Porco Rosso (Crimson Pig)

Synopsis: During World War I, a flying ace who goes by the name of Porco Rosso, defends the skies above the Adriatic Sea from ruthless pirate gangs who plunder aircraft and cruiseliners. Having been cursed and transformed into a pig earlier in his lifetime, Porco works as a freelance Bounty Hunter who fights these pirate gangs in his infamous red seaplane. Having suffered defeat, time and time again, at the hands of Porco Rosso, the pirate gangs all agree to hire the American Seaplane pilot Donald Curtis, to rid them of the menace of the hateful pig, Porco Rosso.

Full of humor and comedy, Porco continues to defy the pirate gangs, the Italian Air Force and Donald Curtis while reminescing about his longtime flame, the beautiful Gina, who manages the Hotel Adriano. Aided by his dear old friend Piccolo, his war buddy Ferrari and Piccolo’s grand-daughter, Porco manages to accept a challenge after Fio manages to save Porco from being beat to a pulp and thereby saving his seaplane from imminent destruction. Porco has to fight Curtis, one on one, in his seaplane. If Porco  wins, Curtis has to pay the repair bill for Porco’s seaplane.

Our Review: Porco is relaxing on his nice quiet island when he’s called upon to save a cruiseliner from being attacked by the Mamma Aiuto Gang, a ruthless pirate gang who has been attacking cruiliners and plundering their valuables. After a quick fight, Porco ends up defeating the Mamma Aiuto Gang and allows them to leave with enough money to cover the damages to their seaplane. After deciding to hire an American seaplane pilot to deal with the upstart Porco Rosso, the pirate gangs have decided to band together to assault a larger cruiseliner. After Curtis makes quick work of two security attack fighters that have journeyed with the cruiseliner, the Mamma Aiuto Gang announce over the radio, which Porco is listening to on his little secluded island, that they are coming for him. He quickly decided that it’s time to re-arm his seaplane and head for Italy for repairs.

While Porco is still in Italy, waiting for his seaplane to be repaired by Piccolo and his grand-daughter Fio, Porco discovers that the Italian secret police are onto him and decide to chase him through the streets of Italy. Making his way back to where PIccolo and his extended family are repairing his seaplane, Fio decides to go with Porco to make sure that the repairs are working right and Piccolo wants to make sure that he gets paid for what Porco owes him for the repairs. In the end, Porco ends up succeeding in getting the new monstrosity that is his seaplane into the air, before the Italian secret police are able to arrest him. His seaplane is now sporting a very unique and powerful engine.

Meanwhile, as Porco makes his way back to the Adriatic, Curtis continues to woo Gina, trying to convince her to marry him. Gina finds it warmly amusing as she giggles at Curtis’ request. Just then, Gina and Curtis spot Porco’s familiar red seaplane flying overhead and the American pilot cannot believe his eyes. Curtis is flabbergasted when Gina says she ‘would choose the pig over him.’ Porco stops to get refuled when he discovers that the new factions of the government of Italy are striking deals with seaplane pilots as they are hiring seaplane pilots for their skills in an effort to bring law and order to the Adriatic. Soon, Porco realizes, he’ll be out of job as now there are no more demands for bounty hunters.

Just as Porco and Fio make it back to Porco’s secluded island, they are both ambushed by the combined forces of the pirate gangs. Just as ‘Da Boss’ of the Mamma Aiuto Gang decides to smash his plane to bits, this infuriates Fio and she erupts into a long speech about the honor and integrity of seaplane pilots and how skillfull and honorable they are. This moves ‘Da Boss’ of the Mamma Aiuto Gang and impresses Porco as well. ‘Da Boss’ declares that he still hates the stupid pig and wants payback for all of the grief Porco has given them. As the pirates are deciding how best to settle their grudge with Porco, Curtis appears and Porco thinks he’s in bigger trouble now.

Then, Curtis has a brilliant idea. He decides to accept the challenge with Porco on one condition. If Curtis wins, then Fio has to agree to marry him, seeing as how Curtis has developed an attraction for Fio. However, Fio proposes that if Porco Wins, Curtis has to pay the repair bill that Porco owes to Piccolo and Fio. Curtis inspects the bill and realizes that it’s expensive and reluctantly agrees to the wager. The Mamma Aiuto Gang then decides to host the challenge, in front of all of the other pirate bosses as they are inspired by “Lady” Fio’s speech about seaplane pilots. Her speesh has moved them all.

Later that evening, Fio asks Porco about why he turned into a pig. Porco ignores the question until Fio asks him to tell her a story. He goes into the tale of his last mission, going into battle with his best friend Berlini, who lost his life in one of the worst aerial fights in history. Porco survived, telling Fio how he saw his best friend, Berlini, flying abhove the clpouds in his fighter. Turns out, it was Berlini’s spirit that Marco saw (Porco’s real name before he was cursed by witches and turned into a pig). Porco blamed himself for surviving that battle and Fio reminds Porco that it wasn’t his fault and that he’s a good person.

The next day, the Mamma Aiuto Gang has turned the whole challenge into a circus as spectators from all over the Adriatic have arrived to witness the event.

Meanwhile, Gina receives a message at her hotel from Ferarri who tells her that she needs to warn Porco that the Italians are on their way to the Adriatic Sea and Gina races off to warn Porco and the rest of the seaplane pilots.

At that moment, Porco and Curtis have both run out of ammunition and they start firing handguns at each other and bottles and tools at each other. Soon after, they realize that they cannot win the battle in the skies and decide to land their seaplanes in the sea. Porco and Curtis jump out of their seaplanes and commence to hand fighting. Eventually, Gina arrives just as the two knock each other out and shouts above the roaring crowd that “the Italian Air Force is coming” and if anyone is wanted by the Italians that they need to leave the area. Porco ends up winning the challenge and Fio doesn’t have to worry about marrying Curtis. The warning from Gina is obviously meant for Porco, although none of the spectators have any idea who the warning is meant for so everyone jumps in their aircraft and seaplanes and race away from the area.

Porco ends up placing Fio in Gina’s plane and says his farewells to Gina as the rest of the pilots leave as well. POrco and Curtis are left standing in the water as Porco asks Curtis to help draw the Italians away from the others. Later on, Fio recalls how Porco flew rings around the Italian Air Force and how they never caught up with him again. She also stayed with Gina for a little while and became good friends with each other. She eventually heads back to Milan.

Summary: Until Disney started releasing Hayao Miyazaki’s (Studio Ghibli) movies to DVD, I had never heard of Porco Rosso, except in passing. While I did enjoy his manga series, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, I had never seen any of his movies. That all changed when I purchased and watched Porco Rosso, truly, one of his greatest movies. Rounding out the movie with a colorful group of characters, the movie doesn’t have any spectacular action scenes in it but maintains enough curiosity aroound these central characters to be interesting. Michael Keaton portrays the lead character in possibly one of the greatest fits for an anime character since Disney cast Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Carribean.

There isn’t much objectionable material in this movie and even the fight scene at the end of the movie is so tame that younger anime fans could enjoy this movie. I strongly recommend this movie.