Porco Rosso

Original Title: 紅の豚
Romanized: Kurenai no Buta
Literal: Crimson Pig

Plot Synopsis

In an alternate 1930s, Marco Rosso, the Crimson Pig, flies the skies over the Atlantic Ocean, protecting ships from the sky gangs. An ace pilot, Marco has the face of a pig. He fights for love, for honour, for money and for his pride. But when challenged by cocky American pilot Donald Curtis he must fight for his life and his position as the best.

Quick Review

Rating: 4.5 / 5
Reviewer: Arcane
Review Date: 2001-06-18

In the underrated Porco Rosso, Hayao Miyazaki returns to the sky he last visited in his famous Laputa: Castle in the Sky in a rollicking adventure of pirates and romance in 1930s Europe. Porco Rosso is an excellent mix of adventure, humour and romance which, although slow at times, keeps your attention for the entire length of the film. The characters are all fully fleshed out, as always, and Marco is a heck of a character--one of Miyazaki's most enduring creations. Watching the characters interact--Marco with Gina, Fio with Marco, Curtis with Gina--is the strength of the film and is really lovely. There are no good or bad guys, just the hero, his friends and his enemies. Backed with lovely visuals and a quality voice cast, there's little this film is lacking.

Porco Rosso is a wonderful film which will appeal to all. This film leaves me with two enduring images: the silent place above the clouds where the pilots go, and Marco, in the middle of the night, selecting his bullets by lamp light.

US DVD Review

The 2-disc set, like the rest of Disney's North American Ghibli DVDs, is spectacular. The video is beautiful anamorphic widescreen, there are full soundtracks in Japanese, English (with a big-name cast), and French (also big-name), plus a proper English subtitle track, as the English dialogue differs significantly from the original. The second disc is full of extras. The only down side of the whole thing is that when you start playing the film it begins with a brief commentary by John Lasseter; it's easy to skip, but annoying.

Content Guide

Though there is some violence and very vague mature themes, everything is light and mild enough to be suitable for most ages.

Violence: 1 - Dogfights and slapstick and its all pretty harmless.

Nudity: 0 - Bzzzt. Miyazaki, remember?

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Light romance.

Language: 1 - Nothing of note.

Notes and Trivia

Porco Rosso is based on a short, 15-page watercolor comic by Hayao Miyazaki called "Hikoutei Jidai" ("Age of the Flying Boat"). It was originally serialized during 1989 in a Japanese magazine for scale model enthusiasts, Model Graphix. Way back in 1993 it was published in English in Animerica magazine.

Aside from Disney's high-profile dub, there was also a little-known English dub made so the movie could be shown as an in-flight movie on Japan Airlines. This version was, apparently, also shown on Australian TV.

Availability

Available in the US from Buena Vista (Disney) on a trilingual 2-disc DVD set.

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