Pom Poko
Encyclopedia
is a 1994 Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese animated
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

 film, the eighth written and directed by Isao Takahata
Isao Takahata
is a Japanese anime filmmaker that have earned critical international acclaim for his work as a director. Takahata is co-founder of Studio Ghibli with long-time collaborative partner Hayao Miyazaki. He has directed films such as the war-themed Grave of the Fireflies, the romantic-drama Only...

 and animated by Studio Ghibli
Studio Ghibli
is a Japanese animation and film studio founded in June 1985. The company's logo features the character Totoro from Hayao Miyazaki's film My Neighbor Totoro...

.

Consistent with Japanese folklore
Japanese folklore
The folklore of Japan is heavily influenced by both Shinto and Buddhism, the two primary religions in the country. It often involves humorous or bizarre characters and situations and also includes an assortment of supernatural beings, such as bodhisattva, kami , yōkai , yūrei ,...

, the tanuki
Tanuki
is the common Japanese name for the Japanese raccoon dog . They have been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times...

 (Japanese Raccoon Dog
Japanese Raccoon Dog
The Japanese raccoon dog, also known as in Japanese, is conventionally considered as two subspecies of the raccoon dog, hondo-tanuki , and ezo-tanuki . Their common Japanese name is often mistakenly translated into English as "badger" or "raccoon"...

s, Nyctereutes procyonoides) are portrayed as a highly sociable, mischievous species, able to use "illusion science" to transform into almost anything, but too fun-loving and too fond of tasty treats to be a real threat – unlike the kitsune
Kitsune
is the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; in English, kitsune refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume...

 (foxes) and other shapeshifters. Visually, the tanuki in this film are depicted in three ways at various times: as realistic animals, as anthropomorphic
Anthropomorphism
Anthropomorphism is any attribution of human characteristics to animals, non-living things, phenomena, material states, objects or abstract concepts, such as organizations, governments, spirits or deities. The term was coined in the mid 1700s...

 animals which occasionally wear clothes, and as cartoony figures based on the manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...

 of Shigeru Sugiura
Shigeru Sugiura
was a Japanese manga artist famous for his surreal, nonsense gag manga. After initially studying painting, Sugiura became an assistant to the manga artist Suihō Tagawa. He soon began drawing his own manga in 1933 and came to fame after World War II with a series of comedic manga for children based...

 (of whom Takahata is a great fan). They tend to assume their realistic form when in view of humans, their cartoony form when they are doing something outlandish or whimsical, and their anthropomorphic form at all other times.

Prominent testicle
Testicle
The testicle is the male gonad in animals. Like the ovaries to which they are homologous, testes are components of both the reproductive system and the endocrine system...

s are an integral part of tanuki folklore, and they are shown and referred to throughout the film, and also used frequently in their shapeshifting. This remains unchanged in the DVD release, though the English dub (but not the subtitles) refers to them as "pouches". Also, in the English dub and subtitles, the animals are never referred to as "raccoon dogs", the more accurate English name for the tanuki, but rather incorrectly as simply "raccoons".

Plot

The story begins with a prologue
Prologue
A prologue is an opening to a story that establishes the setting and gives background details, often some earlier story that ties into the main one, and other miscellaneous information. The Greek prologos included the modern meaning of prologue, but was of wider significance...

 set in late 1960s
1960s
The 1960s was the decade that started on January 1, 1960, and ended on December 31, 1969. It was the seventh decade of the 20th century.The 1960s term also refers to an era more often called The Sixties, denoting the complex of inter-related cultural and political trends across the globe...

 Japan. A group of tanuki
Tanuki
is the common Japanese name for the Japanese raccoon dog . They have been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times...

 is threatened by a gigantic and ongoing suburban development project called New Tama
Tama New Town
is a large residential development, straddling the municipalities of Hachiōji, Tama, Inagi and Machida cities, in Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a new town in 1965...

, in the Tama Hills
Tama Hills
is an area of hills stretching across southwest Tokyo and northeast Kanagawa Prefecture in the Kantō Plain on Honshū, Japan. Its total area is approximately 300 km2...

 on the outskirts of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

. The development is cutting into their forest habitat and dividing their land. As construction continues, the story resumes in early 1990s Japan, during the early years of the Heisei era. With the amount of living space and food decreasing every year, the tanuki begin fighting among themselves for the diminishing resources of their habitat until at the urging of the matriarch Oroku ("Old Fireball"), they decide to unify against the humans to stop the development.

