Porco Rosso

Hayao Miyazaki’s Porco Rosso, is a wonderful story, significantly lighter in flavor than Nausicaa, Mononokee, or even Spirited Away. A former ace fighter pilot mysteriously turns into a half-pig, half-man. Not willing to work with the increasingly fascist government of Italy in the time before World War II and no longer human, he takes to the skies as a hunter of air-pirates, which are surprisingly common in the film. The pirates, of course, don’t approve, and hire an American ace to counter him. All of this takes place against a backdrop of a love triangle between the two fighter pilots and a much-admired singer and bartender.

Although there’s some fighting in planes, in cars, and with fists, Porro Rosso doesn’t strike me as even remotely violent given the subjects examined. At the beginning of the movie, a group of pirates kidnap several very young girls, only to be befuddled by their unwillingness to actually harm these hostages and the fact that they’re effectively chaperoning a field trip.

The film examines some serious issues. Marco, aka The Pig, is force to overcome a sexist point of view when only women are available to rebuild and repair his plane. Pilots, pirates, merchants, and other spectators scurry away in the face of the advancing Italian air force. But mostly, Porco Rosso is a fun fantasy tale.