# Poupelle of Chimney Town (えんとつ町のプペル)
**Poupelle of Chimney Town** (えんとつ町のプペル, *Eiga Entotsu-machi no Puperu*) is a 2020 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Yusuke Hirota, adapted from the bestselling picture book of the same name produced by Akihiro Nishino of the comedy duo [King Kong](https://www.edgepedia.org/king-kong). Set in a town blanketed by chimney smoke where no one has seen the sky, it follows a chimney-sweep boy named Lubicchi and a garbage-man called Poupelle who set out to prove that stars exist beyond the smoke.[1](https://eiga.com/movie/92351/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Japanese release | 25 December 2020; 100 minutes; distributed by Toho and Yoshimoto Kogyo[1](https://eiga.com/movie/92351/) |
| Director / studio | Yusuke Hirota (director); animation by STUDIO4℃[1](https://eiga.com/movie/92351/) |
| Origin | Picture book produced under Nishino's direction by 33 creators in a division-of-labor system, funded through crowdfunding[1](https://eiga.com/movie/92351/) |
| Technique | STUDIO4℃'s first feature-length full 3DCG film, built in Maya[2](https://area.autodesk.jp/case/animation/poupelle/) |
| Commercial result | Box office of 2.7 billion yen and 1.96 million admissions in Japan; opened on 308 screens on 24 December 2020[3](https://chimney.town/project/movie/) |
| Recognition | Japan Academy Prize for Excellent Animation Work; invited to more than 30 film festivals worldwide[3](https://chimney.town/project/movie/) |
| Sequel | *Eiga Entotsu-machi no Puperu: Yakusoku no Tokeidai* (Chimney Town: Frozen in Time), released 27 March 2026[4](https://filmarks.com/movies/122183) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The setting is Chimney Town, a place crowded with chimneys whose thick smoke permanently hides the sky. The residents have never seen blue sky or a starry night, and most do not believe stars exist. Lubicchi, a boy who lost his father, works as a chimney sweep and alone keeps believing his father's teaching that stars shine beyond the smoke; the townspeople call him a liar and he grows isolated. On [Halloween](https://www.edgepedia.org/halloween) night, a garbage-man born from trash, Poupelle, appears before him, and the two become friends. A giant garbage monster then rises from the sea, resembling a ship drawn in his father's picture-card show, and Lubicchi sets out with Poupelle to find the stars his father described.[5](https://www.fujitv.co.jp/b_hp/poupelle/index.html)
The film expands the picture book's world: critics noted that the screen version adds elements such as the central bank governing the town and a resistance movement, widening the setting beyond the original.[6](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0024910/review)
### Sequel: Chimney Town: Frozen in Time
A sequel, *Eiga Entotsu-machi no Puperu: Yakusoku no Tokeidai* (Chimney Town: Frozen in Time), was released on 27 March 2026, with Hirota returning as director and Nishino again as executive producer, original creator, and screenwriter, produced by CHIMNEY TOWN with the first film's staff reassembled at STUDIO4℃.[4](https://filmarks.com/movies/122183) • [14](https://jfdb.jp/title/10325) • [3](https://chimney.town/project/movie/) It is a new story rather than an adaptation of the picture book: Lubicchi, who has stopped waiting and believing, wanders into a otherworld called the Thousand Fortress that controls time.[14](https://jfdb.jp/title/10325) The story follows the boy Rubio until he meets his friend Poupelle, who has gone far away, once more.[15](https://www.sponichi.co.jp/entertainment/news/2026/03/12/articles/20260312s00041000222000c.html) New cast members include Yuzuna Nagase as Lubicchi, with Kubota returning as Poupelle, MEGUMI as the cat Mofu, and Fuka Koshiba as Nagi.[4](https://filmarks.com/movies/122183)
Nishino said the sequel took four and a half years to make. He first wrote a script aimed at what would sell, found it uninteresting, and at one point decided to scrap the roughly 80-percent-finished screenplay entirely and start over, a decision that cost about ten months.[16](https://hollywoodreporter.jp/interviews/180203/)
## The picture book and its origin
The source picture book was produced under Nishino Akihiro's direction with a division of labor among 33 creators handling illustration, coloring, and design, and was funded through crowdfunding; it became a bestseller.[1](https://eiga.com/movie/92351/) Nishino has described the film as having been conceived as a feature from the start, with the picture book released first as a partial preview of that larger plan.[7](https://www.creators-station.jp/interview/viva-movies/111678)
Scenario work for the film began around the winter of 2017, with repeated meetings between Nishino and the studio; Nishino secluded himself at Yatsugatake in the summer of 2018, and the final script, the twelfth draft, was completed around mid-August of that year.[8](https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/19475403/) Producer Eiko Tanaka of STUDIO4℃ recalled that the studio changed much of the material and handed it back, and that Nishino responded by rewriting the entire scenario again.[8](https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/19475403/) Counting the picture book, the project took about ten years; the film itself took about four and a half years and involved roughly 200 to 300 staff.[9](https://lp.p.pia.jp/article/news/458663/index.html)
