Review: Porco Rosso

Porco Rosso saves the day with his ace flying skills

This afternoon I returned to the Vancouver International Film Festival theatre to catch the ongoing Studio Ghibli Forever! festival, for the screening of Porco Rosso.

The 1992 animation by Hayao Miyazaki seems like an adult show at first, but really it's suitable for kids. Even the English dubbed version has witty dialogue that kids around 7 years old can appreciate.

Not many people watched this screening compared to My Neighbor Totoro last week, but it's too bad they were missing out.

Porco Rosso sizes up his rival, American Curtis 

Porco Rosso is a World War I flying ace who left the air force and kept busy as a bounty hunter. He has gained a reputation for not only his piloting skills, but also his pig-headed face, caused by some kind of curse that isn't really explained. He also seems to smoke a lot!

But his cynical attitude and one-liners quickly make him endearing to the audience, not to mention his ability to fly circles around his rivals, a rag-tag bunch of dim-witted air pirates.

These pirates team up with an American pilot called Donald Curtis, who also immediately reminds us of Gaston in Beauty and the Beast -- so full of himself and in love with any woman who walks his way.

In the skies Curtis sneaks up on Porco Rosso and believes he has downed the porcine pilot, but instead has severely damaged his beloved plane.

Fio holds her own against the air pirates...

Porco Rosso brings his wing-less into Milan to have it fixed by his mechanic, who happens to have a smart aviation engineer granddaughter named Fio.

She makes his plane even better (and costs even more), but Porco Rosso needs to get out of Italy to evade the Fascists who know he's in the country. His famous line is: "I'd rather be a big than a Fascist."

There's also a love interest -- Gina -- who is uber rich from selling drinks at her bar to those air pirates. All her previous husbands were pilots and she cares deeply for Porco Rosso, but he selfishly -- our out of self preservation -- cares only for himself.

Fio and Gina are strong women characters who reveal Miyazaki's feminist side, and these two balance out the male chauvinism very well. Gina and especially Fio are precursors to Disney's Belle in Beauty and the Beast and the red headed Princess Merida in Brave.

... and so does Gina with the air pirates in her bar

The 96-minute film has lots of action and comedy, as well as touching scenes that the time seems to fly by.  There's more to the plot with a lot of backstory which make the characters more rounded and complex.

The English version is voiced by Michael Keaton as Porco Rosso and Cary Elwes as Curtis. Brad Garrett is the Boss, the leader of the air pirates.

Porco Rosso

Hayao Miyazaki

96 minutes