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3 comments:
Also, check out the Top Ten Movies for (Traumatizing) Children, written by the same author as the book-based movies article.
http://www.cracked.com/article_15070_10-best-animated-movies-traumatizing-kids.html
I'm curious if anyone has seen the #1 movie on the list. Huge raccoon testicles... REALLY???
Wow, the raccoon testicles thing is...wow.
My three childhood movies that scarred me for life (actually meant for kids--this does not include the horror movies that my "cool" aunt would let us watch):
Pinnocchio
ET
The Bear--I was part of a "bank savings club" thing when I was little, and they'd play a movie every Christmas. One year, it was this little gem. Baby bear's mother gets killed right away by a falling rock, then baby experiments with poisonous mushrooms, and a big bear brutalizes a bunch of dogs and makes a guy vomit. It's actually a great movie, but not great for kids.
Oh Caroline, you have unwittingly set me off on one of my favorite obscure topics, the tanuki.
See, those creatures aren't raccoons, they're tanuki. Tanuki are NOT mythical beings, they're real animals with raccoon-like markings that are native to Japan.
I don't blame the author for making this mistake, as I once had the impression that tanuki were fairy tale creatures too. But several Japanese friends assured me that they had often seen tanuki eating out of garbage cans at night, and thus were quite certain they were real.
Real, and with REALLY big balls. I've never seen a male tanuki myself, but I'm told you can't miss 'em.
The tanuki plays a prominent role in Japanese folklore, and so often appears in Japanese art. Older depictions of the tanuki almost always had comically exaggerated testicles. Tanuki would even be shown playing the drums on their balls, throwing them over their shoulders like a knapsack, hitting people with them, and various other silly things. The movie is continuing in this tradition. A lot of Studio Ghibli movies incorporate elements from Japanese folklore in this way.
I should point out that Pom Poko is more faithful to tradition in this way than most other modern depictions of the tanuki. These days they are usually shown as having huge BELLIES and no visible genitals. Some of you may recall that in Super Mario 3, Mario could become "Tanuki Mario" and that no huge testicles were involved.
Oh, I'm told that the English translation of Pom Poko refers to the testicles of the tanuki as their "pouches". Disney probably figured that was the best they could do with the material they were given.
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