Studio Ghibli is generally synonymous with quality. Led by Hayao Miyazaki and his lifelong friend Isao Takahata, Ghibli has come closer to batting 1000 then any movie studio I can think of. However, if you delve into the more obscure Ghibli films you can find some that while still good...are a little less than perfection. This is definitely one of those.
SPOILERS!
Plot:
The plot of this 1994, Takahata penned Ghibli film is that a community of magical tanuki (raccoon dogs) are being threatened by deforestation and must fight back against the loggers. Basically take the plot of 1992's Ferngully and add massive hairy balls. The tanuki around Tokyo are being driven from their homes, having to fight for food, and being killed by hunters and cars. Soon the various clans unite and start trying to chase away the humans using their transformation magic. The tanuki actually manage to kill several humans and celebrate their victory with a party...in this children's film! However, the humans just keep coming back and clearly a more drastic plan is needed.
The tanuki manage to gather ancient tanuki transformation masters from around Japan. The plan is to use a massive series of illusions so terrifying that the humans are driven away for good. However, the amount of magic this requires kills one of the masters and the tanuki retreat. The humans all immediately dismiss what they saw as a bad drug trip or dream. A theme park then claims responsibility and everyone just accepts it without ever questioning how they accomplished the illusion. None of the human characters in this film with the exception of 1 reporter EVER believe that magical tanuki exist. This is despite the fact that the tanuki don't exactly hide their powers. It is the same bullshit skepticism of the humans in DBZ or Seto Kaiba in Yugioh. TV Tropes calls it "Flat Earth Atheism", when a character refuses to believe in magic despite living in a world clearly filled with magic and personally see magic all the time.
Next we introduced to the Kitsune fox tribe of shapeshifters. The Kitsune have learned to disguise themselves as humans and live among them. The kitsune that couldn't shapeshift were killed off, but the shapeshifting kitsune simply accept this as survival of the fittest. It is revealed that the theme park that claimed responsibility is actually run by the kitsune, but then the tanuki steal back their money and the kitsune vanish from the plot without ever really serving a purpose.
It is at this point that different tanuki come up with different plans. One group of Tanuki pull a Lord of the Rings and sail into the afterlife. One group decides to fight the humans and we get easily the dumbest scene in the movie. Instead of using magic, the tanuki simply try clobber the humans with their massive scrotums. The humans don't enjoy being teabagged and start punching the tanuki in the nuts. The scene then fades to black and a narrator somberly explains that all the tanuki were killed...apparently by being punched repeatedly in the nuts. I think this scene was guest directed by Johnny Cage.
The surviving tanuki that can shapeshift are forced to disguise themselves as humans and live like the kitsune, who of course are never seen or mentioned again after their brief introduction. The tanuki that can't shapeshift continue to try live their lives despite the deforestation continuing to get worse and the problem never being resolved. While Miyazaki's films tend to have an emotionally cathartic climax in which the characters learn a lesson, this film by Takahata just kind of...ends. We are however given a moment in which the main tanuki breaks the 4th wall and tells the audience to care more about the environment. Thanks Takahata! We never would have figured out the moral without Tanuki Deadpool. The end!
Art:
The art is excellent and has that Ghibli beauty. However, I'm not sure this film needed quite so many giant balls. Given this IS a film about tanuki so some balls were expected. What we REALLY didn't need was tanuki titties. I'm not just talking Lola bunny in Space Jam boobs, but fully displayed, large nippled, furry boobs aplenty. Thanks Takahata sensei!
Music:
The music is mostly traditional Japanese folk music and is among the highlights of the movie.
Overall:
This movie had some very cute moments, touchingly sad moments, and tried hard to teach the audience a lesson about environmentalism. However, like Takahata's more famous work Grave of the Fireflies, he drives his points home with all the subtlety and grace of a sledgehammer. He tries to forcefully milk tears from the audience and guilt them into supporting his message, respecting and listening to elders in Firefly and conserving the environment in this case. For all its faults, the film still does have its strong suits and I feel it wouldn't be fair to give it less than a 6/10. i would recommend watching, but only if you've already seen all the Miyazaki directed Ghibli films.
