Pom Poko

Did You Know?

• Studio Ghibli began experimenting with computer-generated imagery during the film's production.
• A character based on Shigeru Mizuki appears as the commentator in the film.
• The English dub voice cast includes Jeff Bennett, Alyson Stoner, and Richard Steven Horvitz.

Background

The story features tanuki, or Japanese raccoon dogs, which in folklore are bake-danuki capable of shapeshifting. Unlike kitsune, they are sociable and mischievous. The title "Pom Poko" refers to the sound of tanuki drumming their bellies, from a 1919 poem by Ujō Noguchi that became a children's song in 1925. Designs and plot elements drew from works by Shigeru Sugiura, Hisashi Inoue, and Shigeru Mizuki.

Plot

In late 1960s Japan, tanuki face habitat loss from the New Tama development in the Tama Hills. By the early 1990s, dwindling resources cause internal conflict until the matriarch Oroku unites them. Leaders include Gonta, Seizaemon, Oroku, and Shoukichi. They relearn illusion skills to sabotage construction, injuring and killing workers, but replacements arrive. Messengers seek help from legendary elders; one returns with three from Shikoku. They stage a ghost parade that kills an elder, but a theme park owner claims credit. Unity collapses: Gonta's eco-terrorists are killed by police, one elder starts a dancing cult that sails to death, and another considers joining humans.

Reception

Pom Poko was the top Japanese film domestically in 1994. It holds an 86% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metacritic score of 77. It won Best Animation Film at the 49th Mainichi Film Awards and the Grand Prix at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 1995.