The Blu-ray format has been around so long that, depending on the studio, we’re reaching the point where catalog releases from major studios are dwindling. For the Walt Disney Company, we’re soon approaching the end in terms of their animated canon releases; with the impending release of 101 Dalmatians, only six Disney animated features remain unreleased in high-definition. One of those is Aladdin, originally slated to arrive on Blu-ray in 2012 for its 20th anniversary; however, it was pushed back to (potentially) later this fall. But how is it that Aladdin, the highest-grossing film of 1992 and one of the more memorable entries in the Disney Renaissance, isn’t available in any HD capacity on Region 1, but the completely batshit-insane Pom Poko, the latest Studio Ghibli film getting a Disney home-media release in the States, is?
Today, in fact, three Studio Ghibli catalog releases arrive on U.S. Blu-ray from Disney, and Pom Poko is easily the best and most outrageous. Those who’ve seen it know its crazy plot–which is at least inspired by characters from Japanese folklore–and those who haven’t may presume the rest of us are making it up. The basic setup—forest creatures rebel against modern human development destroying nature—is not so nutty as the details and execution. Forget films like FernGully or Furry Vengeance (not that you would be quick to remember them): the tanuki leads (called “raccoons” in the U.S. dub and English subtitles) are serious about stopping the encroachment of humans ruining and ripping up their forest, to the point where they attack and kill humans courtesy of their massive and quite flexible testicles.
Yes, the raccoon dogs have big, big balls in Pom Poko; writer/director Isao Takahata’s balls are equally big, if metaphorical (and likely not as deadly). The satire here is messy, but so nasty and scathing that the entire film is both admirable and a black-comedy delight. It’s also the rare occurrence of a film’s voiceover narration being both unavoidable throughout and oddly quite successful. No doubt, Takahata is as respectful of nature as Ghibli icon Hayao Miyazaki, but the manner in which he gets across his message—excepting the final scene, which features one of the characters making a direct and emotional plea to the audience before the camera zooms out for one final punchline, a last turn of the knife—is deliberately raucous and puerile. The way Takahata shifts between tones is akin to an awkwardly coordinated child manning a bumper car, slamming between farce and horror and bald-faced emotion sometimes in the same scene. But maybe because Pom Poko feels like such an anomaly in Studio Ghibli’s filmography, even Takahata’s other films, it’s hard to deny the film’s immense charm.
A/V
Unsurprisingly, the HD transfer of Pom Poko is glorious; the verdant colors of the forest the tanuki occupy are lushly revived on Blu-ray, just as the colder blues of the city pop out on an HDTV. Regarding the video, it’s difficult to now not wonder if Pom Poko is also suffering from the so-called “dubtitle” controversy that bubbled up last fall during the last wave of Ghibli releases from Disney, wherein the English subtitles playing over the Japanese-language version maintain the script used for the English dub. Aside from the choice to change the literal translation of tanuki–again, they’re called “raccoons” in the subtitles, which isn’t 100% accurate–I can’t speak to this too greatly, having never seen the film before. But for die-hard fans, it’s something to perhaps be wary of. I don’t know that I’d boycott the disc, as some did with Disney’s recent Ghibli releases, but your mileage may vary. The image is so clear without feeling robbed of its original messiness that I wouldn’t say you should avoid this Blu-ray for the potential audio issues.
Extras
Would you believe that the movie where raccoons have testicles that can kill a man has almost no special features? It’s true–aside from the original Japanese storyboards, which are a feature on all of today’s Ghibli catalog releases, Pom Poko is feature-less. The storyboards are, of course, quite fascinating to watch, simply to see how a rough design turned into something so attention-grabbing and beautiful. But if you want more detail, you’ll be sorely disappointed by this release.
Overall
Pom Poko is a ridiculous, weirdly endearing, and seemingly epic-length story about nature’s last fight against the onslaught of man in 20th-century Japan. The Disney Blu-ray is about as good as it gets for this subject matter, though it’s arguably for hardcore fans only.
2 thoughts on “Blu-ray Review: “Pom Poko””
Pom Poko IS a vile dubtitle (you may want to edit your review to make that even clearer and stated as a fact, rather than an educated guess) and easily the most poorly translated Studio
Ghibli release by Disney thus far — beating out even Princess
Mononoke’s embarrassing translation. Disney literally censors many jokes
(we’re told the racoon dog’s testicles are “pouches” rather than
“golden balls”, for one of hundreds of examples that could be given),
ENTIRELY changes the final plea directed toward the audience and alters the story
throughout due to the dubs. It’s really upsetting and it’s the end of me
buying Studio Ghibli films that Disney has anything to do with.
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