Several prominent tanuki lead the resistance, including the aggressive chief Gonta, the old guru Tsurugame, the wise-woman Oroku, and the young and resourceful Shoukichi. Using their illusion skills (which they must try to re-learn after having mostly lost and forgotten them), they stage a number of diversions including repeated attempts at industrial sabotage. These attacks injure and even kill some people, frightening many construction workers into quitting their jobs, but more workers immediately replace the ones who have been scared away. In desperation, the tanuki send out messengers to seek the help of various legendary elders from faraway regions, while continuing their resistance at home.

After several years, one of the messengers returns bringing a trio of tanuki elders from the distant island of Shikoku
Shikoku
is the smallest and least populous of the four main islands of Japan, located south of Honshū and east of the island of Kyūshū. Its ancient names include Iyo-no-futana-shima , Iyo-shima , and Futana-shima...

, where development is much less of a problem and (or perhaps because) the tanuki are still worshipped more actively. In an all-out effort at re-establishing respect for the supernatural
Supernatural
The supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...

, the entire group stages a massive "ghost parade" to make the human residents think the growing town is haunted. The strain of the massive illusion kills one of the elders, and the effort seems wasted when the owner of a nearby theme park
Amusement park
thumb|Cinderella Castle in [[Magic Kingdom]], [[Disney World]]Amusement and theme parks are terms for a group of entertainment attractions and rides and other events in a location for the enjoyment of large numbers of people...

 falsely takes credit for the parade, claiming it was all only a publicity stunt
Publicity stunt
A publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized or set up by amateurs...

.

With this tremendous setback, the unity of the tanuki finally fails and they break up into smaller groups, each following a different strategy. One group led by Gonta takes the route of eco-terrorism
Eco-terrorism
Eco-terrorism usually refers to acts of violence or sabotage committed in support of ecological, environmental, or animal rights causes against persons or their property....

, holding off workers for a time until they are eventually wiped out in a pitched battle with the police. Another group of tanuki including Tsurugame and Oroku desperately attempt an option that was previously unthinkable; they arrange for television coverage and publicly reveal themselves to the media to plead their case against the destruction of their habitat. One of the two surviving elders becomes senile
Dementia
Dementia is a serious loss of cognitive ability in a previously unimpaired person, beyond what might be expected from normal aging...

 and starts a Buddhist
Buddhism in Japan
The history of Buddhism in Japan can be roughly divided into three periods, namely the Nara period , the Heian period and the post-Heian period . Each period saw the introduction of new doctrines and upheavals in existing schools...

 dancing cult
Cult
The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...

 among some of the tanuki who are unable to transform, eventually sailing away with them in a treasure-ship that takes them all to their deaths, while the other elder investigates the possibility of joining the human world as the last of the transforming kitsune
Kitsune
is the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; in English, kitsune refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume...

 (foxes) have already done.

When all efforts fail, in a last moving act of defiance, the remaining tanuki stage one last grand illusion, temporarily transforming the urbanized land back into its pristine state to remind everyone (including themselves) of exactly what has been lost. Finally, their strength exhausted, the tanuki most trained in illusion are left with no choice but to follow the example of the kitsune: They blend into human society one by one, abandoning those who cannot transform. While the media appeal comes too late to stop the construction, the public responds sympathetically to the tanuki, pushing the developers to set aside some areas as parks. However, the parks are too small to accommodate all the non-transforming tanuki; some of them try to survive there, dodging traffic to rummage through human scraps for food, while others disperse farther out to the countryside to compete with the tanuki who are already established in those areas.

In a touching coda
Coda (music)
Coda is a term used in music in a number of different senses, primarily to designate a passage that brings a piece to an end. Technically, it is an expanded cadence...

, one day, Shoukichi, who also joined the human world, is coming home from work when he sees a non-transformed tanuki leaping into a gap in a wall. Shoukichi crawls into the gap and follows the path, which leads to a grassy clearing where some of his former companions are gathering. He joyfully transforms back into a tanuki to join them. In an emotional final scene, Shoukichi's friend, Ponkichi addresses the viewer
Fourth wall
The fourth wall is the imaginary "wall" at the front of the stage in a traditional three-walled box set in a proscenium theatre, through which the audience sees the action in the world of the play...

