Porco Rosso neatly summarizes the career of its director, Hayao Miyazaki. Mixing the tight, kinetic action and humor of his earlier movies (Castle Cagliostro, Laputa) with the superb animation and more delicate characterizations of his later efforts (My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki's Delivery Service), the film is probably the most entertaining and appealing of his career. The story follows an ace mercenary pilot in the Adriatic circa 1935, who was once a man but is now cursed with a pig body (ergo, Porco Rosso, "The Crimson Pig"). But it doesn't matter, for he's as smooth and fearless a pilot as they come, and a charmer with the ladies. Disdaining the growing Fascist movement in Italy and the prospect of wartime aerial combat, he prefers to relax at his Edenic home island and defend passenger liners from the Mamma Aiuto, a reckless (and smelly) bunch of air pirates. But with the arrival of Curtis, an arrogant American ace who wants to be a movie star and the president of the United States (sound familiar?), Porco is forced to retreat to Milan to fine-tune his plane for a climactic battle even while he's caught in a triangle with two comely ladies -- Gina, his childhood friend and now a wealthy singer and socialite at the Hotel Adriano, and Fio, a feisty young airplane mechanic who has to earn his respect.
Miyazaki's movies have always been fascinated by the freedom of flight, and Porco Rosso might be his penultimate statement in that department. Whether depicting a seaplane crashing through the waves, the early morning glimmer of sunlight off its wings, or the exciting swoops and dives of two dogfighting planes, the movie is jammed with eye-popping aerial animation. Porco himself could well be Miyazaki's alter ego -- in a film about romance and freedom, there is nothing as romantic or free as flight itself, and Porco is the king of the skies in this regard. The action scenes are definite highlights, but there are also plenty of the quiet, contemplative moments that characterize his later films. Perhaps the most haunting scene from the movie is a flashback in which the young Porco has a vision of his dead comrades-in-arms ascending in their planes to a netherworld far above the clouds where hundreds of other souls congregate; using only music and animation, Miyazaki creates a moment that is ghostly, eerie, and beautiful all at once. And of course, the rest of the animation adheres to his high standards. While Disney movies revel in imaginary settings and kingdoms, Porco Rosso takes its pleasures from realistic details, like the twinkle of moonlight on a waveswept beach, or the sputter and pop of an engine as it reluctantly roars to life, or even the charming naivete of 20's cartoons (at one point, Porco watches an amusing short in which an "evil" aviator pig is downed by a stalwart Italian air force hero). Just as in Kiki's Delivery Service, the European atmosphere and landscapes are vividly depicted, and the scenery only enhances the film's appeal. Add two strong heroines in Gina and Fio, another delicately humorous and moving soundtrack by Joe Hisaishi, and a plot that's nearly seamless in its blend of humor, action, and drama, and you have an all-around crowd pleaser.
Those expecting intense, slam-bang action in the Laputa or Princess Mononoke mold might be a little disappointed by the film's gentleness -- Curtis is the nominal villain, but even he turns out to have some integrity in the end, and the pervading mood is not one of boyish adventure and danger, but nostalgia for a time in history long gone, when dashing pilots flew for the love of it and the Mediterranean was still unsullied by greed and war. The movie's humanity and wistful melancholy resembles American classic films from the 30's and 40's, when you could defeat the enemy, get the girl, and retain your honor without a trace of bloodshed. But in its craft and encapsulation of all his pet themes and motifs, Porco Rosso stands as one of Miyazaki's finest achievements.
