Pom Poko

4 reviews - 18.5 total score (Explanation of the rating system)
avg. score: (4.6)

4. Marshal of Manga

Pom Poko is characterized by a lack of restraint that runs contrary to many other Ghibli productions. This is without a doubt the most energetic Ghibli film to date, and only sheer style can be attributed to the way this energy is directed.

The tanuki are a race of forest-dwellers who possess the ability to transform into anything (stone, metal, humans… you name it) and have been able to coexist with humans throughout the centuries via their cunning and skills. However, Japan is fast becoming industrialized and many natural areas are earmarked for residential development, so the carefree tanuki must unify under the common goal of protecting their natural homeland.

The tanuki have separate clans and each tanuki has individualistic properties (almost more human than the humans) but they are all bound by a love for fun and nature, which makes this film stand out as sporting regular bouts of original humour, while making potent remarks about the potential problems the pruning of nature will produce.

There is so much going on at once that you should have your fingers on the pause or rewind buttons so as not to miss anything. Images such as the three monkeys (see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil), various depictions of the Buddha, a scissors, paper, rock contest, and all the other transformation sequences are beauteous examples of fine anime.

The music is nice, and attempts to create some atmosphere, but Pom Poko is 99% substance. This is not a movie where you sit through two hours, and either get hit with a wave of magical intensity or get struck dumb because you can't 'put your head in the atmosphere' as the saying goes (invented five seconds ago).

Putting the fun and environmentalist tendencies aside, Pom Poko portrays a microcosm of human society. There's a fight for survival, solidarity, courage, politicking, caring for those who are unskilled, abstinence from procreation, factionalism… it almost sounds like the creation of a socialist state! And not surprisingly, I can detect traces of George Orwell's Animal Farm in Pom Poko. Anything that can maintain such undertones while displaying an enjoyable movie is technically a classic.

Pom Poko can be divided into several phases as we track the angst and achievements of the tanuki, but the last third of this movie is what solidifies its five star rating.

The only qualm I have is that the narrator is utilized too much… he doesn't get annoying or detract from the movie, and he does give meaningful insights at times, but I prefer all my anime to be 'show, not tell'.

There are various cultural references that may be hard to grasp, and in my case, the company doing the subtitles stuffed up the timing, but it is immensely enjoyable nevertheless.

Verdict: Bristling with brilliance, this is Ghibli ecocriticism at its finest

3. Olmanek

This is one of the lesser known of the Ghibli films, which for the life of me I can't figure out why, as it is decidedly my favourite of them all. In a small mountain area, a group of Tanuki live and play in comfort and peace, but as the land is slowly destroyed to make way for town development the Tanuki, finding it increasingly harder to live, wage a war against the humans to reclaim their land. The Tanuki have magical abilities to transform and conjure things from themselves, an ability also present in foxes. This is a part of the Japanese mythology and folk lore, and so you can see why Ghibli decided to make this film and there is definitely an important note for the preservation of animals and land. Pom Poko is quite simply charming and magical. And that's all I want to say about it, because really you can't hope to capture any of that in a review. A must watch if you can find it, and if you can't, search harder.

2. Dreamer

Pom Poko is yet another nice works from the smart sleeves of Studio Ghibli. The Japanese title literally means "Heisei-era Tanuki War Pom Poko" It focuses on "Tanuki", an Asian animal the looks like the raccoon. In Japanese myths, it possesses the ability of changing (faking) its appearance into anything it wants. In the movie, these animals live in a forest near a government construction site and hence get endangered to be homeless. The tanuki decides to fight with the humans until the last breath. I'm not a big fan of this type of shows but still, I enjoyed it while I could. It may not be perfect but it is certainly worth checking out.

1. Hybrid

While My Neighbour Totoro is Miyazaki's cute movie, Pom Poko is Isao Takahata's cute movie. The story of Pom Poko is set in the 1960's in the Tama mountains, when Japan underwent large scale development. The story follows the tanuki (bear like creatures) who are forced to seriously think about their future, as the environment around them is being destroyed, to suit the needs of humans. Tanuki aren't your typical creatures, as according to Japanese legend, they have the ability to transform. With the ability to transform, the tanuki sabotage the construction work and play mischievous tricks and pranks on the human construction workers. However, the tanuki soon realize that their efforts of sabotage isn't going to stop the construction, so they plan one big giant illusion, in the hope to stop the constant deforestation that is occurring, before there are no tanuki left. The animation of Pom Poko is again like any other Ghibli film is highly detailed, with the colors being bright and colourful. An example of this in the movie, is the scene of where the tanuki are performing the giant illusion show to the humans, and the scene of where the two tanuki clans are fighting each other at the start of the movie. The music of the movie was very good, with many of the music themes that were featured, to be full of cute and fun jingles and melodies. As with any Ghibli film, this movie does feature many humourous moments. The scene of where many tanuki transform their faces into faceless faces, and show them to the police officer on his bike, was particular memorable and humourous. However, what was particular interesting about this film, is that the movie did involve a lot of famous Japanese legends from ancient folklore. Another interesting little thing about this movie is that unlike any other Ghibli film produced so far, the story of Pom Poko is told by a narrator, which I found to be quite interesting, as it enhanced the theme and atmosphere of the movie. In conclusion, this is another Ghibli film that has a deep meaningful theme, a wonderful cast of complex characters, lots of humourous moments and wonderful art and music. Highly Recommended.