is a 1992 Japanese animated adventure fantasy film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki, based on his 1989 manga Hikōtei Jidai. Produced by Toshio Suzuki and animated by Studio Ghibli, the film was distributed in Japan by Toho, with music composed by Joe Hisaishi. The Japanese voice cast includes Shūichirō Moriyama, Tokiko Kato, Akemi Okamura and Akio Otsuka. Set in a stylized version of the interwar Mediterranean, the film reflects Miyazaki's long-standing fascination with aviation, European settings and early twentieth-century history.
The story follows Marco Pagot, an Italian former World War I fighter ace who now works as a freelance bounty hunter pursuing bands of air pirates operating over the Adriatic Sea. For reasons left ambiguous, Marco has been transformed into an anthropomorphic pig and lives under the name Porco Rosso (). When a brash American pilot, Donald Curtis, is hired to defeat him, Porco is forced to rebuild his aircraft with the help of a young engineer, Fio Piccolo, while confronting memories of his past and the emotional isolation that followed the war.
Blending aerial adventure with elements of fantasy and romantic drama, Porco Rosso explores themes of disillusionment, personal identity, and the lingering psychological scars of conflict. The film also reflects Miyazaki's anti-war sensibility and his critical view of rising fascism in interwar Italy, while celebrating the craftsmanship and romance of early aviation through detailed mechanical design and expansive flight sequences characteristic of the director's work.
An English-dubbed version was made for Japan Airlines and released only in Japan. The film was later redubbed by Walt Disney Home Entertainment and released on DVD and Blu-ray in the United States and Canada on February 22, 2005. GKIDS re-issued the film on Blu-ray and DVD on November 21, 2017, under a new deal with Studio Ghibli.
Plot
In 1929, Italian World War I fighter ace and bounty hunter Porco Rosso responds to a call from an ocean liner that was attacked by airborne pirates who took child hostages and valuables. Porco, cursed to have a pig's head by unknown means, outmaneuvers the pirates and rescues the hostages, letting the pirates escape with half the valuables. At night, he dines with his childhood friend, Gina, at her Hotel Adriano.
The pirates contract American ace Curtis to assist their attacks. Curtis falls in love with Gina despite her being in love with Porco. While Porco is flying to Milan to have his red seaplane serviced, Curtis shoots him down. Porco survives and continues the trip by boat with his damaged plane, much to Gina's irritation. She reminds him there is a warrant for his arrest in Italy.
Porco meets his mechanic Piccolo in Milan. Piccolo's sons have emigrated so the work will be done by his young granddaughter Fio. Once Porco's plane is finished, Fio joins him on his flight home as cover should the secret police arrest them. They can claim that Porco took Fio hostage to force Piccolo to help. The new fascist government is hiring pirates for their own use, putting Porco out of business.
Curtis proposes to Gina but she says she is waiting for Porco. Gina sits in her garden each afternoon, waiting for Porco to meet her there, but he only ever visits her at night when the dim light will obscure his appearance. Porco and Fio are ambushed by the pirates, and Curtis challenges Porco to a duel. Fio declares that if Porco wins, Curtis must pay his debts owed to Piccolo's company, and if Curtis wins, he may marry her.
While Porco is preparing shells, Fio glimpses his true face. Porco tells Fio a story from World War I. Just after Gina's wedding to Porco's pilot friend Bellini, their squadron was attacked. Porco entered a cloud to evade his pursuers. He blacked out then awakened to complete stillness above the clouds. The airmen who died in the dogfight—Bellini included—rose out of the cloud to fly up towards a band of thousands of planes flying together. After offering in vain to die in Bellini's place for Gina's sake, he awakened again flying alone low over the sea. He concludes that he is meant to "fly solo". Fio rebukes him and kisses his cheek.
Curtis and Porco's dogfight devolves into a boxing match when both planes' guns jam. Porco accuses Curtis of being a womanizer; Curtis responds that Porco is worse: Fio adores him, and Gina is waiting on him to the exclusion of any other, but he does not reciprocate. The combatants knock each other out and fall into the shallow water. Gina calls out to Porco, who rises first and is declared the winner. She warns that the Italian air force is on its way, and invites everyone to regroup at her hotel. Porco requests Gina look after Fio and turns away. Fio gives Porco a kiss.
Porco volunteers to lead the air force away and invites Curtis to join him. As they walk to their planes, Curtis catches a glimpse of Porco's face and says he has changed; he asks to get a better look and is refused. As she flies in a jet seaplane, Fio narrates the epilogue: Porco outflew the Italian air force and remained at large; Fio became president of the Piccolo aircraft company; Curtis became a famous actor, and the pirates continued to attend the Hotel Adriano in their old age. She says that whether Gina's hope for Porco Rosso was ever realized is their secret. A red seaplane is docked by Gina's garden as Fio flies over the hotel, and a shot of Gina's garden reveals that she is no longer there waiting.
