Movies / Animé and Toons

Porco Rosso (1992)

By Hervé St-Louis
October 29, 2011 - 21:44

Porco Rosso is a cursed man transformed into a pig who flies hydroplanes on the Adriatic sea chasing pirates in the interwar period. When Porco Rosso’s plane is destroyed by a rival American pilot, he escapes to Milan where a new plane is built for him so that he can go back to the Adriatic and reclaim his title as the best pilot of the area. But will love get in the way of Rosso’s revenge?

As an animator and animation buff, it seemed sacrilegious to say that I had not seen Porco Rosso yet. It’s one of those films everyone talks about and says that you have to see, yet for some reason, never get around to viewing. I have several comic books with whom I have a similar relationship. Well, now that I’ve finally watched it, everything is ok. I can keep my credentials as an animator.

I won’t add much to this review that has not been said. I tried not read any before I wrote this, so if anything seems redundant or obvious, and that you’ve read the exact same words befofe, I offer you my sincere apology. Of course, Porco Rosso is Miyazaki’s signature film. It’s that features that defines him. It seems odd though, as his real animated career only started in the late 1970s and his first big film, Nausicaa in the Valley of the Wind was released just 8 years before he wrote and directed the film that would define him. I guess he was a late bloomer.



I wasn’t sure what Porco Rosso reminded me of, but I finally figured it out. It’s Corto Maltese but as a pig. Corto Maltese is this Italian comic book character created by Hugo Pratt who’s a sailor and was involved in many adventures in the early part of the 20th century. He did not fly, but some of the comic books created by Pratt featured flying characters. His last one was an adaptation of Saint-Exupery’s life as a cartoon strip.



Ok, what does Hugo Pratt and Corto Maltese have to do with Hayao Miyazaki and Porco Rosso? Well the work of fictions are by masters who keep looking inside of themselves and reflect on their lives through characters that evoke much of what they feel and believe in. Their work is also about what is not said, not heard, but felt.  In Porco Rosso, we never figure out what was the cause of the curse, what he had to do to piss off someone so badly that he would be turned into a pig. We don’t understand why Madame Gina never married him first and what happened in their youth for the two of them to be gently estranged from one another, yet supporting friends. We don’t even know if Porco Rosso is finally turned into a human again at the end of the film and most important, we don’t know about his whereabouts by the end of the film.

The thing is, it doesn’t matter at all. What matters is the epoch feel of this film and all it has to say that can easily be guessed by attentive viewers. It’s the kind of film that warrants several screening to get all the details and juice extracted to get a better understanding of what Miyazaki was trying to say. But even then, it’s not necessary to see this film as a magical realistic auto-biography. This film features the star system created by Studio Ghibli that can easily be recognized in many of the studio’s features. It’s always nice to see all of them. Of course the film is about flying and that’s a big deal in the world of Miyazaki. Few of his films have scenes without an extensive flight scene where the characters are brushing against the winds. That’s Miyazaki and Porco Rosso has all of these ingredients in large amounts.



Porco Rosso is not really a friendly character. I did, however, enjoy seeing the contrasts between his youthful and very Italian lineage and the more gruff and almost American-like pig version of himself where the accent was gone, and seemingly all the hopes. The film hints that he is a womanizer, but he really is not. He can’t or won’t get Gina and continually blushes when Fio Piccolo makes advances at him.

Rating: 10 /10

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12