POM POKO, 1994
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A community of magical shapeshifting raccoons desperately struggle to prevent their forest home from being destroyed by urban development

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REVIEW:

Studio Ghibli has a reputation for producing stunning films that can entertain any age and any type of person through their narrative techniques, stunning animation, A-list casts and great music, their films are always memorable and whether you realise it or not they usually always have an important message to them underneath the gorgeous animation. Pom Poko is no different.

The story takes place in Tama Hills (which is actually a real place which is different for a Ghibli film), where a group of Tanuki (translated as Raccoons for the English dub) becoming endangered as their home is slowly being destroyed to make way for a construction site building more houses. As the Tanuki are slowly losing their homes they decide to fight back by learning the old ways of shape shifting, which of course leads to much mayhem and at times some sad consequences.

The film takes traditional Japanese folklore and uses it to create a film that is both entertaining and informative. They use old Japanese legends like the animals transforming and in the parade using monsters from myths to scare the humans. While western audiences may not get the Japanese folklore references, they will still understand what they are depicting from the way they have been animated which is a crucial part of he film.

Studio Ghibli has a gleaming reputation when it comes to their animation, they are at the top of their league, this film, although old now, has some of the best transformation sequences and one of the best magical parades and could easily give 'Paprika' a run for its money. As I said the best sequences are from the transformations of the Tanuki and when they finally decide to give the humans a big fright they transform into Japanese mythological creatures (and with a few Studio Ghibli cameos of course), and start a parade to scare the humans away from their natural habitat. This is the most memorable and well crafted scene in the film, not that the standard of animation drops of course, but it is a testament to how far Studio Ghibli's animation has progressed when compared to 'Howl's Moving Castle'.

The cast of the English Dub for Pom Poko includes Jonathan Taylor Thomas and J.K Simmons again an A-list cast for Studio Ghibli and all of the cast perform well and are well suited to their characters. The music in Pom Poko, although not done by Ghibli regular Joe Hisaishi, is still pretty good and does create more of an buzz at certain scenes although it is not as memorable as say the soundtrack to 'Princess Mononoke'.

This film has a clear message of environmentalism, as the rest of the world is slowly destroying rural areas, this film shows what eventually happens to the remaining wildlife when their homes are destroyed, a message that is as important today as it was when it was first created. But as this is a Studio Ghibli film it portrays this message in a whimsical way, the scenes in which the Tanuki transform and terrorise the humans are some of the most humorous scenes in a Studio Ghibli film ever created, but the message remains the same, the cost of development is causing the wildlife to suffer and dwindle.

While this film is not as well publicised as other Ghibli titles that have an environmental message, such as 'Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind', or 'Princess Mononoke', the film does contain a more mature and serious message then what it would appear from a first glance. While the Tanuki have to adapt and shapeshift to become human to survive the audience realise it is because of the humans they had to do this. In today's society with global warming becoming more of a danger and while more and more species are becoming endangered or extinct, this film is exactly what should be shown to the younger generations to make them more aware of what is happening. Of course they may end up thinking that Raccoons can turn into people but it is still a film that could be more important today then it was when it was first released.

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POM POKO