Cute, and I liked the Tanuki, a little guy I could easily root for.
And, I hadn't realized it until hearing the intro, but I've come across these Tanuki creatures before! In 2 separate video games, it turns out.
Super Mario Bros. 3 (NES)
One of the best side-scroller games of all time. One of Mario's rarer power ups is the "Tanooki" suit (that's how it was spelled in the game strategy guides and stuff). The more common "raccoon" suit gives Mario a raccoon tail and ears, and he can smack enemies with the tail, and can use the tail to fly or to slow a fall. The Tanooki suit is similar, but is a full raccoon outfit covering everything but Mario's face. It can do everything the Raccoon suit can do, but Mario can also turn into a statue for a few seconds which is invulnerable to damage.
Legend of the Mystical Ninja (Super NES)
This is a really fun game set in Japan which has the ninja character traveling through various regions of Japan to rescue a princess. This has a lot of elements of Japanese culture sewn into the plot and setting, which I thought was a fun way for kids to come across it. The raccoon-dog (which is what he's called in the game) shows up from time to time, I think it was just a speaking character to give the player information. Surprisingly, his giant testicles are there and uncensored. It's surprising because the censors in the U.S. rarely have let nudity slip by in kid's games. Final Fantasy III, for instance, had some summon magics that had some nudity in the Japanese versions that was covered up for the U.S. releases. Anyway, when I played this game, I couldn't tell on the game screen that they were supposed to be testicles. I did, however, subscribe to Nintendo Power magazine at the time and in their article showcasing the game they showed the characters including the raccoon-dog drawn as cartoons and his testicles were obvious in that rendition.