Very well executed

One of the worst movies I've ever seen

Best movie ever!

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This is the first film of Studio Ghibli's that I've seen and I think it is still my favourite. It is just a stunning and beautiful film about a pilot pig vigilante and his escapades in an Italy turning into despotic fascist state. It is just really beautiful.

In Porco Rosso, we follow an Italian WWI pilot who was cursed to look like a pig. The story consists of Porco fending off sky pirates and the attacks of an American ace in the inter-war period.This is a Miyazaki movie so, if you're familiar with his movies, it won't surprise you to hear that the animation is wonderful. It's colorful and happy. Porco's introduction and the introduction to his relationship with the pirates give you a good indication of the tone of the movie.We see Proco lounging on a secluded beach. He is called on the radio to go fend off some pirates who are robbing a cruise and, to make matters worse, they've captured a class of schoolgirls!Now, I cringed when I heard "schoolgirls" because, you know, I thought hyper-sexualized high school girls (aka early Brittany) but it was just elementary school children. I suspect it was a translation thing or maybe a cultural terminology issue. Anyway, we cut to the pirates and the one groans, "Do we have to take all 15?" "Oh course! We can't split them up from their friends!" And then they go on to let the kids climb all over the plane while being "kidnapped."Even when Porco comes to the rescue the scene is light-hearted. Porco shoots out the pirate-plane's engine and even lets them keep a little of their loot to pay for repairs. "I don't want to be putting them out of a job," Porco explains.I saw the English dubbed version. I'm generally a proponent of original audio with subtitles but, in this case, the dub was perfectly good for the movie. Michael Keaton does a great job of voice acting Porco. The voice of Meg from Disney's Hercules is the voice of Porco's love interest. Do you remember Everybody Loves Raymond? Well, Raymond's brother (the one with the deep voice) is a pirate alongside the voice of Patrick Star from Spongebob Squarepants. The daughter in Father of the Bride voices the spunky engineer. It's a solid B-grade cast.When I was describing the cast to a coworker, he said that a mark of a good B-grade cast is when you say, "Do you remember that show? Well, the side character from that show was in this." That is, you know the actor not through their name but through a point of reference.I would highly recommend Porco Rosso especially for kids. It's fun and happy and I'll probably see it again at some point.