, asking humans to be more considerate of tanuki and other animals less endowed with transformation skills, and not to destroy their living space; as the view pulls out and away, their surroundings are revealed as a golf course surrounded by suburban sprawl.

Cast

Here are the Japanese / English voices:
  • Narrator – Kokontei Shinchou / Maurice LaMarche
    Maurice LaMarche
    Maurice LaMarche is an Emmy Award winning Canadian-American voice actor and former stand up comedian. He is best known for his voicework in Futurama as Kif Kroker, as Egon Spengler in The Real Ghostbusters, Verminous Skumm and Duke Nukem in Captain Planet and the Planeteers, Big Bob Pataki in Hey...

  • Shoukichi – Makoto Nonomura / Jonathan Weiss
    Jonathan Taylor Thomas
    Jonathan Taylor Thomas is an American actor, voice actor, former child star, and teen idol...

  • Okiyo – Yuriko Ishida
    Yuriko Ishida
    is a Japanese actress and essayist from Nagoya. She was the Japanese voice of "San" in Princess Mononoke. She is older sister of Hikari Ishida, also an actress...

     / Tress MacNeille
    Tress MacNeille
    Tress MacNeille is an American voice actress best known for providing various voices on the animated series The Simpsons, Futurama, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Disney's House of Mouse, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rugrats, All Grown Up!, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Dave the...

  • Seizaemon – Norihei Miki / J. K. Simmons
    J. K. Simmons
    Jonathan Kimble "J. K." Simmons is an American actor. He is best known for his roles on television as Dr. Emil Skoda in NBC's Law & Order , Assistant Police Chief Will Pope in TNT's The Closer, neo-Nazi Vernon Schillinger in the HBO prison drama Oz, on film as J...

  • Fireball Oroku – Nijiko Kiyokawa / Tress MacNeille
    Tress MacNeille
    Tress MacNeille is an American voice actress best known for providing various voices on the animated series The Simpsons, Futurama, Tiny Toon Adventures, Animaniacs, Disney's House of Mouse, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Rugrats, All Grown Up!, Chip 'n Dale Rescue Rangers, and Dave the...

  • Gonta – Shigeru Izumiya
    Shigeru Izumiya
    Shigeru Izumiya is a Japanese poet, folk singer, actor, tarento. He established record company "For Life Records" with Takuro Yoshida, Yosui Inoue, Hitoshi Komuro in 1975...

     / Clancy Brown
    Clancy Brown
    Clarence J. "Clancy" Brown III is an American actor and voice actor. He is known for his roles in live action as The Kurgan in the cult classic film Highlander, Byron Hadley in the award-winning The Shawshank Redemption, Brother Justin Crowe in HBO's critically acclaimed Carnivàle, and Career...

  • Inugami Gyobu – Gannosuke Ashiya / Jess Harnell
    Jess Harnell
    Jess Q. Harnell is an American voice actor and singer, best known for voicing Wakko Warner on Animaniacs. Harnell has been the announcer for America's Funniest Home Videos since 1998.-Life and acting career:...

  • Bunta – Takehiro Murata / Kevin Michael Richardson
    Kevin Michael Richardson
    Kevin Michael Richardson is an American actor and voice actor who currently stars as Cleveland Brown, Jr. in The Cleveland Show...

  • Kincho Daimyoujin the Sixth – Beichou Katsura / Brian George
    Brian George
    Brian George is a British-Israeli actor and voice actor for Indian accents, who typically plays guest roles for characters of South Asian descent. Perhaps his most famous role is as Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld.-Early life:...

  • Yashimano Hage – Bunshi Katsura / Brian George
    Brian George
    Brian George is a British-Israeli actor and voice actor for Indian accents, who typically plays guest roles for characters of South Asian descent. Perhaps his most famous role is as Pakistani restaurateur Babu Bhatt on Seinfeld.-Early life:...

  • Abbot Tsurugame – Kosan Yanagiya
  • Tamasaburo – Akira Kamiya
    Akira Kamiya
    is a Japanese voice actor. He has been represented by Theater Echo, Aoni Production, and others. He is currently represented by Saeba Shoji.-Career:Kamiya made his debut on Mahou no Mako-chan in 1970 while working for Theater Echo...

     / Wally Kurth
    Wally Kurth
    Wally Kurth is an American singer and television performer. He is best known for his work on the soap opera General Hospital as the second Ned Ashton, which he portrayed from 1993 until 2007, and for his role as Justin Kiriakis on Days of our Lives a role he created in 1987 and played until he...

