Pompoko, a masterpiece of Japanese animation, was released in theaters on April 19! If you haven’t seen it, rush to the cinema to discover this nugget with super cute Tanukis!
Pompoko, directed in 1994 by Isao Takahata for the Ghibli studio, landed for the first time in French cinemas on January 18, 2006. This masterpiece of Japanese animation will be released in cinemas on April 19 in a restored version.
With an average of 4.4 stars out of 5 on AlloCiné, Pompoko is one of the best animated feature films according to the press (25 reviews listed).
After Tomb of the Fireflies and Memories drop by drop, Takahata abandons humans to stage Tanukis. They are small animals of the Canidae family that are found mainly in China, Korea and Japan.
Often confused with the raccoon or the badger, they are an integral part of Japanese folklore where they are the center of many tales.
Ghibli
According to legend, the tanuki can change shape at will and mold surrounding objects to its liking. In Isao Takahata’s film, the Tanukis easily share their living space with the peasants.
Interspersed with battles between tribes, their carefree life makes them ignore the ever closer presence of men… Until the day when the latter decide to appropriate their territory and make the mountain a city.
Able to shapeshift at will, Tanukis will attempt to scare humans with their extraordinary powers. However, it will take more for men to renounce the destruction of the forest. Faced with the expansionist threat, the response of the Tanukis is organized but the animals are not at the end of their troubles!
Ecological fable and ode to nature, Pompoko won the Grand Prize at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 1995. The story takes us back to the construction plans for new towns which multiplied in the 1960s in Japan. , destroying many natural habitats and threatening the ecological balance.
Ghibli
The story thus takes place in Tama Kyuryou (Tama hill) west of Tokyo where a new town was built at that time. It still exists today as “Tama New Town”.
Released in July 1994 in Japan, days before Disney’s The Lion King, Pompoko ended the year at number one at the box office, becoming Studio Ghibli’s biggest hit in the Land of the Rising Sun.
He has since been dethroned by Princess Mononoke in 1997, and Spirited Away, in 2001, both directed by Hayao Miyazaki, mainstay of Ghibli with Takahata. The latter, who died in 2018, believed that what was happening to the Tanikus was similar to what we are experiencing.
Ghibli
“We are tanukis forced to disguise ourselves as city dwellers! This is particularly true, for example, for rural people who come to work in Tokyo and who are victims of stress, heart disease”he said in the columns of No. 425 of Positif.
Arrived at the cinema in France 12 years after Japan, the work attracted around 260,000 spectators. Note that Pompoko is the sound produced by the tanuki when it plays the drum on its round belly, a sign of prosperity.