Review of Porco Rosso

Introduction

Optimum continue their splendid revisiting of the Ghibli back catalogue, releasing the films in excellent shape, with the dual language format well catered for with hard of hearing subtitles and translated subtitles, as well as a fair selection of extras. Porco Rosso is an earlier film from acclaimed director Hayao Miyazaki, but still contains those elements that have come to be associated with his work, as well as plenty of aeroplanes.

Porco Rosso is an airborne bounty hunter, whose red seaplane is the scourge of air pirates in the Mediterranean. He`s also the victim of a magic spell that has left him resembling a pig, none of which hampers his reputation as a ladies man. The pirates are tired of getting shot up by Porco, so they employ a hotshot American pilot named Curtiss to take care of him. Porco`s plane needs an overhaul anyway, and easily falls prey to Curtiss, and it takes some nifty flying for Porco to survive. Now Porco must take his wrecked plane to Milan for repairs. The Piccolo family is happy to refit the plane, at a price, although Porco is a little shocked to see that the mechanic who will oversee the work is a young girl called Fio, granddaughter of the workshop`s owner. It isn`t easy for a freelance pilot in 1930s Milan, especially with the fascists recruiting and the secret police on Porco`s tail. Fio decides to join Porco as his `hostage` to safeguard her family and to make sure the redesigned plane is sound. Porco is reluctant to accept a partner, especially when the pirates show up with Curtiss, ready for a rematch, with Fio as the prize.

Video

Porco Rosso gets a clear and colourful anamorphic transfer. The animation is glorious, with the copious aerial scenes looking absolutely divine. The dogfights look astounding, and the way the planes move pays more than just lip service to realism. The characters have an artistic simplicity, but in motion again they look sublime. This film harks back to the days before CGI, yet in terms of technical achievement it approaches a similar level of perfection. There are one or two issues with the transfer though, with fast and random particulate motion exhibiting a few compression artefacts, and hints of the NTSC origins apparent when the screen pans horizontally.

Audio

You get a choice of DD 2.0 Japanese or English, and as usual I went with the original language track. The dialogue is clear, and the music has that gentle magic that you get with most of Miyazaki`s films. The stereo effect is subtle, but apparent during the action sequences, with planes flying overhead and bullets firing in every direction. I sampled the English dub, and as with most of the Ghibli films, it gets the Disney treatment, with a star-studded dub and reversioned dialogue that is slightly more family friendly. Here Michael Keaton, sounding suspiciously like Batman, voices Porco. (The French version, which isn`t here, has Jean Reno as Porco). There are two subtitle tracks here, with the English dub accompanied by hard of hearing subtitles, while the Japanese version gets a translated subtitle track. The only negative point would be the final song, which should have been subtitled as well.

Features

Optimum garnish Porco Rosso with a light smattering of extras, most notable of which are the feature length storyboards, presented as a multi-angle featurette. You can switch at any point in the film to see the original pencil sketches. It`s all pretty straight forward.

There is a brief featurette (4 minutes) that sees Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki interviewed. He has enough time to talk about the film, and his impressions of Miyazaki. Add to that the eight minutes of original trailers, an 11-minute collection of trailers for the rest of the Ghibli Collection, available or due from Optimum, and a cute little jacket picture that displays when the disc isn`t spinning, and that`s your lot.

Conclusion

All the ingredients to a Miyazaki film are here, the elements of magic, a young heroine, and plenty of flying. There`s even a pig in the title role. Central to Porco Rosso is the veneration of a better time, a golden age. Here it is that brief golden age of flying that existed between the wars, when the rickety flying machines of the Wright Brothers had evolved into graceful wooden birds, and where an individual could carve his own path, forge a career flying his own plane. Air travel was a luxury, but treated as such, with comfort and opulence more important than profit margins. This was before the war, before the age of the airlines and multinationals, and a far cry from the crammed sardine tins that clog the skies today.

Porco Rosso is set at the end of that age, with the dark clouds of the Second World War on the horizon. But the story that it tells is hardly anything as weighty, rather it`s the personal tale of the porcine bounty hunter, as he goes about his business, burdened by his past, yet reluctant to face the future. He`s the last survivor of a group of flyers, and has a potential relationship with the widow of one of them. But he keeps shying away. It takes the entry of young Fio into his life to get him to re-evaluate his situation. She is the mechanic who repairs his plane, and insists on joining his adventures. She becomes the prize in an aerial duel between Porco and Curtiss. It`s a simple story, but it`s set against the rich tapestry of the pre-war years. The music and the fashion as recreated here looks and sounds splendid, and the attention to detail is astounding. The background is intricately filled in, specifically with Porco`s past, and generally with the onset of the depression years, and the rise of the fascist movement in Italy, yet it never overshadows the entertainment.

In some ways, Porco Rosso is a lesser Miyazaki, with the magic and romance of childhood toned down, and the comedy more prevalent. The story is quite ephemeral too, and it all feels like frivolous fun. But even a lesser Miyazaki stands head and shoulders over many other animations, and the attention to detail, the beautifully animated flying sequences very much makes this a heartfelt ode to that golden age. Heartily recommended.