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.

It's no secret that Hayao Miyazaki is utterly fascinated by all things that fly, especially machines that fly. With the exception of Ponyo, all of his movies feature flying scenes, and you could argue that in the case of Ponyo the same aesthetic is still achieved. But none of his films capture the romantic side of flight better than Porco Rosso. If you haven't fallen in love with aviation by the end of this film, I'm pretty sure you have a fear of flying.The movie takes place in Italy in the 30s, between the World Wars. Porco Rosso is a veteran combat pilot from World War I, who now spends his days as a courier slash bounty hunter slash all around flying expert in the Adriatic Sea. Our story starts when an American ace pilot named Curtis arrives to challenge him to see which one of them is the superior pilot. Plus he's paid by air pirates, who are often harassed by Porco Rosso.Oh, and Porco Rosso is also cursed to look like an anthropomorphic pig. No reason, really. He just looks like a pig. Roll with it.What I like the most about this film is the atmosphere. It captures the essence of the 30s perfectly, the feel of Hollywood's Golden Age. There's piracy and fighting, but men still have a code. There's a hotel built on an island in the middle of the sea and there's a scene in the film where both Porco and the pirates hang around there together. Because they all respect the owner so much, it's an agreed no-fighting zone. For some reason that really speaks to me.And of course, because it's a Hayao Miyazaki film, the animation is utterly gorgeous, the music is hauntingly beautiful, the storyline is deep yet lighthearted, the characters are great and it's just tremendously entertaining for both kids and adults alike. There are some Studio Ghibli films that are better, in my opinion, but it's still one of the best films I've ever seen and its world is the one I'd like to live in the most.

Whilst arguably not Miyazaki's finest work, there's something about "Porco Rosso" which for me as an individual makes this 1992 Ghibli offering one of his more memorable. Set around Italy and the Adriatic sea during the interwar period ("when seaplanes ruled the waves"), Porco is a former pilot of the Italian Air Force, turned Bounty Hunter. After being forced to go to Italy to get his plane repaired, Porco embarks upon a heart-warming, action-packed adventure which challenges his views on women and on life. The film is visually stunning, with Miyazaki creating an idyllic image of the Adriatic and its islands, and with Joe Hisaishi's melodic, well-paced score, it is certainly possible to feel transported back in time to this epoch. The story never takes itself too seriously; The pirates are more comical than threatening, and cannot even really be seen as a primary antagonist, as even the supposed villains in the film have redeeming qualities (apart from the Fascists, the only "real" villains of the piece). This film is a light-hearted ,charming, heart-warming tale, complete with Miyazaki's usual charm and deeper views on feminism and fascism, and is a must-watch for any Ghibli fan. Perfect escapist cinema.

First of all, I want to clarify some misconceptions about the film that might have appeared in the comment section. First of all, the movie plays in the time frame after the rise of Fascism in Italy from 1922 on to before the second world war. There is a flashback scene playing in the World War I. In the end, there is a time lapse and they mention World War II.Secondly, the film is not a story about how a man got jinxed to be a pig. Marco having the appearance of a pig can be interpreted in different ways and is often used in word plays and ironic statements, like "better to be a pig than to be a Fascist". The reason why it was never explained is probably that it would be totally unnecessary or even harm the story, including the grand finale. It is the great strength of this movie that it does not want to cover all the stories details, but leaves in a very poetic way so much room for speculation and dreaming.The drawings are just beautiful in all of their details and animation and the music by the ever ingenious Joe Hisaishi surprises. While Hisaishi does take notes from European classical music, it is surprising how he managed to fusion his particular style of music with the nostalgia of the twenties and Italian and Austrian (or rather Dalmatian) influences. This movie is an absolute masterpiece in story telling, animation and music and is greatly underestimated. While other works of Ghibli might be cineastically great, they serve completely different audiences. What makes Porco Rosso so outstanding is that it realistically gives us viewers strong emotions about bygone days that actually never existed in the way they had been depicted and thus sends a strong message to everyone about things we might want to preserve, ideas of freedom,solitude, guilt, adventure and love that do actually exist.