We watched a Hayao Miyazaki flick the other night

It had the same theme his Studio Ghibli films usually do -- Mother Nature wreaking havoc on those who try to lay waste to her environment, but then eventually tragically falling to the Man, etc. This one was about raccoons that were fighting to keep their environment safe from a subdivision.

This film had something so kickassingly breathtaking, though, that it made Trevor and I say the ubiquitous Japanese, "Heeee?" The raccoons -- actually tanuki (the magical raccoons in Japanese folklore that can change their shape into anything) -- had big ol' magical ball sacks. Yep, magic ball sacks. Magic how, you say? These ball sacks could grow to enormous size and be used as a) locomotion, ie. the tanuki could bounce along on them; b) as a weapon for suffocation or pummeling the enemy; or c) a parachute. No shit.

Oh, and the tanuki could all get together and fuse their ball sacks in order to make a ginormous trampoline for their wacky rituals. Let's just try and see Disney (Studio Ghibli's distributor in the U.S.) touch this one with a ten foot pole. Oh, cruel fate! The American public are the big magical ball sack losers on this one.