Isao Takahata: Pom Poko
Pom Poko is produced by Studio Ghibli, probably best known for being the home of Hayao Miyazaki, who everyone is correct in loving from Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle. It’s also the home of a few other directors who’ve made their own films, which is the group that Pom Poko falls into. It’s recently been released in the UK, and through some weird coincidence, I happened to watch it at about the same time, but as part of the Studio Ghibli boxset I bought a while ago on eBay.
The story is simple enough. Two groups of raccoons are fighting at the start of the film, but soon band together to fight the threat of the humans that are stealing their land for redevelopment. These are not normal raccoons, though. According to the film’s interior mythology, which is set-up by the narrator at the beginning of the film, raccoons are able to change shape, to the point that they are even able to take on human form. Early in the film, new trainees are taught this skill by the elders, so it can be used against the invading humans.
These same elders, though, cannot agree on how to deal with the humans. Many want to take the Gandhi approach, while one elder in particular is insistent that the only way to get results is to take aggressive action. He is, in due course, injured, and his point of view is sidelined for a short while. This allows three gurus from a nearby village to arrive and amplify the shape-shifting powers to try to scare off the humans. It fails. Then a fox, the only other creature able to shapeshift, turns up and offers them another alternative: take on human form and live in their cities. That idea is also rejected. Meanwhile, the humans are beginning to suspect that the urban legends about raccoons may not be completely fictitious...
There’s a lot going on in the film, and the potentially heavy environmental message could overwhelm the viewer, but the tone is lightened with plenty of comedy, a little romance and some nice character moments. It also benefits from not droning on endlessly from one point of view, but instead offers various viewpoints from all sides of the debate, and even shows some ways in which the humans’ arrival has a positive impact. Some sources have claimed that the raccoons win in the end. This is far from the truth, and though the ending tries to be upbeat, but fails in the grim reality of the situation.
As for the animation, the raccoons’ constant shape-shifting gives the animators plenty of opportunity to mess with different animation styles, as they change from realistic quadrupeds right the way through to being fully anthropomorphised. This may sound jarring, but the animators handle it incredibly well. The scenes where the raccoons create a ghostly parade to scare off the humans are amazing, and the body language on the anthropomorphised fox sits perfectly on the line between refined and smarmy. There’s obviously a lot of work gone into it, and it shows throughout the film.
A truly excellent film which doesn’t take itself too seriously, is brilliantly animated and tries to take a level-headed view at a complex subject. Definitely one to see.
The story is simple enough. Two groups of raccoons are fighting at the start of the film, but soon band together to fight the threat of the humans that are stealing their land for redevelopment. These are not normal raccoons, though. According to the film’s interior mythology, which is set-up by the narrator at the beginning of the film, raccoons are able to change shape, to the point that they are even able to take on human form. Early in the film, new trainees are taught this skill by the elders, so it can be used against the invading humans.
These same elders, though, cannot agree on how to deal with the humans. Many want to take the Gandhi approach, while one elder in particular is insistent that the only way to get results is to take aggressive action. He is, in due course, injured, and his point of view is sidelined for a short while. This allows three gurus from a nearby village to arrive and amplify the shape-shifting powers to try to scare off the humans. It fails. Then a fox, the only other creature able to shapeshift, turns up and offers them another alternative: take on human form and live in their cities. That idea is also rejected. Meanwhile, the humans are beginning to suspect that the urban legends about raccoons may not be completely fictitious...
There’s a lot going on in the film, and the potentially heavy environmental message could overwhelm the viewer, but the tone is lightened with plenty of comedy, a little romance and some nice character moments. It also benefits from not droning on endlessly from one point of view, but instead offers various viewpoints from all sides of the debate, and even shows some ways in which the humans’ arrival has a positive impact. Some sources have claimed that the raccoons win in the end. This is far from the truth, and though the ending tries to be upbeat, but fails in the grim reality of the situation.
As for the animation, the raccoons’ constant shape-shifting gives the animators plenty of opportunity to mess with different animation styles, as they change from realistic quadrupeds right the way through to being fully anthropomorphised. This may sound jarring, but the animators handle it incredibly well. The scenes where the raccoons create a ghostly parade to scare off the humans are amazing, and the body language on the anthropomorphised fox sits perfectly on the line between refined and smarmy. There’s obviously a lot of work gone into it, and it shows throughout the film.
A truly excellent film which doesn’t take itself too seriously, is brilliantly animated and tries to take a level-headed view at a complex subject. Definitely one to see.
posted by Ryan Stephens at 10:37 AM
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