Studio Ghibli Thoughts: Pom Poko

 

Isao Takahata's Pom Poko is the rare Studio Ghibli movie that I like a little less after every watch, and I attribute that to the same unique structure that was the film's biggest strength when I first watched it. Structured almost like a documentary, Pom Poko tells the story of a group of Tanuki (Raccoon Dogs) living on the outskirts of an ever-expanding Tokyo as they survive its expansion into their homes. The documentary angle explains both the mythical attributes of the Tanuki, who have the ability to shapeshift and the effect of human expansion on their environment.

However, don't think that this is a dry documentary at all, since it is told from the entirely fictional and charming perspective of the anthropomorphic Tanuki's who struggle in quite humanistic ways against their fate. At least, their feelings are quite humanistic, but their methods depend on their shapeshifting abilities and massive balls.

Yes, Pom Poko is the Studio Ghibli movie about Tanuki testicles. This cultural curiosity made it difficult to localize overseas. It has an 18+ rating on Netflix in the Middle East territories because of that unique characteristic; the only Ghibli movie to have such rating.

Yet, Takahata's adamant decision to portray the Tanuki's in all their mythical glory wasn't at all a juvenile decision. While incredibly funny at times, this is a serious movie about the march of progress and the little things it treads in its path, which this movie shows, is not only in the natural environment that the Tanuki's live in, but also the myths and traditions that they represented. In one of the movie's highlight scenes, a parade of glorious splendor is chalked up as an advertisement gimmick and forgotten within weeks through the incessant march of time, and we are left to ponder humanity's ability to wonder in this age of progress.

Despite the movie's strongest scenes, its disjointed nature keeps it from pulling me in whenever I watch it again, and I end up feeling it is a longer movie than it really is. As such, I can only consider it as a Mid-Tier Studio Ghibli movie despite my wholehearted recommendation for everyone to watch it at least once. Tough luck explaining the mythology of racoon testicles to whomever you watch it with.