- At June 27, 2006
- By Jeannine Gailey
- In Blog
4
If you’re looking for poetry news, and/or may be offended by the mention of animal testicles, please skip to the previous entry…
Odd Japanese pop trivia you may or may not need to know…
(brought to you by my extensive research of Hayao Miyazaki’s ouevre)
…the cheesy John Denver song “Country Roads,” as sung by Olivia Newton John, was a huge hit in Japan in the 70s. This song is featured in the movie “Whispers of the Heart.”
Also the film “Pom Poko” was not released in the theaters in America because the cute cuddly racoon-like creatures starring in the animated film have an important magic power that involves swelling their testicles to use as parachutes and weaponry…that film was also an imporant precurser to the current film “Over the Hedge,” although this version, to my understanding, does not feature any giant testicles.
That is all…
Radish King
Also the film “Pom Poko” was not released in the theaters in America because the cute cuddly racoon-like creatures starring in the animated film have an important magic power that involves swelling their testicles to use as parachutes and weaponry
Oddly enough, (or not) this theme was also used by Tom Robbins in a fairly recent novel.
Steven D. Schroeder
Now I must write a poem called “Animal Testicle Mineral”
michi
i read that book by tom robbins too, villa incognito. they’re called tanuki, aren’t they?
m
jeannine
It turns out that the raccoon dog, yes, also called tanuki, actually do have very large testicles, but there are no documented actual cases of using them as parachurtes, though many artifacts of art in Japan show them using them as a giant drum.
Fascinating stuff!