Pom Poko breaks your heart by making you care about tanuki you've never thought about before, then refuses to let the movie end the way you want it to. The transformation sequences are so alive they feel like the film itself is shape-shifting in front of you, and that visual generosity extends to a parade scene that justifies the entire runtime alone. It's a film about losing your home that knows there's no magic trick big enough to stop progress, only the choice to fight anyway, and to be remembered for trying.

Tokyo keeps growing, and its new development threatens the forest home of a community of tanuki, shape-shifting animals whose factions have begun fighting over shrinking territory. Prompted by the elder Oroku, they unite and turn their talent for transformation against the construction. Two especially gifted shape-shifters are sent to Shikoku to ask three sages for help. The others stay behind to disrupt the building site, first by causing accidents and then by haunting it. The humans refuse to give up, though, and the tanuki are pushed toward ever more extreme measures to save their home. The film mixes comedy, drama and fantasy.