This was indeed a beautiful film from Studio Ghibli. It had some really, nearly perfect visuals, some funny humor, and interesting concept, but there was a little something missing, preventing it from being one of my favorites, Hayao Miyazaki's films. Don't get me wrong, I like this movie, but I think this movie got under the hype that every Hayao Miyazaki film is supposed to be judge as good, just because fans love 1988's My Neighbor Totoro, so much. In my opinion, this movie is kinda overrated. Written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, the film was originally planned as a short in-flight film for Japan Airlines based on Miyazaki's manga, 'The Age of the Flying Boat', but grew into a feature-length film. The movie doesn't really have much of a plot and because of that, the story kinda crash and burns. The plot somewhat revolves around an Italian curse World War I ex-fighter ace, Marco Rousolini AKA Porco Rosso (voiced by Shûichirô Moriyama in Japanese/ Michael Keaton in English) whom became half-man, half-pig after his compatriots were killed in battle. He is now a jaded womanizing bounty hunter rescuing ships and babies from the attacks of bumbling pirates across the Adriatic Sea. While, this sum-up sounds entertaining, in truth, the movie, sadly, has very little flying in it. It only has one-major action set piece in the film. The movie depicts most of airplane battles as childish and silly. Lots of bullets are fired, but nobody dies in this PG movie. Even airplane dog-fight, packed with innocent spectators on the ground, doesn't have one victim. Tons of property damage ensues, but somehow the stray gunfire only hits inanimate objects! Come on- movie. Take more a risk. Sadly, the movie never truly, goes anywhere, intense with its action. The odd collection of air pirates are more rivals than villains, and their screwball antics are played for comedy. Most of the film, has Porco repairing his ship with a female mechanic, Flo Piccolo (Voiced by Akemi Okamura in Japanese/ Kimberly Williams-Paisley in English), after being shot down by Donald Curtis (Voiced by Akio Ōtsuka in Japanese/ Cary Elwes in English), a cocky American fighter pilot who joins forces with the pirates. He hopes to get payback against Curtis, but the movie ignored that, for most of the film, to push the romantic overtures of both Flo & the cocktail singer Gina (Voiced by Tokiko Kato in Japanese/ Susan Egan in English) on him. We get it, Porco must learn to be least misogyny towards women. In other words, try not to be a pig. One of the film's biggest problems, is the lack of emotional connection. Honestly, all of Porco's relationships, don't seem real. It all seem a bit forced and kinda bland. Most people will say the picture's best emotional scene is Porco's backstory of what happened to him in the war. I have to agree, it was amazing. It is taken from a scene from Roald Dahl short story called They Shall Not Grow Old. Originally there are more be explained, but most of the serious tone of WW1 had to scrap off the storyboard because of the Yugoslavian wars of the early 1990s, due to it, being set in Croatia. Another great scene is Porco watching a cartoon in a darken movie theater. The cartoon depicts a Mickey Mouse Expy striving to save his girlfriend from a villainous pig in an airplane. The obvious metaphor is clear. It's a great moment in the film as we see the "pig" as a symbol of a man's alienation, loathing and despair. If you look deep in the film, you might find themes of redemption, loss and love to be very powerful in this, underneath the more fun surface. Sadly, it's not easy to find. The English voice acting is alright for the most part. Michael Keaton does a good job as Porco. He show the cynical side, very well. Still, I kinda like Jean Reno's French dubbing, more, as it was a little well-rounded performance. British actor, Cary Elwes as American, Curtis was mediocre, at best. The Southern accent was bit odd. It's goes in and out, throughout the film. It was really over-the-top Errol Flynnism. Not his best work, but it was watchable. The music to the film was amazing. Another masterpiece from composer Joe Hisaishi. The animation was OK, for the time. Hand by hand, drawings, is hard to do, and I just glad, everything, more so fluently. The only problem that I notice is that Flo looks very similar to Nausicaa from 1984's Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, another Ghibli movie; Miyazaki has a tendency to recycle character models, and it shows here. I like how much the movie is a homage to early aviation. You really can tell that they did, their research. The movie was very accurate with the planes designs. However, there were some exaggerated. The end of the film was particularly unimpressive. I really hate that, it ends abruptly and didn't resolve, anything. Miyazaki has expressed interest in making a sequel. He plans to set it in the Spanish Civil War, calling the film's working title, Porco Rosso: The Last Sortie. As of this writing, the movie hasn't been made, or look like it ever will be, made. Still, the movie did influence, other works. One good example is Disney's Tale-Spin, TV show. Overall: This movie is too silly to be taken seriously. Honestly, this movie could have been amazing. It could had been, probably one of Miyazaki's best works, but with glaring plot holes, frustrating romances, and indecisive writing. It's not. Still, it's a warm, nostalgic fun film, even if it doesn't quite fly high enough.

On the surface, Porco Rosso (1992) is a lushly animated adventure flick with a tinge of nostalgia for the pilots of the 1920s. Underneath the skin, its a film fraught with anxiety about war and fascism. In some ways, it is like Miyazaki's first feature, The Castle of Cagliostro (1979), a seemingly frothy popcorn film that contains well-hidden sadness at the core; however, here that sadness is much more visible.This seems to be one of Miyazaki's lesser known films for whatever reason. Is it because the main character is a middle aged man disillusioned with life instead of a child or teenager? Is it the pre-WWII setting? Is it the lack of fantasy elements (outside of the protagonist having turned himself into a pig, that is)? I don't know, but it's a shame.