars and blood and torn flesh visible. Yet it’s also a film that doesn’t really dwell on death all that much; an attack on a construction site leaves three humans dead, but the raccoons can’t get through a moment of silence for the lives they took without quickly dissolving into raucous celebration. It’s paradoxically both darker and harsher than a lot of kids’ media I could name and lighter and more carefree than plenty of its less-violent contemporaries. As a result, it’s a film that constantly left me question if what I was feeling was what I was supposed to be feeling at the moment, or if there even was an intended emotional takeaway. Perhaps this tonal confusion is the entire point of the piece, though to what end I couldn’t say.

I will say, this, however: I don’t think I’ll even get tired thinking about the challenge this movie left me with. And it certainly presents a lot of questions for you to puzzle over. Is the raccoon society means to parallel or contrast human society at all, and to what extent? How deeply do the film’s intensely spiritual roots inform its depiction of civilization overtaking nature? Is the overall goofiness and light-heartedness of the production meant to mask the potential trauma of its darker moments, or is that dissonance supposed to be so prominent? And what should be made of all that in light of its surprisingly downbeat coda? The answers aren’t obvious, and I think that’s the point. Like Takahata’s earlier work in Grave of the Fireflies, it’s a movie that seems perfectly comfortable with you drawing your own conclusions from it, taking away whatever nuggets of value you can gleam from it and leaving behind everything else. His directing style acts as almost like a Rorschach test for the audience, presenting a complex, multi-layered situation and asking them to fill in the blanks. And I can’t help but be impressed at how cleverly he poses these questions.

On that note, I’m not entirely sure what score would work best for Pom Poko. It’s a movie that I feel I’d need to see a couple more times and puzzle over a lot more to get a sense of what I ultimately take away from it. So it’s entirely possible that the score I give it here will change in time, or upon reflection. Thankfully, while I don’t have all the answers at the moment, I can definitely say that the puzzle of Pom Poko is one I would greatly enjoy returning to, thanks to its impressive scope, constantly imaginative aesthetic, and endlessly fascinating exploration of a million complex ideas. Plus, again, magic raccoons fighting with engorged nutsacks. If nothing else, you gotta give them credit for having the balls (no, I’m not sorry) to pull that off.

𝙎𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙜𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙤 𝙝𝙖𝙥𝙥𝙚𝙣.....

Distinctly Japanese in its essence yet resonating with cultures universal. It captures the allegorical struggle between modernity and traditionalism, while also shedding light on the fight for environmentalism. This piece accomplishes these feats through a perfect blend of humor and heartbreak, a balance that few films can achieve. With seamless grace, it weaves together hilarious moments and poignant sorrow, creating a symphony of emotions. It transports the audience, painting a masterpiece of words and scenes that fulfills dreams and leaves an indelible smile and teary eyes at the end. The opening of the film is so joyful it's really hard to ... digest the utterly bitter final epilogue. It's just the ultimate crossover where raccoons prove they can out-horror anyone and still be kawaii....!!

I've looked at a lot of Ghibli films over the years. Most of them have been quite good others have been more bland or even worse, Tales from Earthsea. This time around we're looking at 1994's Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko.

Story:

We follow a group of tanuki. Their mountain is in danger from human expansion and they plan to do something about it. Using their transformation skills and determination they set on a campaign to save their home from being converted into an apartment complex and a WcDonalds.

The only real issue I have with the story is that it can drag on a bit. There ... are multiple scenes where the tanuki will go over information they've already been over or they'll just decide that it's time to celebrate. Now, I do get the point of these scenes. They're reiterating information to demonstrate the hopelessness of their situation and how difficult it is for them to come up with any kind of solution while they party quickly to showcase their fun-loving nature. However, that doesn't mean they need to spend as much time with these scenes as they do.

With that said, this film does an excellent job of presenting a hopeless situation in such a way that there's still plenty of room for light-heartedness and even hope that the characters you're spending time with might emerge from the situation and be okay while not actually diminishing from the seriousness of the situation. The whole film's aesthetic hinges on the treading a very fine line and they pull it off. I also do appreciate the environmental themes and the way they're handled with some actual nuance. If this was a Hollywood film from the same time period those same themes would have been preachy and had all the subtlety of a bullhorn.

Characters:

The characters in this are very endearing and a lot of fun. I also appreciate that the major tanuki don't agree on how to handle it. Some say that they need to just kill a bunch of humans, others favour trying to frighten them and they have some really interesting debates about what they should do. The characters may not be incredibly deep but the combination of endearing traits and interesting discussion does a lot for making them compelling.

Art:

This film is gorgeous. Probably not a surprise given that it's a classic Ghibli film and they all look amazing. The backgrounds are beautiful. The nature scenes are stunning. The tanuki are drawn as humans, fully detailed tanuki and an anthrofied version of tanuki and one of the interesting parts of the film is that the major characters have anthro and human versions that are very distinct to them. The scenes where they use transformations to try and scare the humans are incredible. There are such interesting and varied visuals in them.

Sound:

The acting in this is done skillfully. Nonomura Makoto, Kiyokawa Nijiko and Ishida Yuriko are especially good. Hayashibara Megumi is also in this with a very minor role and she also kills it. The music is very well composed and suits the atmosphere perfectly.

Ho-yay:

There isn't any.

Areas of Improvement:

Get to the point a little more quickly when you have a scene that's a bit repetitive.

I'd like to see the news report that gets filmed towards the end of the film.

Instead of repeating basically the same party scenes it would have been nice to see more of the major tanuki characters just having a laugh and bonding as friends.

Final Thoughts:

Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko isn't one of Ghibli's absolute best films. It's still really good with strong theming, endearing characters, amazing art and it definitely deserves credit for having some difficult subject matter to handle well and handling it well. I'm giving it a solid 8/10.

Pom Poko is a good Ghibli film!

But not an amazing one though, for me the first 30 or so minutes are amazing, the documentary style narration and I loved to see this slice of these raccoons lives, how they interact and live. But after sometime it gets a little boring, the story itself isn't anything to write home about, and that's why I think this would work a lot better if it was a short movie. I would gladly watch a 30 minute short documentary(ish) piece about these raccons.

But as it is the film is good nonetheless, the Ghibli qualoty is here, there are absolutely ... gorgeous scenes here, the animation is flawless, the comedy is good, and it has lovable characters, I just felt that the story didn't held up that good throughout the film...

Overall Pom Poko is a good experience, and if you're a Ghibli fan I would absolutely recomend this movie.

- Will Neot