Synopsis
Marco Pagot was once a veteran WWI fighter pilot. Now transformed into an anthropomorphic pig through a rare curse, he has become a bounty hunter. With his new look and work, the former veteran has taken up the name “Red Pig” a.k.a. “Porco Rosso.” In this tale, Aerial pirate raids are gaining in frequency and Porco Rosso has become one of the “bodyguards” to stop them.
However, the fascist regime that has taken over the Italian Air Force has grown tiresome of his exploits and places a bounty on his head. More than facing the struggles of becoming a wanted man the former veteran also has to face a hotshot flyer from the United States arrives and not only wants to steal Porco Rosso’s glory, but also the woman he loves so dearly.
The Good
With many Ghibli films, the females usually stand out as strong characters or develop into one. Here, there are strong female characters but Porco Rosso makes for an interesting character on his own. He holds this smooth quality to him that makes for an interesting character and the mystery behind him and his past only adds on to it. As a film that featured planes, it did well in presenting different styles and the mechanisms behind them. The actions scenes though were one of the bigger highlights of the film with how it was executed and the impact it left. Other than this, the story also held an interesting quality to it in how it left an open ending for the imagination.
The Bad
There were different factors of the film that held an interesting note but the lacking depth to it brought it down. This mainly pertains to the secondary characters and the whole story behind Porco’s transformation. Basically, there were some points of the story that didn’t really go anywhere. Other than this, the film is at its core, rather simple in its core and mostly stands out because of its slight mystery and high flying action scenes.
Conclusion
It’s pretty much what the title says it is, there’s a simple story but a good deal of enjoyable action. Porco really does stand out as the main character that has more depth than what was shown and it’s just a little sad that the story was more focused on his conflicts with the other fliers rather than having more explored with his personal story. It’s not bad, but overall the film gave a rather simple adventure story with a different sort of hero. Basically, it’s the kind of list you should have on a list but not at the top.
Rating: 7.5/10