Very, very, very strange. And of course the whole magical-ball/scrotum thing is weirdest of all... but once you get over that, it's a fun, sometimes sad sometimes very (yes) heartwarming story of these shape- shifting raccoons (or 'Tanuki') who are trying to fight for their land from being destroyed. Next to Tokyo? You don't say! Beautiful animation, especially inspired and delightful when the raccoons do their BIG parade of crazy crap in the middle of the city, and the narration from Maurice LaMarche (yes, Brain from Pinky and the Brain) works more often than not. Surprises me most of all that this is from the director of 'Grave of the Fireflies'. Guess he just wanted to have fun here, though not without a heavy-duty environmental message via Studio Ghibli (from Hayao MIyazaki? You also don't say).

I'm not entirely sure I can recommend it to, you know, a newcomer to the studio's works. It's at times just so leaps off from anything bound to reality (well, hey, talking 'Tanuki', you gotta go with it from there) that you just got to stick with it. Some of the comedy is very funny, some of it just feels odd, especially with the English translation (some folks like JK Simmons and John Dimaggio provide good voice-work too). It's like hearing a long but involving story from a friendly source, who in the end turns out to be someone who makes the story more profound and striking than it would have been otherwise. It's clever, trippy, and kids will be perplexed but may love it for its subversive quality. I mean, seriously, their scrotum are showing - but nothing else, so for Disney, it's okay (as opposed to Only Yesterday, which has a brief conversation about menstruation, but I digress).

If you were to cut an hour of this movie you might have something a little bit entertaining, although even then I don't think you'd have anything memorable. But at its full, seemingly endless length this movie just meanders on endlessly.

The movie aims to be a sort of great myth history, but it never manages to feel like more than a slight tale blown up too big. It is full of extraneous detail that makes sense in terms of creating a mythology but not in terms of making an interesting movie. And the characters are just plain uninteresting, and for the most part difficult to distinguish from one another.

Some of the transformations are entertaining, but even then the movie rarely rises above the ordinary.

When I was about to watch this film, my daughter (who is an expert on mythology) exclaimed "That film is about the tanuki...you DO know what the tanuki are, don't you Dad?!". Well, I didn't have the foggiest idea and was surprised when she told me about these mythical raccoon/dog-like creatures. It seems that they are renowned for their enormous testicles--yes, testicles. She then showed me some Japanese artwork--and the size was massive to say the least! Now the Studiog Gibli versions were NOT this well endowed--but western audiences still would most likely be shocked by cartoon animals with testicles--even of the non-gargantuan variety. I am not telling you to avoid the film--just letting you know what to expect. This could explain why this film did not get widespread release here in the States--though the preachy plot might also have something to do with it.

"Pom Poko" is a cartoon with a very strong message about conservation...with testicles. Now if you hate business and wish we had enforced zero population growth, this film is for you. If you don't, is it still worth seeing or is the message too preachy and anti-business? Keep reading to see for yourself.

It seems that the tanuki are concerned because they have finally realized that fighting among themselves is stupid, as humans are destroying the environment and building everywhere. They take a vote and decide that they will stop this. But, considering these creatures are rather lazy and have difficulty concentrating, this is a tall order indeed. When they finally stop pretending to be asleep or sitting around watching pro wrestling and cooking shows on TV, they get down to preparing for their attack. They learn the ancient are of transformation--to change appearance to disguise themselves as inanimate and animate objects. This part of the film is pretty funny, as apparently the raccoons aren't all that good at it and this led to some funny scenes--as well as learning that energy drinks were developed specifically for raccoons disguised as humans! What followed next, however, was NOT funny. In a series of attacks that looked as if the tanuki were members of Earth First, they sabotaged trucks, cars and equipment. They don't show people dying, but the news man in the movie says people were killed. At this point, I knew this was NOT a film for kids!! It's also pretty creepy when the elder tells the tanuki that they should not celebrate the deaths of humans--at which point they all started laughing hysterically and had a big party. What the crap?! Even Captain Planet wouldn't do that! Fortunately, the tanuki decided to try to trick the humans instead of killing them--and this part of the film was rather clever and I wish more of the film had been filled with these clever pranks.

What follows is the inevitable and depressing slow destruction of the land and the tanuki's plans seem to fall apart. Instead of stopping the construction, they mostly make love and have fun until eventually they get their act together--that's when the Transformations Masters arrive to teach the tanuki how to properly scare the humans to make them think the land is haunted. Once again, this sort of thing is pretty funny to watch--much better than their previous "kill all humans" philosophy. But, one of the Masters dies in the process...what a downer. And, surprisingly, the humans LIKED the hauntings and thought they were cool. So, once again, the tanuki are dispirited and don't know what to do next. So how do they survive...or do they? Tune in to see if you are interested.

I did not like this film very much--despite the animation being nice and there being a lot of funny moments. The message that mankind stinks and that nature is god is so very, very preachy. Those on the far left will probably love it--those on the far right will hate it. And those in the middle will wonder why the film is so unlike "My Neighbor Totoro"--and why they can't really show it to kids.

By the way, some of the American voices used by Disney were a bit surreal. A couple were from voice actors from "Futurama" and hearing Morbo's voice coming out of a raccoon was odd...very odd.