  • Wonderland President – Takehiro Murata / Kevin Michael Richardson
    Kevin Michael Richardson
    Kevin Michael Richardson is an American actor and voice actor who currently stars as Cleveland Brown, Jr. in The Cleveland Show...

  • Osho – Andre Stojka
    Andre Stojka
    Andre Stojka is an American voice actor. He is best known for his role as Owl in Winnie-the-Pooh projects beginning with The New Adventures of Winnie-the-Pooh, inheriting the role from Hal Smith. He was also the voice of the horse Starlite in all of the animated Rainbow Brite productions...

  • Kiyo – Jillian Bowen
  • Hayashi – Osamu Katou / Brian Posehn
    Brian Posehn
    Brian Edmund Posehn is an American actor, voice actor, musician and comedian, known for his roles as mail clerk Kevin Liotta on NBC's Just Shoot Me!, a cast member and writer on HBO's Mr. Show, and most recently as Brian Spukowski on Comedy Central's The Sarah Silverman Program.-Early life:Posehn...

  • Ponkichi – Shōzō Hayashiya (9th)
    Shozo Hayashiya (9th)
    , formally known as is a Japanese rakugoka, tarento and voice actor. He is an associate professor of humanities at Josai International University. He is the son of Sanpei Hayashiya.-Radio:*Hayashiya Shōzō no Sengaku Banrai...

     / David Oliver Cohen
  • Ryutaro – Akira Fukuzawa / John DiMaggio
    John DiMaggio
    John William DiMaggio is an American voice actor. A native of North Plainfield, New Jersey, he is known for his gruff, deep voice and New Jersey accent, which he uses to voice mainly villains and anti-heroes.-Filmography:...

  • Sasuke – Megumi Hayashibara
    Megumi Hayashibara
    is a Japanese voice actress, singer, radio personality, and lyricist from Tokyo. She is currently affiliated with Aksent. Her nicknames include: Megu-san, Megu-nee, Bara-san, Kakka, and Daijin...

     / Marc Donato
    Marc Donato
    -Life and career:Donato portrayed the character Derek Haig on Degrassi: The Next Generation. Other roles include those in Doc, Locked in Silence, The Blue Butterfly, and other cartoon voices, recently as Ethan in The Future Is Wild...

  • Koharu – Yorie Yamashita / Olivia d'Abo
    Olivia d'Abo
    Olivia d'Abo is an English actress and singer-songwriter, best known for portraying Karen Arnold in The Wonder Years and Nicole Wallace, the recurring villain in Law & Order: Criminal Intent.-Acting career:...

  • Otama – Yumi Kuroda / Russi Taylor
    Russi Taylor
    Russi Taylor is an American voice actress. She is the current voice actress of Disney's Minnie Mouse character. She has held this role since 1986, longer than any other voice actress...

  • Reporter – Mark Moseley
    Mark Moseley (actor)
    Mark Moseley is an American actor, stand-up comedian, and a writer-sketch performer for radio. Even though he has appeared in a variety of films, TV shows, and video games, he is probably best known as a sound-double for Eddie Murphy.-Career:...

  • News Anchor – Mark Moseley
    Mark Moseley
    Mark DeWayne Moseley is a former professional American football placekicker in the National Football League who played for the Philadelphia Eagles , the Houston Oilers , the Washington Redskins , and the Cleveland Browns . He won the Most Valuable Player Award during the strike-shortened 1982 season...


Japanese cultural references

The film plays heavily upon Japanese folklore, and many references will be lost on people who are not familiar with the details. The following is a list of some of the basic facts which may help people understand the film:
  • Tanuki in Japanese folklore
    Tanuki
    is the common Japanese name for the Japanese raccoon dog . They have been part of Japanese folklore since ancient times...

     are mischievous, lazy, cheerful and gullible creatures who use their supernatural shape-shifting powers to trick humans. It is often said that a tanuki would put a leaf on top of its head and chant in order to change its form into anything (for example, a monk). They are also said to try to con humans with leaves turned into banknotes, although Oroku prohibits them from doing this in the film.
  • Statues of tanuki can be seen everywhere in Japan, especially in temples and shrines, and often holding a barrel of sake (nihonshu).
  • In Japanese folklore, foxes are also supernatural creatures (known as kitsune
    Kitsune
    is the Japanese word for fox. Foxes are a common subject of Japanese folklore; in English, kitsune refers to them in this context. Stories depict them as intelligent beings and as possessing magical abilities that increase with their age and wisdom. Foremost among these is the ability to assume...