Cast
Character name Voice actor Original English dub Japanese English Original, 1992 Japan Airlines, 1992 Walt Disney Pictures, 2005 Porco Rosso / Marco Pagot Porco Rosso / Marco Rossolini Shūichirō Moriyama Ward Sexton Michael Keaton Donald Curtis Akio Otsuka Cary Elwes Fio Piccolo Akemi Okamura Lynn Eve Harris Kimberly Williams-Paisley Madame Gina Tokiko Kato rowspan="6" Susan Egan Mr. Piccolo Sanshi Katsura David Ogden Stiers Ferrarin Ferrari Mahito Tsujimura Tom Kenny Capo Boss Tsunehiko Kamijō Brad Garrett Mamma Aiuto Gang Members Reizō Nomoto Bill Fagerbakke Osamu Saka Kevin Michael Richardson Yuu Shimaka Barry Gjerde Frank Welker
The French dub of the film stars Jean Reno as Porco.
Production The film was originally planned as a short in-flight film for Japan Airlines based on Hayao Miyazaki's manga The Age of the Flying Boat, but grew into a feature-length film. The success of Kiki's Delivery Service placed pressure on Miyazaki's next feature film, so he decided to produce Porco Rosso as a shorter, direct-to-video interim.
Production began in the summer of 1989, but quickly stalled due to high expenses. The following winter, producer Toshio Suzuki suggested that the film be distributed to airlines, since it heavily featured aircraft. The idea was pitched to Japan Airlines, and the project became Japan's first in-flight feature film production, to be shown only on international flights.
In November 1990, production resumed with an initial budget of ¥200,000,000 and a half-hour runtime. The runtime was extended to 45 minutes in August 1991 as Miyazaki's storyboards grew, and later to an hour, which qualified the project as a feature film. Production paused until a theatrical release was negotiated alongside the in-flight release, which would now be a month earlier.
Working with Suzuki, Miyazaki experienced extensive issues with the storyboarding process. These problems were resolved by introducing the character of Gina and her relationship with Porco, Porco's curse, and the daydream sequence, which was inspired by They Shall Not Grow Old, a short story by Roald Dahl.
The outbreak of war in Yugoslavia cast a shadow over production and prompted a more serious tone for the film, which had been set in Dalmatia. The airline remained a major investor in the film and showed it as an in-flight film well before its theatrical release. Due to this, the opening text introducing the film appears simultaneously in Japanese, Italian, Korean, English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, French, and German. Telecom Animation Film Co., Ltd. helped animate the film.
History, geography and politics
Marco is an Italian hero from the First World War and is shown fighting against Austro-Hungarian fighter planes in a flashback sequence. The story is set in Northern Italy, including Milan, and the Italian and Croatian Adriatic Sea east coast. Some locations resemble certain islands of the Italian Lakes. The concealed beach Porco uses as a hideout bears a strong resemblance to Stiniva Beach, on the southern side of the Croatian island of Vis.
Miyazaki shed light on the political context of the making of the film in an interview with Empire. He reflects that the conflicts that broke out during the film's production (such as those in Dubrovnik and elsewhere) made Porco Rosso a much more complicated and difficult film.
Evident historical and political realism aside, at least one scholar has argued that the film's more overt historical references can be understood as representative of wakon yōsai (Jp; "Japanese spirit, Western learning")—a tendency, since the Meiji period, for Japanese artists to paint Europe as spectacular, while simultaneously maintaining the distance necessary to preserve a distinct sense of Japanese identity. "In Porco Rosso," states academic Chris Wood, "Europe is tamed, rendered as a charming site of pleasurable consumption, made distant and viewed through a tourist gaze."
Homage to early aviation
The fictional "Piccolo" aircraft company depicted in the film is based on the Italian aircraft manufacturers Caproni and Piaggio. The jet shown in the last scene is very similar in concept to the Caproni C-22J, an aircraft designed by Carlo Ferrarin, a designer for Caproni, whose name is notably used in the film for Marco's Air Force pilot friend. The jet-amphibian also has a V-tail, slightly reminiscent of the Magister jet trainer. The Savoia-Marchetti S.55, Fiat C.R.20 and Macchi M.39 are featured in the movie.
Porco's air-force friend Ferrarin was inspired by the Italian Air Force pilot Arturo Ferrarin who flew with an Ansaldo SVA.9 from Rome to Tokyo in 1920.Bendazzi, Giannalberto (2015). Animation: A World History , Vol. III, p. 221. CRC Press. Additionally, the Caproni Ca.309 light reconnaissance aircraft, known as the "Ghibli", was the namesake for Miyazaki's and Takahata's animation studio.
Porco's plane is named after the Savoia S.21, but is based on the Macchi M.33. While in Piccolo's engine shop, the engine to be used in Porco's rebuilt Savoia S.21 also has the word "Ghibli" visible on its rocker covers—in design it is a narrow-angle V-12 engine, similar in form to racing engines of the period. Piccolo mentions that it was used in a racing airplane for the Schneider Trophy race in the year before.
In the early 1930s, Italian seaplane designers set world speed records (such as the Macchi M.C.72 designed by the Italian airplane designer Mario Castoldi). One of the test pilots killed during the attempt to set the speed record was named Bellini, the name given to Porco's pilot friend in the film. Italian top fighter aces Francesco Baracca and Adriano Visconti also appear in the film.
Marco Pagot, the real name of the main character, is also a homage to the Pagot brothers, pioneers of Italian animation (Nino and Toni Pagot were the authors of the first Italian animated feature film, The Dynamite Brothers, and Nino's son and daughter Marco and Gi Pagot were Miyazaki's collaborators in the production of Sherlock Hound).