Heisei tanuki gassen ponpoko

I find it hard to summarize this film, since it is sort of all over the place. The main plot of the film involves the tanuki (raccoon-dogs) of the Tama hills near Tokyo and their struggle against the encroaching development that is destroying their woods. As the tanuki attempt to defend their home through the use of their shape-shifting abilities, they are also challenged by an inability to agree on the best course of action and a growing sense that their efforts may be inevitably doomed to failure.

The film, like its tanuki characters, seemed a bit unfocused at times, especially towards the end. Indeed, the plot mainly served as a set-up for showing a succession tanuki antics. Admittedly, said antics were very entertaining, but at 2 hours of runtime I'd prefer a little more narrative support.

Some have referred to this movie as environmentalist in nature, but viewed from that standpoint, it is actually somewhat weak. I was especially disappointed by the ending, which I thought failed to make any meaningful comment on the sequence of events depicted in the movie. Without giving too much away, it seemed like the movie was saying, "Development and urban sprawl are inevitable, but oh well. At least there are still golf courses and parks!" It was as if the people making the film didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. I have nothing against ambiguity, especially with such a broad theme as the conflict between humans and nature, but I thought the overall effect of the film was wishy-washy, avoiding more serious questions for the sake of preserving a lighthearted tone.

The best aspects of this film in my opinion were its unrestrained playfulness, wacky sense of humor, and use of Japanese culture and folklore, much of which was largely unfamiliar to me as a Western viewer. The art and animation were also quite well done, with realistic natural elements rendered quite convincingly and an overall visual harmony between the static backgrounds and animated figures. Despite the shortcomings mentioned in the preceding paragraphs, I enjoyed this film quite a bit. 7 / 10.

I take back what I said about "The Cat Returns" being the weirdest Ghibli movie. "Pom Poko" gets that award instead.

If you watch this movie, you should know beforehand that it is heavily based in old Japanese folklore about the Tanuki, magical raccoon/dogs capable of transforming themselves and other things who like to do mischief to humans (and yeah, they use their nutsacks). So if you don't know that before watching this film (like me), you'll have a really weird time.

This movie's message is completely about deforestation and how animal life gets affected by that matter. They handle it well, but it's really on-the-nose throughout the whole movie, and if it wasn't evident enough, they break the fourth wall to say it themselves. Anyway, they don't portray humans as some devilish, selfish creatures who want to destroy the raccoon's... eh, sorry... the Tanuki's home. Actually, the Tanukis are way eviler when it comes to attacking humans.

As I said before, I had a really weird time watching this, and I was wondering if it was actually a kid's movie. Yes, it's entertaining, fun, and deep, but there are a lot of bizarre moments.

Overall, for Ghibli fans, this is a movie worth checking out, due to its ecologic theme, entertaining story, and charming animation, but too bizarre for casual anime watchers (even though most anime nowadays are way more bizarre than this one).

Isao Takahata, the man who brought us the good Only Yesterday and the masterful Grave of the Fireflies, is at his most bizarre here. This is essentially the same story about anthropomorphic animals being distressed that humans are destroying their home that has been told countless times before, but there's precious little here that will be tiresomely familiar. The movie is overflowing with creativity, humour, and invention; and in the end, that's probably why it's ultimately less than a masterpiece. There's so much here that too little attention seems to have gone into tying it all together coherently.

The first half is definitely the best, since the movie treads more carefully while establishing itself. The raccoons living in a forest that's scheduled to be destroyed to make way for a new Tokyo suburb unite to develop their shapeshifting powers and use them to save their home. The problem, however, is that these are not professional guerrillas or revolutionaries or anything of the sort. They are raccoons, and as such, equally concerned with partying and scavenging in the humans' trash as with getting rid of them. There's also a priceless plot point about the need to keep the population down by stopping all mating in spring -- a policy with obvious enforcement problems. The tone is kept mostly light, and things move briskly, making the movie a fun experience thus far. Particularly ingenious is how the raccoons are shown differently according to the dramatic needs of the scene/ sometimes they're drawn completely realistically, walking on four legs and with totally inexpressive faces; sometimes they're drawn like traditional bipedal cartoon characters; and other times they take on human form.

However, its two-hour running time may have been a bit much. There's no concrete point where it stops working, but somehow the second hour works less well than the first. Plot points become more and more dubious and underdeveloped. What kind of Spook War could so easily be mistaken for a parade? Why were they initially so reticent about talking to the TV reporter? Shouldn't they have tried to do something with that million dollars they stole? Also, the "turn back the clock" illusion at the climax is maybe too ambiguous for its own good. It's not that it couldn't have been effective -- Hayao Miyazaki fine-tuned it to be devastatingly effective in Princess Mononoke -- but it just seems a bit incongruous here. The very end tries to be bittersweet in its admission of defeat but continuance of hope, but with only nominal success.

Still, this one is definitely worth seeing. As with all Studio Ghibli films, it's more concerned with real emotions and issues rather than the spraying blood and female nudity of so much other anime, and the level of wit and invention is some of the highest ever. It's a textbook example of how to handle anthropomorphism of animals with a maximum realism and a minimum of sentimentality. And where else are you going to see balls used so effectively as weapons?

This movie is one of my all time favorite Studio Ghibli movies (although I loved every single one I've seen). The way that Takahata portrayed the raccoons as how they acted when humans weren't around was great. It completely changed my view of raccoons.

The plot was very strong and also made you aware of modern day construction and how our forests are being destroyed. It also had great characters with many differences. There were smart ones, rough ones, calm ones, and ones that could pull through in times of hardship. Many showed compassion, and many didn't think anything through.

I also loved the human reactions to the raccoons. The raccoons made many very funny attempts to scare the humans and.. well I'll just leave it at VERY funny.

If you didn't like this movie, it may have been from the lack of understanding the portrayal of the raccoons, or because the humor isn't just your type of humor. I do believe that anyone, especially a Studio Ghibli fan (like me) would love this movie. It is great for the family, kids, or just adults.. There is definitely humor for all of them.

This a very different, more dynamic film than a lot of other Ghibli works. Although it bears some thematic resemblance to "Mononoke" and "Naussica" in its nature vs. man plot, it plays out much differently through its use of humorous protagonists. Though on the surface the tanuki may look like cuddly teddy bears, they are fierce in their war with the humans. The animation of the transformation scenes and the action shots make this a very appealing film and the characterization is first rate (especially the three old masters)!

It may be helpful for non-japanese audiences to do a little reading on japanese folklore. I caught a lot of the references but much of it went over my head.