    ) with the ability to transform themselves into a human form. However, in contrast to the absent-minded tanuki, kitsune are usually portrayed as more witty, cunning and sometimes malicious. Kitsune are also messengers of (or sometimes a depiction of) Inari, the Shinto
    Shinto
    or Shintoism, also kami-no-michi, is the indigenous spirituality of Japan and the Japanese people. It is a set of practices, to be carried out diligently, to establish a connection between present day Japan and its ancient past. Shinto practices were first recorded and codified in the written...

     god of rice. In the film, a tanuki manages to terrify the humans planning to move a shrine by appearing as a white fox. Statues of kitsune mark the estimated 30,000 to 40,000 outdoor Inari shrines scattered throughout Japan.
  • The stone statues which the tanukis turn into are those of Jizō, the protective deity of travellers, people condemned to Hell, and the souls of stillborn, miscarried, and aborted fetuses. The roadside statues are a common sight in Japan.
  • The film also references the Japanese folktale Bunbuku Chagama
    Bunbuku Chagama
    Bunbuku Chagama is a Japanese folktale about a raccoon-dog, or tanuki, that uses its shapeshifting powers to reward its rescuer for his kindness.-Story:...

    . In the film the tanuki transform into Chagama while honing their skills
  • Most of the characters in the monster parade are Yōkai
    Yōkai
    are a class of supernatural monsters in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for "otherworldly" and "weird". Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them...

    , creatures from Japanese folklore. However, some of the characters from other Ghibli films make cameos, including Kiki from Kiki's Delivery Service
    Kiki's Delivery Service
    is a 1989 Japanese animated fantasy film produced, written, and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was the fourth theatrically released Studio Ghibli film.The film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1989...

    , Taeko from Only Yesterday, Porco Rosso from Porco Rosso
    Porco Rosso
    Porco Rosso, known in Japan as is the sixth anime film directed by Hayao Miyazaki, produced by Studio Ghibli and released in 1992, of an Italian World War I fighter ace, now living as a freelance bounty hunter chasing "air pirates" in the Adriatic Sea. The man has been cursed and transformed into...

    , and Totoro from My Neighbor Totoro
    My Neighbor Totoro
    , is a 1988 Japanese animated fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki and produced by Studio Ghibli. The film follows the two young daughters of a professor and their interactions with friendly wood spirits in postwar rural Japan...

    . Among the yōkai references in the film include a retelling of a story called The Mujina of the Akasaka Road which features a noppera-bō
    Noppera-bo
    The , or faceless ghost, is a Japanese legendary creature. They are sometimes mistakenly referred to as a mujina, an old Japanese word for a badger or raccoon dog. Although the mujina can assume the form of the other, noppera-bō are usually humans. Such creatures were thought to sometimes...

    , a woman with no face. There is also a tribute to the director Akira Kurosawa
    Akira Kurosawa
    was a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers in the history of cinema, Kurosawa directed 30 filmsIn 1946, Kurosawa co-directed, with Hideo Sekigawa and Kajiro Yamamoto, the feature Those Who Make Tomorrow ;...

     with a brief appearance of a foxes' wedding very similar to that which occurs in the Sunshine through Rain episode of his film Dreams
    Dreams (1990 film)
    is a 1990 magical realism film based on actual dreams of the film's director, Akira Kurosawa at different stages of his life. The film is more imagery than dialogue. The alternative titles are a translation of the opening line of Ten Nights of Dreams, by Natsume Sōseki, which begins:...

    .
  • The songs which appear in the film are Japanese children's songs, with some change in lyrics for effect. Some of them are repeated with different lyrics over the course of the film. Some of them are known as warabe uta
    Warabe uta
    are traditional Japanese songs, similar to nursery rhymes. They are often sung as part of traditional children's games. They are described as a form of min'yo: traditional Japanese songs, usually sung without accompanying instruments....

