Short answers, pulled from the story.
Pom Poko is a 1994 Studio Ghibli film about a colony of tanuki, Japanese raccoon dogs, fighting to stop a suburban development called New Tama from destroying their forest habitat in the Tama Hills outside Tokyo. The tanuki use shapeshifting and illusion to resist but are ultimately overwhelmed, with many assimilating into human society or dying.
Pom Poko was written and directed by Isao Takahata. It was his third film for Studio Ghibli, animated for Tokuma Shoten, Nippon Television Network, and Hakuhodo, and distributed by Toho.
Pom Poko was released in Japan on the 16th of July, 1994. The North American DVD release came on the 16th of August, 2005, and a Blu-ray edition followed on the 3rd of February, 2015.
Pom Poko was Japan's submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 67th Academy Awards but was not accepted as a nominee.
Pom Poko won Best Animation Film at the 49th Mainichi Film Awards and took the Grand Prix in the feature film category at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in 1995.
Pom Poko refers to the sound of tanuki drumming their bellies, drawn from a 1919 poem by Ujo Noguchi that became a popular children's song when it was set to music in 1925.