By Chris Sawin
| Published 32 seconds ago

Pom Poko is an animated fantasy film from 1994 written and directed by Isao Takahata (Grave of the Fireflies, Only Yesterday). The English dub of the film refers to the animals as raccoons, but they’re actually based on Japanese raccoon dogs, also known as tanuki. The tanuki are popular in Japanese folklore and are believed to be magical creatures with shape-shifting abilities, able to pass themselves off as just about any inanimate object, any other animal, or even human beings. The Tanooki suit in Super Mario Bros. 3 boasts a similar concept.

In Search Of A New Home

The film follows a group of raccoons (I watched the dub, so we’ll still call them raccoons from here on out) as they try to save their home in Tama Hills from deforestation and housing construction with the intent of a new suburban community meant to house up to 300,000. Up to that point, the raccoons had still lived near humans, but not to feast on their scraps. They had access to farm animals, crops, and other various forms of food that weren’t readily available in the city. They lived in an abandoned farmhouse in the country for a year, until it was demolished, and construction began on what is now referred to as New Tama.

The raccoons hunt and search for a new home, but all of the territories are already occupied by other raccoons. So naturally, they battle over who gets to stay. The raccoons have three forms in the film: the normal, most realistic version that just looks like a normal raccoon, a more caricatured version that walks on two legs and speaks, and a final, minimally detailed version that isn’t seen as often and also resembles rubber hose animation. The raccoons hide the fact that they can walk on two legs, speak, and shape-shift into humans. Their final form is reminiscent of the T-1000’s chrome form in Terminator 2: Judgment Day, when it’s between forms. It’s like it only comes out when they’re overstimulated; a combination of that and someone who tried to draw The Berenstain Bears from memory.

A Big Bag Of Tricks

While the raccoons in the film are based on Japanese raccoon dogs and Japanese folklore, why their testicles are featured so prominently isn’t really explained. Even when the raccoons transform into something with clothes that isn’t human (a lot of the raccoons wear samurai-like attire in battle), the males still have their balls hanging out. Halfway into the film, a 103-year-old raccoon named Osho asks all the male raccoons to meet up in the garden.

Once gathered, he’s all like, “Isn’t this red blanket we’re all sitting on so soft and nice? Just kidding, it’s my raccoon scrote.” They refer to it as a “raccoon pouch” in the film, but this thing is 150 sq ft and somebody (or a team of somebodies. Can you imagine if there was like a “coon junk animation team” in the credits?) had to animate this giant red blanket turning back into a massive, wrinkled gray-ish brown elder scrotum that reverts back to normal size.

Raccoon nutsack physics get more intricate as the film bounces on. Its first form may be stretched into a blanket, but the pouches eventually evolve into becoming a huge bullfrog, a hot air balloon, a parachute, an Indiana Jones-sized boulder, and a ship chock full of treasure. To be fair, the last one involves a 999-year-old raccoon that goes senile, and transforms his ballsack into a big enough boat to house a bunch of fake treasure (these are all illusions powered by magic scrotums; nutsack ghosts, if you will) and dozens of raccoons sailing off to their deaths.

Song, Dance, And Sack-Driven Logic

Pom Poko has this crazy sack-driven concept that makes it seem as if raccoons should rule the forest and anything they set their eyes on. But the film is quick to point out how lazy they are and that they don’t take anything seriously. After every small accomplishment, they want to throw a party. Even if one of them is passionate about getting revenge on the humans destroying their homes, they’re quick to drop it at the thought of tempura or any other delicious food.

They’re also distracted by this particular song about raccoons. If someone sings it at them, they have to finish it. The Pom Poko title comes from the sound it makes when they drum on their bellies. Every Spring, they have to fight the urge to screw themselves stupid and make a hundred babies. For a film that prioritizes the prominent showcasing of raccoon balls, it may mention sex and being frisky in spring, but it never shows anything graphic. There’s suddenly a raccoon with nipples hanging out in the last half hour, though, which is crazy to think about.

The original plan in the film involves the raccoons researching humans over the next five years. This involves scrounging up a working TV from the dump to monitor humans, which the raccoons drop all forms of productivity in order to watch TV all day, and reviving the ancient raccoon art of transformation. There are elder transformation masters located far away that the raccoons have to search for in the film to teach the raccoons of Tama Hills, specifically the ones who know nothing about altering their form or how to transform.

Transformations Take A Toll

The way the film addresses transformation and holding forms is intriguing, as well. Chameleons may be able to change color, but in this world, foxes, raccoons (and some cats) are the only ones who can physically transform. I feel like Pom Poko wants to introduce the idea that some of the humans that walk among us may actually be raccoons, and that’s cool to think about, not so much that someone we know may actually be a raccoon. But some of the people we see every day aren’t what they present themselves to be. Maybe some are hiding this extravagant other life with magical creatures we can only dream about.

It takes a lot of energy to maintain transformations for a long time. Multiple raccoons often have to take the same human form and switch out when they get tired if they’re out in public. The bags under their eyes are symbols of their fatigue, and things like energy drinks are hinted at being invented because so many raccoons are out there pretending to be human and getting exhausted, so there’s this crazy demand for them.

What’s wild is that the war between raccoons and humans starts as mild vandalism and escalates into full-blown insanity. At one point, the raccoons force vehicles off the road and end up killing three people. Back at Tama Hills, they all want to celebrate but are convinced to have a moment of silence. The eulogy and gathering last maybe two sentences before the raccoons laugh about death and start partying.

Could Have Reached Further Into Its Bag Of Tricks

The film plays out like a mash-up of Beetlejuice and Fantastic Mr. Fox. The raccoons use their shape-shifting powers to try to scare the humans away. There’s a whole sequence where they scare a police officer while trying to be human, but they all pretend not to have a face and scare him repeatedly until he passes out. The deforestation storyline, combined with extreme measures to save their home, feels like a direct inspiration for the Wes Anderson stop-motion film because it’s so similar.

The crown jewel of shape-shifting in Pom Poko is Operation Spectre, a parade where they all turn into demons, monsters, and ghosts to try to scare the residents of New Tama away. But a lot of the creatures are famous yokai from Japanese folklore, and Totoro even makes a brief cameo. It’s an extraordinary sequence that ultimately fails its intended purpose, but it is so visually creative and memorable.

Up until these recent viewings of Pom Poko (I watched it twice for this article), I had always felt it was a lackluster effort from Studio Ghibli. I think I originally felt like they should have done more with their balls. I thought, “They bounce around on these things for two hours and do everything but their intended purpose. That’s dumb. This is dumb.” These raccoons have 101 uses for their balls. They treat their sacks like Martha Stewart does crafts. One of them jumps onto a moving vehicle and stretches their pouch across the entire windshield, causing the driver to lose control and drive off the road.

Pom Poko is one of the more unique Studio Ghibli films, with a ton of unpredictable WTF moments without straying too far from its mostly family-friendly reputation as an animated film. Seek it out, embrace the ridiculousness, and witness a bunch of raccoons adapt to life’s hardships by folding and stretching their teabags like a master origamist.

Pom Poko (as well as 21 of the 23 core Studio Ghibli films) is currently streaming on Max.