I'm a big fan of Miyazaki, and I've pretty much enjoyed every one of his works, from Totoro to Mononoke hime.
But this, unlike most of his works, this movie doesn't share a message about environment and humans trying to destroy it. Hence, this movie focuses on a young man, who became a pig, after certain events(something like prince Ashitaka from Mononoke).
I loved this story mostly because it's somewhat realistic, and the story doesn't fade away into fantasy that much.
This movie was like a chronicle of something that really happened, something that I found much more closer to us humans, then it was with Spirited Away, for example.
Story:
As I said before, story involves a male protagonist, who became a pig, after certain events in his life. He abandoned pre-war Italy and it's aviation and became a bounty hunter, being famous for his outstanding skills with sea-plane.
I found the story surprisingly entertaining and enjoyable. The plot had it's flow without any major setbacks, and the message of the movie is quite brilliant.
Art:
I really think that Studio Ghibli can't make a mistake when it comes to animation.
Each and every one of their movies blew me away, when it came to this aspect.
Vast mediterranean landscapes, drawn with vivid and live colours will take your breath away, and the way they managed to catch a pre-war atmosphere with portraits of the people in Italy, and imagery of famous cabarets is really stunning.
Sound:
I watched Porco Rosso with English dubs(yeah I'm well aware of the mistake), and found it still quite good, but not as good as original japanese dub. Disney made a really great effort, and they did a good job, but it's still a copy of the original.
Characters:
Oh, this is the major problem of Porco Rosso, and mostly all of studio Ghibli's works.
If I asked you know, do you remember any characters from this movie that aren't Porco, there's a great chance you won't remember their faces.
All of the side-part characters are drawn almost "faceless" and they all look the same to me, so at the end, you only remember the unique face of Porco Rosso.
As I said, the combination of fantasy and realism surprised me, when I expected to deal with something like Miyazaki's usual works. The theme and settings in the Europe felt closer to me, as I'm from Europe too(mediterranean in a matter of fact).
All in all, I feel that Porco Rosso is really underrated, as I find this piece of work to be much more enjoyable than Spirited Away.
Enjoy.
