Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
In Italy in the 1930s, sky pirates in biplanes terrorize wealthy cruise ships as they sail the Adriatic Sea. The only pilot brave enough to stop the scourge is the mysterious Porco Rosso, a former World War I flying ace who was somehow turned into a pig during the war. As he prepares to battle the pirate crew's American ace, Porco Rosso enlists the help of spunky girl mechanic Fio Piccolo and his longtime friend Madame Gina.
Porco Rosso is quintessential Miyazaki whimsy — a deeply personal, melancholic meditation on war, self-exile, and masculinity wrapped in a breezy adventure romp. The Mediterranean aeroscapes are breathtakingly rendered, with Miyazaki's love of flight producing some of the most lyrical aviation sequences in animation history, earning a strong cinematography mark. The film's conception is genuinely singular — a pig-faced WWI ace turned bounty hunter operating in a morally ambiguous 1930s Italy tinged with fascist dread — and nothing else quite resembles it, justifying high novelty. The plot is deliberately loose and episodic rather than tightly constructed, more of a mood piece than a driving narrative, which limits its score. The ending is characteristically understated and bittersweet, satisfying in tone but deliberately unresolved in ways that may frustrate some viewers. Voice performances (in both Japanese and English dubs) are warm and characterful but not show-stopping.