Porco Rosso (1992)

Rating: 80%
Alright so a little after seeing Ponyo, I got to this Miyazaki film. So here's my review for Porco Rosso.

Plot: Porco Rosso is a man that has been cursed which turns him into a pig. Since then he has become a famous bounty hunter in the Adriatic Sea in the interwar period, defending people from airborne pirates. One day the pirates hire an American fighter pilot named Curtis to help them get rid of Porco. Porco tries to fly away from them to Milan for repairs to his plane but Curtis shoots his plane down and leaves believing he's dead. So Porco has to sneak to Milan despite the fact that he's wanted all over Italy to repair his plane and get back at Curtis.

I think I'm starting to make it officially my point of view that a very well done Miyazaki film is a film that gives us a world/story that is so unique and creative and sometimes complex that I have to watch it twice to make sure I understand everything before reviewing it. So that would fall in line to part of why I particularly like Howl's Moving Castle, Castle in the Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service... maybe it's that way with Spirited Away (I am not sure if the times that I saw it years ago would really count for a couple of reasons) and I expect to feel the need to do that for that when I get to Princess Mononoke. Porco Rosso was a movie that I had to watch twice before reviewing it so, yeah it's a good movie. The story is creative, the setting is pretty cool particularly when we get more into Porco's past, the comedy if enjoyable and the characters (especially the Mamma Aiuto gang) are very fun to watch. There are a couple of things that I wish they got into more like how exactly Porco got his curse and all of that, but at the same time I'm kind of alright with it because that kind of makes the world of Porco Rosso still something of a mystery more or less which make it a little more interesting. Plus, (as per usual) we get a nice cast in the Disney version to this film with Michael Keaton, Cary Elwes, Susan Egan, Brad Garrett and David Ogden Stiers.

Characters:
Porco Rosso: Normally I wouldn't be too big about a bounty hunter with a dark past or something like that since character more or less like that has been done plenty of times before, but I admit that this was not the case here. I think that's mostly because his past is more unique with the fact that it's mostly about him being turned into a pig and how we don't find out about every single thing about who he was before the events of the film. So that helped me care more about Porco and therefore be more willing to enjoy how he's a guy who looks after himself and yet has a sort of soft side about him.
Mamma Aiuto Gang Boss: Personally I liked the Mamma Aiuto Gang Boss the best because he was really hilarious. It seemed like everything was going wrong for him and he'd keep yelling at the top of his lungs over it and combining that with the animation to this movie made him a lot of fun to watch.

Music; Short answer. Well done just like any other Miyazaki film.

And that's my review for Porco Rosso. It's a creative, funny and all around an entertaining film though and through.