## Animation production
**Full 3DCG.** The film was STUDIO4℃'s first feature-length full 3DCG work, produced in Maya. The decision to work entirely in 3D was made at the outset by producer Tanaka. Animation director Yuta Sano explained that the title character could hardly be drawn by hand: Poupelle is assembled from a very large number of inorganic parts that transform, making him the kind of character hand animation handles worst, since every cut would have to reproduce the same complex construction.[2](https://area.autodesk.jp/case/animation/poupelle/)
The studio rebuilt the town's world in detail, reconstructing everything from the town's founding to its energy structure before rendering the fantastic streetscape and characters in three dimensions.[3](https://chimney.town/project/movie/) Production was not smooth: background artists were not yet on board when work began, and although art settings multiplied in complexity, the team only began producing art boards around October 2019, taking about a year to move from boards to finished backgrounds.[8](https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/19475403/)
**Voice cast.** Poupelle is voiced by Masataka Kubota and Lubicchi by Mana Ashida; the cast also includes Shinosuke Tatekawa as Bruno, Eiko Koike as Laura, Shingo Fujimori as Scoop, Toru Nomaguchi as Letter XV, Sairi Ito as Antonio, and Kunimura Jun as Dan, among others.[1](https://eiga.com/movie/92351/) Nishino said he chose Kubota and Ashida because, with the smoke-covered sky inviting audiences to overlay their own experience of the COVID-19 pandemic, the words of the two leads could not be allowed to ring false; he wanted people whose character itself was large, not merely voices that fit.[10](https://press.moviewalker.jp/news/article/1008670/)
The music was composed by Yuki Kojima and Yuta Bando, with an opening theme by HYDE and an ending theme by Rosalina.[1](https://eiga.com/movie/92351/)
## Reception and festival run
Despite opening during the COVID-19 pandemic, the film reached a Japanese box office of 2.7 billion yen and 1.96 million admissions, and an unusual Halloween re-release the following October also succeeded. It opened theatrically in North America as well as Taiwan, South Korea, France, the Middle East, and South America. It received the Japan Academy Prize for Excellent Animation Work, drew high marks at the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Annecy festival, won Best Picture at the Ajyal Film Festival, and received invitations from more than 30 film festivals.[3](https://chimney.town/project/movie/)
Japanese critical response was divided. Four Cinema Today writers averaged 4.3 out of 5, with one praising the retro-futuristic visual world and the story's message about standing out to change society, while another argued that expanding the world with the central bank and resistance plot diluted the originality of the picture book.[6](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0024910/review) User ratings sit in the mid-3s on review aggregators: 3.6 on Filmarks from more than 41,000 reviews[11](https://filmarks.com/movies/88353) and 3.6 out of 5 on Minna no Eiga, whose review praised STUDIO4℃'s texture work and the climactic ascent sequence while finding the fable's message, that one should believe in dreams and that the doubting majority is wrong, stated very directly.[12](https://minnanoeiga.com/movies/entotsumachi-poupelle) The film's promotion also became the subject of public controversy at release, which affected its reception.[12](https://minnanoeiga.com/movies/entotsumachi-poupelle)
Beyond the screen, the property spread into other forms: it has been adapted as a musical, a ballet, and kabuki.[13](https://booksanta.charity-santa.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/%E6%8E%A8%E8%96%A6%E5%9B%B3%E6%9B%B8%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88_A5.pdf)
## References
1. [映画 えんとつ町のプペル：作品情報, 映画.com](https://eiga.com/movie/92351/)
2. [STUDIO4℃初の長編フル3DCGアニメ「映画 えんとつ町のプペル」に込められたこだわり, Autodesk AREA Japan](https://area.autodesk.jp/case/animation/poupelle/)
3. [映画製作, CHIMNEY TOWN](https://chimney.town/project/movie/)
4. [映画 えんとつ町のプペル 〜約束の時計台〜, Filmarks](https://filmarks.com/movies/122183)
5. [映画「えんとつ町のプペル」, フジテレビ](https://www.fujitv.co.jp/b_hp/poupelle/index.html)
6. [映画 えんとつ町のプペル (2020)：映画短評, シネマトゥデイ](https://www.cinematoday.jp/movie/T0024910/review)
7. [家族で楽しめる映画作りへの挑戦『映画 えんとつ町のプペル』廣田裕介監督インタビュー, クリエイターズステーション](https://www.creators-station.jp/interview/viva-movies/111678)
8. [「映画 えんとつ町のプペル」を制作したSTUDIO4℃の田中栄子プロデューサーにインタビュー, ライブドアニュース](https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/19475403/)
9. [『映画 えんとつ町のプペル』西野亮廣が明かす製作期間10年の舞台裏, ぴあ映画](https://lp.p.pia.jp/article/news/458663/index.html)
10. [『映画 えんとつ町のプペル』窪田正孝、芦田愛菜のキャスティングについて西野亮廣が語る, MOVIE WALKER PRESS](https://press.moviewalker.jp/news/article/1008670/)
11. [映画 えんとつ町のプペル, Filmarks](https://filmarks.com/movies/88353)
12. [映画 えんとつ町のプペル（2020年）のあらすじ・評価, みんなの映画](https://minnanoeiga.com/movies/entotsumachi-poupelle)
13. [推薦図書リスト（えんとつ町のプペル）, Book Santa](https://booksanta.charity-santa.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/%E6%8E%A8%E8%96%A6%E5%9B%B3%E6%9B%B8%E3%83%AA%E3%82%B9%E3%83%88_A5.pdf)
14. [映画 えんとつ町のプペル 〜約束の時計台〜, Japanese Film Database](https://jfdb.jp/title/10325)
15. [キンコン西野「えんとつ町」続編はコンビの実体験が原案, スポニチ](https://www.sponichi.co.jp/entertainment/news/2026/03/12/articles/20260312s00041000222000c.html)
16. [『映画 えんとつ町のプペル ～約束の時計台～』西野亮廣インタビュー, The Hollywood Reporter Japan](https://hollywoodreporter.jp/interviews/180203/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Japanese anime features › Released 2014 to 2026*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 21, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license