Isao Takahata

POM POKO

HEISEI TANUKI GASSEN POMPOKO

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Status: Completed

Director(s): Isao Takahata

Main cast: Shinchô Kokontei(voice), Makoto Nonomura(voice), Yuriko Ishida(voice)

Long synopsis : The raccoons of the Tama Hills just outside of Tokyo are being forced from their forest homes by human development. As the woodlands are destroyed and the hills flattened to make room for human housing projects, the raccoons are finding it increasingly difficult to find a place to live, or to gather food. The older, wiser raccoons put forth a plan to try and take up the old traditional raccoon ways and fight back against the humans: use the ancient magical raccoon art of transformation, which can only be done by raccoons, foxes and some cats. The raccoons send for three very old teachers. After much training, some of the raccoons are able to use metamorphosis to make their bodies into objects. Sometimes they can even change into humans, but it takes a great deal of energy and concentration to remain human for more than a short time. The raccoons’ fight goes very well in the beginning. They trick and scare the humans in a variety of clever ways, but eventually the humans stop being fooled by their magic, and the fight turns tragic as some of the raccoons are killed. The raccoons turn to more elaborate tricks, but the developers are able to explain away the tricks as advertising for a planned amusement park. Finally they are forced to seek the help of the foxes from a neighboring forest who have already given up their fight and are living as humans in the city. In the end, many of the raccoons do as the foxes, but they miss their old life in the woods, and often return to play at night. Human progress, it seems, is something the forces of nature can do little to impede as it rolls inevitably forward.