Film Reviews: Porco Rosso (Contains Spoilers)

I wouldn't describe myself as an anime fan as such, mostly because I've not really seen much of it and don't know too much about it.   I am, however, a huge Studio Ghibli fan.   Howl's Moving Castle, My Neighbour Totoro and Spirited Away are all firm favorites.   Porco Rosso seems to be a lesser known Ghibli film, for some reason.   I really enjoyed it though.

The plot is fairly wacky, even by Ghibli standards.   It's about an anthropomorphic pig called Porco Rosso (red pig in Italian), who was an Italian fighter pilot in WWI.   Since being turned into a pig by a spell he now spends his time living alone on a hidden island, visiting his friend Gina, who is secretly in love with him, and fighting air priates for cash.   He's always careful not to permanently put the air pirates out of action though, in order to ensure himself a continuous supply of work.  Eventually the air pirates get fed up and hire an american pilot, Curtis, to take out Porco for them.   Porco however, has no intention of fighting Curtis.   He tries to fly to Milan for repairs, but Curtis is waiting for him and his plane gets badly damaged.   Porco manages to get it to Milan and a young female engineer, Fio, plans a complete redesign and overhaul.   Porco is impressed, despite his earlier scepticism about her skills.   With repairs complete Porco and Fio set off for Porco's island, but the air pirates are hiding in wait for them.   They threaten to tear up Porco's new plane but Fio gets them to agree to a duel, Porco versus Curtis, instead.   Their dogfight degenerates into a fist fight when both their guns jam.   Porco wins and Curtis has to pay Porco's repair bills.   Just then Gina arrives with the news that the air force is on the way.   Everyone scatters and Fio kisses Porco goodbye.   It's hinted at that this breaks the spell on him and he and Gina live happily ever after.  

I love how light-hearted and care-free this film feels throughout.   Despite the conflict, there aren't really any villains.   Everyone is essentially nice, they just happen to be on different sides.   As usual with a Ghibli film, the animation is gorgeous and the characters are larger than life.   For me this film has a special appeal because it looks so much like home.   The artists have really made an effort to make their landscapes look like Italy, and for certain locations I even have a pretty good idea where their inspiration came from.   The possible exception here is the canal in Milan.   It doesn't look quite right, somehow.   Too wide, perhaps, or too many bridges.   But this aside, there's still plenty to make me feel homesick.   There are also parts of it that feel pretty dated.   It was made in 1992 and I don't think a film could get away with the kind of sexist remarks that crop up in it today.   All in all though, a very enjoyable film.