    , songs which are sung as part of traditional children's games, often with lyrics incomprehensible to modern Japanese. (The melancholic electronic melodies which many Japanese pedestrian crossings play, a short clip of which appears in the film, is a famous warabe-uta.) Among the songs which appear include:
    • Shojo-ji no tanuki-bayashi ("The tanuki party at Shojo-ji temple"), a popular song written in the 1920s based on a traditional Japanese fairytale.
    • Anta gata doko sa ("Where is your home?") – a traditional warabe uta sung by children while bouncing a ball.
    • Tan tan tanuki – A common schoolyard song which makes explicit reference to the tanuki's anatomy:
Tan Tan Tanuki no kintama wa,
Kaze mo nai no ni,
Bura bura
Roughly translated, this means "Tan-tan-tanuki's "golden balls", there isn't even any wind but still go swing-swing". It then proceeds to continue for several verses, with many regional variations. It is sung to the melody of an American Baptist hymn called Shall We Gather At The River?
Shall We Gather at the River?
"Shall We Gather at the River?" is a traditional Christian hymn, written by American poet and gospel music composer Robert Lowry . It was written in 1864....

.
  • In keeping with Japanese folklore, the original Japanese version of Pom Poko made numerous references to raccoon dog testicles in song, conversation and in relation to transformation. All of these references were removed from the English dub, but are included in full on the English language subtitle track of the DVD.
  • In Japan, racoon testicles or tanukiyaki (狸焼) are a deep fried delicacy similar in nature to the rocky mountain oyster of the United States. Although this is a rare delicacy, it is most prominent in the mountainous prefecture of Nagano.
  • "Ponpoko" is a word for the sound of tanuki tsutsumi (tanuki drum): According to Japanese legends, a tanuki would inflate its belly (or its testicles in another version) and beat upon it with its paws to scare wayfarers: pon poko pon poko pon.
  • Real tanuki
    Japanese Raccoon Dog
    The Japanese raccoon dog, also known as in Japanese, is conventionally considered as two subspecies of the raccoon dog, hondo-tanuki , and ezo-tanuki . Their common Japanese name is often mistakenly translated into English as "badger" or "raccoon"...

     are sighted in urban areas more often in recent years. This is blamed mainly on the destruction of their natural forest habitat by development projects like the one shown on this film.
  • Tama Hills
    Tama Hills
    is an area of hills stretching across southwest Tokyo and northeast Kanagawa Prefecture in the Kantō Plain on Honshū, Japan. Its total area is approximately 300 km2...

     is a vast area of gentle hills spanning two prefectures and many towns and cities on the southwestern flank of Tokyo. Most of it is a patchwork of modern suburbia and hilly forests. Tama New Town
    Tama New Town
    is a large residential development, straddling the municipalities of Hachiōji, Tama, Inagi and Machida cities, in Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a new town in 1965...

    , where the film is set, is a real residential development project (Japan's largest) built in several phases starting in the 1960s, spanning the cities of Tama
    Tama, Tokyo
    is a municipality classified as a city, located in Tokyo, Japan.Its southern half forms part of the Tama New Town project, Japan's largest residential development, constructed in the 1970s....

    , Machida, Inagi and Hachiōji
    Hachioji, Tokyo
    is a city located in Tokyo, Japan, about 40 kilometers west of the center of the special wards of Tokyo.As of January 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 551,901 and a population density of 2,962.27/km². The total area is 186.31 km². It is the eighth largest city in the...

     (which are all part of Tokyo
    Tokyo
    , ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...

    ). Another Ghibli film, Whisper of the Heart
    Whisper of the Heart (film)
    is a 1995 Japanese animated drama film based on the manga of the same name by Aoi Hiiragi. It was directed by Yoshifumi Kondō and written by Hayao Miyazaki. It was the first theatrical Studio Ghibli feature to be directed by someone other than Miyazaki or Takahata, and the only film to be directed...

    , is set at the same location and shares some of the same environmentalist undertones (although environmentalism is not its main theme).
  • The train station which appears in the film is Seiseki-Sakuragaoka Station
    Seiseki-Sakuragaoka Station
    is a major stop on the Keio Electric Railway Keiō Line located in the municipality of Tama, Tokyo.All Keiō Line services stop at the station. Along with Tama Center Station, it is one of the main gateways to the Tama New Town development...

     on the Keiō Line, in Tama City
    Tama, Tokyo
    is a municipality classified as a city, located in Tokyo, Japan.Its southern half forms part of the Tama New Town project, Japan's largest residential development, constructed in the 1970s....

    , Tokyo.

Reception

Pom Poko was the number one Japanese film on the domestic market in 1994, earning ¥2.63 billion in distribution income. It was chosen as the Japanese submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...

for that year.

External links

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