In 1994, Disney released Angels in the Outfield, The Santa Clause and their biggest animated film to date, The Lion King. Over in Japan, Studio Ghibli released their seventh animated feature, Pom Poko. In Japan, The Lion King was no match for this film about the legendary tanuki, which was the number one film of the year at the Japanese box office.
Tanuki are a wild canine breed indigenous to Japan, where they are also known as Japanese raccoon dogs. In addition to bearing a striking resemblance to raccoons, they are also one of the few canine breeds that regularly climb trees (the only other is the North American fox). Tanuki’s are a major part of Japanese folklore and in these stories, they are often capable of shape shifting into humans. These legends are the basis for this Studio Ghibli tale.
Pom Poko tells the tale of the Tanuki that live in Tama Hills on the outskirts of Tokyo. Their land began being developed by humans in the 1960’s and as construction drove the Tanuki out and made food harder to find, they began to fight back. A resistance was formed of shape shifting Tanuki and much of the film follows their antics as they try to scare the humans into leaving their land (although they grow to love TV, fast food and tempura). Political opinions on how best to stop construction drives many of them apart and they fail in their mission in the end. The humans eventually become sympathetic to them and set aside small parks for Tanuki, but without enough space only the non-shape shifting Tanuki stay. The rest assume human forms and assimilate into our world. But in the end, the main Tanuki named Shoukichi finds a gathering of Tanuki and they send one final message to you to be more considerate of the land that is inhabited by animals that can’t fight for themselves.
Pom Poko is a fun film that features a lot of incredible imagery, most of which has yet to be repeated in animation. Walt Disney’s favorite animated moment from his studio was Cinderella’s magical transformation. This film features many similar moments, all of them awe inspiring. The most bizarre thing about this film to me is the big testicles on the Tanuki. In the dub and subtitles, they refer to it as their “sack.” The first time you watch this film, it’s a little hard to look past at first. A video game is depicted in the film that was popular in Japan in the 1980’s called Ponpoko. In the game, you played as a Tanuki and the objective was collecting enough food while avoiding dangerous snakes.
Pom Poko has been available on DVD in North America since 2005, courtesy of Disney’s distribution deal with Studio Ghibli. It finally makes its Blu-Ray debut here on February3rd, along with two other films (Porco Rosso and Tales from Earthsea).
Video
The Blu-Ray features a new restoration with greater detail and more vivid colors than the previous release. The film looks fantastic, exhibiting minimal grain. It looks like it could have been made in the early 2000’s.
The DVD is an exact clone of the 2005 release. As a result, it features the previous restoration, which lacks a lot of the detail that is visible on Blu-Ray. It’s sad that a new DVD wasn’t created with the new restoration.
Audio
Pom Poko features English and original Japanese in 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks on Blu-Ray. There is also a French language track in 2.0.
The DVD features English and Japanese, both in 2.0.
This Blu-Ray release features a new English subtitle track. It more closely matches the English dub, but has more differences than the dubtitles found on Castle in the Sky and Kiki’s Delivery Service. The Blu-Ray also features an English SDH (true dubtitles) and French subtitles. The DVD has a different English subtitle track and the same SDH subtitles.
Bonus Features
- Original Japanese Storyboards (1 hour 59 minutes) – The original storyboards are presented in widescreen with Japanese audio and English subtitles.
- Original Japanese Trailers (8 minutes) – Four Japanese trailers are presented.
The only bonus feature on the DVD is Original Japanese Trailers.
Packaging & Design
Pom Poko is presented in a standard sized Blu-Ray case with two disc holders, one for the Blu-Ray, the other for the DVD. Both discs feature disc art. Inserts include a code for Disney Movie Rewards and an ad for Disney Movie Club. The case is housed in a foil embossed slipcover that reproduces the DVD’s cover art, but in the style of the other Disney Studio Ghibli Blu-Ray releases.
The Blu-Ray disc opens with ads for 101 Dalmatians Diamond Edition, Inside Out, Big Hero 6 and an anti-smoking PSA starring Fowlfellow from Pinocchio. Selecting Sneak Peaks also plays ads for Disney Movie Rewards, Cinderella, and Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast. The DVD is an exact clone of disc 1 from the 2005 release and opens with outdated ads for Howl’s Moving Castle, The Cat Returns/Porco Rosso/Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, Spirited Away and Cinderella Platinum Edition.
Final Thoughts
Pom Poko is a wonderful film that belongs in the collection of any Studio Ghibli fan. I’ve seen films with a similar plot (Once Upon a Forest, Over the Hedge), but Pom Poko does it better. The animation is beautiful and its fun to watch this story unfold.