Event Details
A motley band of tanuki—shapeshifting wild raccoon dogs—must battle humans to protect the idyllic Tama Hills from being converted into a suburb. Isao Takahata’s epic is a playful and entertaining adventure brimming with visual delights and surprises—the film’s nocturnal spirit parade is a showstopper, with many iconic characters from other Studio Ghibli films, including Kiki’s Delivery Service and My Neighbor Totoro, appearing in the sequence. A huge local hit that remains an under-screened gem in the Studio Ghibli catalog, Pom Poko infuses Japanese mythology with madcap energy, bringing a light tone to heavy topics such as gentrification and deforestation, as the tanuki call on their community to build a place where people can live in harmony despite their differences....
Academy Museum film programming generously funded by the Richard Roth Foundation.
1994 | 119 min. | Japan | Color | Japanese with English subtitles | Rated PG | DCP
DIRECTED/WRITTEN BY: Isao Takahata
WITH: Shincho Kokontei, Makoto Nonomura, Yuriko Ishida, Norihei Miki