Pom Poko
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"MAGICAL. RACCOON. TESTICLES."
—Cracked.com, "The 10 Best Animated Movies for (Traumatizing) Kids"
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Heisei Tanuki Gassen Ponpoko, (Heisian Tanuki War Ponpoko, 1994)
Studio Ghibli's 8th film is the story of a rag-tag group of magical animals engaged in a desperate battle to prevent the destruction of their forest.
Directed by Isao Takahata, Pom Poko deftly fullfils Studio Ghibli's dual missions of advocating for the environment and preserving traditional Japanese culture by presenting a cautionary environmental story and a raucous exploration of Japanese folklore all wrapped up a bittersweet tale of the costs of urban sprawl told from perspective of the displaced animals.
The Tanuki (which is not related to the North American Raccoon, as much as it might resemble one) occupies a very important place in Japanese traditional and popular culture. Pom Poko takes full advantage of this by working in just about every Tanuki reference available from fairy tales, folklore and even nursery rhymes. Needless to say, most of these references are lost on non-Japanese audience. Unfortunately, as Takahata's partner Hayao Miyazaki has been known to lament, nowadays many of these things are lost on the increasingly urbanized Japanese as well.
Well noted for the scene where defiant tanuki use one of their most prominent fairy tale features (their extraordinarily large testicles) as clubs to attack the police. And it shouldn't surprise anyone that the art is incredible, seeing as it's a Studio Ghibli film.
'Ponpoko' is a reference to the sound the tanuki of legend were supposed to make using their bellies as drums.
- Anthropomorphic Animal (see below)
- Art Shift: The tanuki shift from realistic to anthropomorphic to cartoonish and back again as the story requires.
- Animals Lack Attributes: Averted hard. MAGICAL. RACCOON. TESTICLES.
- Bittersweet Ending: The tanuki's home is destroyed, save for a few parks and preserves, and those who can transform are forced to join the human world, abandoning those who can't. However, their fun-loving, easy going spirits survive. The end of the movie finds them dancing and singing joyfully in a grassy field. . .the camera cranes back to reveal that it's a golf course.
- Bowdlerise: Japanese culture (even children's songs) is full of earthy references to the Tanuki's most outstanding anatomical feature—unusually large testicles. Not surprisingly, Disney changed "scrotum" to "pouch" for the English dub—but not the subtitles. Whether or not they fooled anyone is unclear. (Actually, given all the sight gags on that topic, the real surprise is that Disney did the release at all.)
- With Ghibli films at least Disney tends to bow down to the sub watchers with the subtitles. The subtitles match the original dialogue closer, on average, than the dub.
- Part of Disney's contract with Studio Ghibli was that they wouldn't edit any of the studio's films. This after the terrible fate of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind at the hands of Carl Macek. So, Disney released Pom Poko unedited and hoped that nobody would notice.
- Cultural Translation: Largely averted, aside from the bowdlerisation noted above and the mis-translation of "Tanuki" as "Raccoon" for North American audiences. Other Japanese cultural references are either explained or ignored.
- Faux Documentary: The movie is presented in this format with the narrator being a tanuki who has assimilated into a human lifestyle, though this only becomes apparent in the epilogue.
- Gag Penis: Sort of. The Tanuki's traditional distinguishing feature is played for laughs throughout the movie.
- Ghibli Hills: Massively subverted as this film depicts the destruction of the Ghibli Hills by developers.
- Groin Attack: In rural Japan, groin attacks you!
- Hey, It's That Voice!: The dub features some notable heavy-hitters from the North American ADR scene, including Tress MacNeille, Maurice LaMarche, Clancy Brown, Kevin Michael Richardson, and John DiMaggio.
- There are also notable actors(who don't usually do voice work) like Jonathan Taylor Thomas and J.K. Simmons
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: Subverted: The humans aren't evil, they just need the room, and when the Tanuki finally reveal themselves to the media, humanity proves to be willing to some degree of compromise, if only because people like to live among green spaces too.
- But there's also the owner of that amusement park that sabotaged Project Spectre by saying it had been his doing as a publicity stunt, thereby breaking the tanuki's morale.
- Humanity Ensues: The shape-changing tanuki eventually give up and start living as humans themselves, just as the foxes did before them,
- Kori Kombat: The kitsune have hidden amongst humans and integrated into their society, while the tanukis prefer to live in the forest despite the threat of urbanization.
- Lampshade Hanging: The Tanuki constantly reference the songs, stories, and nursery rhymes about them.
- Mood Whiplash: In the climax, images of mass Tanuki genocide are cross-cut with wacky ball gags.
- No Sex Allowed: The Tanuki invoke a temporary case of this in order to keep their numbers small and protect their dwindling food supply. It works for a while.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni: It's subtle, but the impulsive and aggressive Gonta wears red clothes, contrasting with the calmer Seizaemon, who wears blue-ish ones.
- Refuge in Audacity: When some of the Tanuki decide to go public on TV to plead their case to save their habitat. To the typical viewer (and the in-universe ones too), you will reflexively this stunt will never happen as fantasy folk in these stories are never openly revealed and no one will believe they are seeing the real thing. However, after a moment's hesitation, the Tanuki find the courage to do the unthinkable and appear right on camera to make their address and, to a degree, it works!
- Ridiculously Cute Critter: The tanuki. Especially in their "intermediate" form, in which they look like teddy bears. So much so.
- Also a delightful case of Truth in Television. For people who've never seen an actual tanuki or wasn't aware they even really existed, this is one of the most popular videos of one.
- Shout-Out: Totoro, Kiki and Porco Rosso all appear in the Tanuki's "Ghost Parade".
- Also, in a scene where a group of Tanuki are trying to scare away a person from buying some property, they use the signature pose of the original Kamen Rider to transform
- Toilet Humour: In a scene where the old Tsurugame is talking to the huge and loud tanuki crowd, one of them accidentally and quite hilariously rips a gigantic fart.
- The Unmasqued World : Some of the tanuki go public to plead their case to save their habitat. It's effective to a degree.
