Pom Poko (PG)
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This was released in Japan in 1994. It was first released in the US on DVD in 2005 by Disney, and in 2018 by GKIDS. I didn't see it until 2024, during my summer of Ghibli. It was directed by Isao Takahata. The film is narrated in the English dub by Maurice LaMarche. It sort of feels like a documentary, but also like a straightforward story.

The story is about a group of tanuki (raccoon dogs, referred to in the English dub simply as raccoons) living the Tama Hills. (The title of the movie is supposed to refer to the sound of the tanuki drumming their bellies, though the narrator occasionally refers to various years in "the Pom Poko era".) Their home is increasingly depleted by deforestation as a development project called New Tama progresses. At first, two factions of tanuki fight each other over the dwindling resources, but an elder named Oroku (Tress MacNeille) convinces them to stop. Instead, they decide to put a stop to the development. A tanuki named Gonta (Clancy Brown) leads a group that causes some serious damage to the project. Oh, and the tanuki have an old TV they use to learn about humans as well as watch news regarding the development project. Oroku teaches the younger tanuki the ancient art of transformation, and eventually they can take on the appearance of anything, including humans. When Gonta is seriously injured, a tanuki named Shoukichi (Jonathan Taylor Thomas) begins leading some of the others in scaring the human workers in New Tama, but unlike Gonta, he doesn't want to actually kill the humans. Despite all their efforts, progress continues on the project, and a couple of tanuki are sent out to find legendary masters of transformation from other regions. One of the messengers eventually returns with three masters, while the other messenger learns that the one he was seeking had died some time ago. But the three masters who come to the Tama Hills help further train the tanuki there.

Well, I don't want to spoil any more of the plot. But the important thing is that this movie presents an ecological message, urging people to stop taking over animals' habitats. Aside from that, it's a very amusing movie, with plenty of good characters (including several I haven't mentioned). And it's fun to see Japanese folklore brought to (animated) life. But the movie is also dramatic, as a few people and numerous tanuki are killed. All things considered, this has become one of my favorite Ghibli movies.