Pom Poko is an animated documentary that tells the story of a group of tanuki (Japanese raccoon dogs) that use their shape-shifting ability and gigantic scrotums to wage war on the Japanese land developers who are turning their beautiful Tama Hills home into a sprawling Tokyo suburb. The film, from Studio Ghibli, is chock full of gorgeous animation, quirky characters, and gargantuan nutsacks, making it the obvious choice for your next family movie night. Order some pizzas, gather around the big screen, and watch raccoon dogs pummel a Japanese police force with their mammoth-sized balls or spread their scrotal sacs wide enough to cover the windshield of a bulldozer.Years ago I worked for a non-profit summer camp program for at-risk kids in Harnett County North Carolina. It still ranks as one of the most rewarding jobs I've ever had in my life. Everyday after lunch we had Quiet Time. Campers were encouraged to bring sleeping bags and pillows, spread them out on the floor, and take a nap. We'd also put on a movie for those who didn't want to sleep. The whole idea was to relax for an hour or so before the second half of the day commenced. I usually took my lunch break during Quiet Time, but I was often back in time to catch the end of whatever movie we were watching that day.
After seeing the thrilling conclusion of Good Burger for the fourth time in one week, I asked the camp director if I could share one of my favorite films with the students. That film was Hayao Miyzaki's My Neighbor Totoro. At Quiet Time the next day we watched Totoro. Instead of leaving the center to eat lunch, I stuck around to observe any reactions. Those who stayed awake were glued to the screen, captivated by Miyzaki's cheek-pinchingly cute furry monsters.
Things were going swimmingly and then...the bath scene. Yes, there is a scene in My Neighbor Totoro in which Satsuki and her little sister, Mei, take a bath with their father. Surprisingly there were few giggles, but some of the older kids turned to look at me with confused faces. I took that opportunity to tell everyone that family baths were perfectly normal in Japan and that seemed to eleviate the momentary weirdness. Shortly after this scene, I left to grab a quick lunch. When I returned, my boss told me that the kids had loved the movie. The next day we were back to Good Burger. God, I hate Good Burger.
It was easy to explain away an awkward bathing scene. I mean, I don't know of any American babies who were able to bathe themselves successfully having just popped out of the womb. That's something your parents teach you. That's right--your parents have bathed you and you were probably (gasp!) naked when they did it. And who hasn't bathed with their siblings or cousins at some point? American families tend not to take communal baths, but there certainly isn't anything sinister about the proceedings. I was quite proud of the kids at the Think Smart Outreach Center for reacting so well to something they were not used to seeing. They certainly did not react the same way when I played Bjork for them. My feelings are still hurt over that incident.
Stop calling me Mr. Raccoon! I'm a tanuki, dammit!"I found myself thinking about that day at Think Smart while I watched Pom Poko. I wondered how I would have explained the testicle thing. Not what testicles are, but why furry cartoon creatures were using said testicles as baseball bats and parachutes. There's nothing sexual going on, unless you're some kind of masochist, but it's still off-putting to watch a tanuki's scrotum grow to epic proportions and be used as some kind of battering ram or sail for a boat bound for nirvana. The simple answer is that's just what tanuki do in Japanese mythology--they use their balls in all kinds of ways American animals do not. Perhaps American folklore is missing out on something. Maybe our stories suffer from lack of scrotal-manipulation. The fact is, explaining to a roomful of American children that tanuki and testicle-play go together like peanut butter and jelly succeeds only in opening up the floor to even harder questions, questions best left for Japanese Studies professors or actual Japanese people.
Moving on. Pom Poko tells the story of two warring factions of tanuki (raccoons in the Disney dub) who unite to stop mankind from infringing on their environment. Tokyo is growing and there isn't enough room for all of her citizens, so construction companies are buying up farmland in and around the Tama Hills area and erecting new housing developments and apartment complexes. This is unacceptable to the tanuki clans who are now forced to live together in an abandoned shrine where they use a stolen television set to monitor the humans' activities. Elderly chief, Tsurugame, and holy woman, Oruku, decide that the clan needs to re-embrace their mystical shape-shifting abilities to scare the humans away from Tama Hills and thus the training begins.
Some tanuki are quite talented at shape-shifting, especially Shoukichi, voiced in the English version by forgotten-idol Jonathan Taylor Thomas. What happened to Jonathan Taylor Thomas? Remember when he was the next big thing? Yeah, neither do I.Anyway, while Shoukichi and his various friends go about spooking construction crews, war-loving Gonta desires a more drastic approach to ridding Tama Hills of humans: death. After several failed attempts at scaring humankind away from their home, including a rather disturbing scene involving tanuki disguised as faceless human ghouls and a monster parade called Operation Specter which is co-opted by a corrupt amusement park CEO, Gonta and his merry band of pissed of raccoon dogs declare war on some riot police who've invaded the forest.
And you can new jack swing from my nuts!Gonta and his crew come out with their giant nuts swinging, but unfortunately they are all killed. Before they die completely though, Gonta and his pals fuse together to form a giant, demonic head that bounces around the highway and is eventually hewn in two by a truck in just one of many super weird, but beautifully animated scenes in the film.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned amusement park CEO who took credit for Operation Specter, hires a shape-shifting fox (kitsune) to find those responsible for the parade. He wants to hire them and pay them large sums of money to make his amusement park more, uh, amusing, I guess.
I should say a little more about Operation Specter before going any further. It can be described in one word: horrific. Giant skeletons float through the sky, demonic spirits crash through drive-in movie screens, tiny people march through the streets, etc. It's all kinds of creepy. And Fatty McBaldguy wants this to be a daily occurence at his flailing theme park? Operation Specter is how I imagine it would be like to drop acid and sit through Disney's Electric Light Parade, only the parade is not marching down Main Street USA, but crashing through your front door and stomping through your house and the only way to escape the horrifying beasties trampling your belongings is the sweet release only a bullet to the brain can provide.
Anyway, the kitsune, who in human form looks unlike any human being in existence, suggests that the tanuki take the job and join the human race. This of course will mean becoming human permanently and leaving those who cannot shape-shift behind to, in all probability, die. This horrifies the tanuki who take one last crack at reminding the citizens of Tokyo how beautiful Tama Hills was before their construction crews and cheaply built McMansions. Using their shape-shifting abilities, the tanuki create a kind of collective halluncination. People are reunited with their dead relatives and trees grow out of the cement and bloom instantaneously. The tanuki, also hallucinating, see themselves as cubs and are so overjoyed that they lose focus and the mass hallucination disappears. It is at this point, that Shoukichi, Oruku, and the others who are skilled at shape-shifting decide to join the human world for good.
Depressing, eh? Well, don't worry, Pom Poko gives us a beautiful epilogue, in which a now fully human Shoukichi, walking home from his unfullfilling desk job, spots some tanuki running through the streets. He follows them to a clearing where some of his old friends are having a kick-ass tanuki dance party. As he runs towards circle of dancers, Shoukichi pulls off his tie and kicks off his shoes and once again takes on the form of tanuki. He is welcomed back with open arms and swollen nuts.
