Pom Poko on DVD | MovieMail UK

Star Review

Studio Ghibli has produced the three most successful motion pictures ever made in Japan—Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001), and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004). These were directed by Hayao Miyazaki, generally considered the greatest living Japanese film director. But Miyazaki’s films are not the only Ghibli releases to feature the most stunning animation since Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). Equally talented is Isao Takahata, who wrote and directed Pom Poko (Heisei Tanuki Gassen Pompoko) in 1994. The best of the Ghibli films are distinguished by progressive political beliefs—especially anti-war and environmental concerns.

Pom Poko tells of a group of Tanuki (racoon dogs—mischievous, lovable creatures with large testicles) who are faced with extinction because of the spread of ever-expanding Tokyo into their rural habitat. Man’s desecration of nature is an exterminatory policy. Using Tanuki transforming science, the racoon creatures become part human in order to disrupt the construction of a new suburb. They then transform themselves into wraith-like, faceless humans. This hallucinatory ghost parade of traditional Japanese monsters is the film’s most memorable set-piece. By film’s end, the Tanukis know they cannot win, but at least they have prolonged their survival.

Studio Ghibli films should not be watched in English-dubbed versions, but, rather, in Japanese, with English subtitles. Dubbing robs them of their authenticity.

R. Dixon Smith on 13th December 2005

View all 19 of R. Dixon Smith’s reviews

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