Heisei tanuki gassen ponpoko

This is a Ghibli film by the studio's 'other', less famous, director, Takahata, who in Japan is still best known for doing the 'Heidi' television series in the 1970's, and who probably had his swan-song with Ghibli with the 1999 box-office disaster 'Tonari no Yamada-kun' ('My Neighbours the Yamadas').

Nevertheless, I think history will judge that his 'Pom Poko' is one of Studio Ghibli's finest works: breathtakingly imaginative and looney, wry, complex, sentimental but un-dogmatic, unapologetically Japanese in its outlook and references. I would in fact rate it higher than Miyazaki's highly-regarded 'Mononoke Hime,' which takes itself a bit too seriously and becomes slightly tiresome as a result.