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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Morals and Music
This Ghibli film, Pom Poko, is directed by Isao Takahata. It features raccoons who find their forests shrinking, due to human expansion, and fight to retain what is left. It is a typical Ghibli film that includes multiple flight scenes (pocket-parachutes, and transformation parade), an environmental message, and numerous fantasy elements.
Pom Poko has a documentary feeling attached. It opens with commentary from some of it's raccoon characters. It then continues with a narrator through various portions of the film. The narrator gives time periods and points out societal trends related to the topic.
Takahata captured the environmental effects of forest loss well. The raccoons view each other as competition for food as the forest shrinks. With less food comes less mating, etc. He also expresses some Darwinian theories in it as well (i. e. adaptation, evolution, etc.).
The music is fun. The raccoons frequently sing and dance and play music. There are two or three songs that could be easily learned and sung by young children. The rest of the music is fun, catchy, and diverse as well. The soundtrack ought to be awesome.
I would consider Pom Poko a great multi-age film for older children through adult.
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Fun, cute and sad
This movie is about a lot more than just cute little Raccoons, it deals with the destruction of the environment and the effect on the animals that inhabit it. Its a fun cute movie, with sad bottom line though.
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Blends Animated Cuteness, Magic, And Harsh Realism In Another Studio Ghibli Masterpiece
"Pom Poko", aka "The Raccoon War", is the story of various clans of raccoons in a region of Japan who, pressed for space and food as their world continues to disappear under the wheels of human 'progress', take to fighting each other for survival and later teaming up to resist the human encroachment. These raccoons morph back and forth from realistic-looking quadrupeds to stubby, Ewok-like bipeds with clothes and primitive weapons as the story demands, and it never seems the least contrived. More advanced shapeshifting is a more difficult skill to acquire, one known to foxes and a select few raccoons.
The raccoons are often cute and playful, their efforts to disrupt human demolition and construction often falls into what can best be descibed as 'hi-jinks'. And though the movie is, thus, tender and funny a lot of the times, most of the time that's a veneer masking a much grimmer story, one that sometimes takes center stage. "Pom Poko" is anime, and one of the things that means is that no amount of lovability or animated cuteness on the part of the film's protagonists guarantees a happy ending. The raccoons aren't just 'miffed' in a cartoonish way - they, and the other woodland creatures are starving and in danger of dying out. There are both whimsical and darker fantastic elements in their campaign of resistance against the humans: their 'poltergeist' hauntings on the construction sites, the 'parade of phantasms' in a major Japanese city, etc. But the story of envirornmental devastation being told is very real, and there are real consequences in the movie: both raccoons and humans sometimes meet with unfortunate fates. Eventually a breed of foxes who have given up their 'fox status' and shapeshifted to survive by permanently living as humans enters the fray, along with some very old, very powerful, magical raccoons. The array of choices available to the protagonist 'main' racoons increases, but each one has its drawbacks. The animation is, as usual for Studio Ghibli, a triumph of imagination.
In an interesting twist, at one point one of the main raccoons actually addresses the viewers of "Pom Poko" directly, apparantly seeking in particular to grab the attention of young tots. It may be a wise move on the raccoon's part to seek the attention of the generations that will one day have power; the generations that have power now and have had for the last decades have, despite some encouraging signs of late, not really amassed the best track records.
"Pom Poko" is many things - hilarious, lovable, fierce, globally relevant, tragic, triumphant and more. Parts may be too intense for very young viewers (the also-excellent "Once Upon A Forest" raises some of the same issues but does it in a way less likely to really frighten, say, a three year-old. And like "Pom Poko", "Once Upon A Forest" is great for older ages too) who will likely be attracted by the comedic charm of the box art - you should watch it with your young children when they see it the first time. Other than that - which really isn't a minus; it can't make its point if there's always a safety net - this is an outstanding movie for everybody. A Studio Ghibli marker might just be the greatest assurance of excellence you can look for on a movie.
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Put this DVD in your pouch!
Pom Poko, the ninth feature-length animated movie produced by Japan's Studio Ghibli, is a brilliantly-made film with a powerful message of how man's progress can sometimes impact nature in harmful ways.
The raccoons ("tanuki" in Japanese) of the Tama Hills are suffering from the encroachment of human civilization (in the form of new suburbs of Tokyo) into their habitats, so they decide to fight back. Fortunately, the tanuki are one of the animal species in Japanese legend with the power to change shape. They can replicate inanimate objects, other animals and even people. The raccoons must learn to effectively use their abilities to dissuade the humans from destroying their homes.
Isao Takahata - a colleague and mentor of the masterful Hayao Miyazaki - created a moving film that runs the full gamut of emotions; there are a lot of funny moments, but other scenes will definitely tug hard at your heartstrings. Though the tanuki have these fantastic powers, their plight and anguish feel quite real... and the ending of the movie certainly reflects reality as well. By the way, Tama New Town is a real place - built in the hills southwest of central Tokyo in the 1960's.
The English dub is quite close to the original Japanese script (with a few cultural allowances), and the English voice actors did an excellent job.
I would probably not recommend this film for really young children as there is quite a bit of death and violence associated with the raccoon struggle, and a tiny bit of implied birds-and-bees stuff. The English dub creatively skirts around a sensitive issue related to the raccoons' reproductive organs. If your children are old enough to understand the larger environmental message, however, I would have no reservations showing them this magical film.
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Full of Japanese Folk Tales Involved
In Japanese folk tales Tanuki or racoon dogs are believed to trick people in a mischivous manner. Takahata-san with the support of Miyazaki(Konchou Daimyoujin a tanuki god from Awa, Shikoku borrows the self-image of him I guess) puts out ecology-motivated film somewhat parodical of Naussica and Castle In The Sky with similar poignant message. Since MY NEIGHBOR TOTORO Takahata/Miyazaki team tries to bring back Japanese nomadic landscape seriously in danger of destruction by current development. Unlike Naussica and Castle In The Sky this work gets more to the point. Racoon dogs are now being deprived of the home by housing development and they work together to revenge human and try to stop the development. Takahata gives the poor racoons the every idea and folk legends to fight against humans. Japanese scenary was vividly recreated by the hands of kazuo Oga known by the brilliant works in Totoro and Mononoke. The story reminds me a bit of The Planet of Apes series and lost effort by radical activists trying to stop Narita Airport back in 70s and 80s. Overall it is well-crafted ecology-motivated movie and very fun as well. Tama hills area used for this film is used again as the location of Whisper Of The Heart. I just hope Shizuku can find the remaining tanukis.
Verdict: Fun movie yet with clear message
Rating: 87 out of 100
Recommended for: Essential for Kazuo Oga scenary work fans who love Mononoke and Totoro. And wide range of movie fans.
