Porco Rosso
|
List Price: Our Price: $14.90 You Save: $15.09 (50%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $7.14 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Porco Rosso
Movie Review: one of Miyazaki's best films
Summary: 5 Stars
One of director Hayao Miyazaki's ("Spirited Away", "Princess Mononoke") earlier works is a film called "Porco Rosso". "Porco Rosso", like his other films, is an animated movie and this one features a pig as an ace pilot and bounty hunter. But before we think this movie is going to veer into the territory of Looney Tunes, Porco is the only character in the movie who is not human and we learn later midway through the movie that he used to be human but seems to be cursed in some way. The rest of the film is grounded a sense of reality, though a slightly skewed reality.
Porco (voiced by an unrecognizable Michael Keaton) is a sea-plane pilot and a bounty hunter. He works for money and usually to protect others (still for pay, not out of any generosity of spirit as he claims he has none). Early in the film we see Porco foil a kidnapping by a bumbling sea-plane pirate gang, and the pirate leaders from the region are out to put a stop to Porco's success against them. They bring in this American pilot (voiced by Cary Elwes), one of the fastest in the world. The American's job is to make Porco look silly and to put him out of a job, if not kill Porco.
"Porco Rosso's" storyline does not progress the way I would have expected. Even though the film clocks in at 90 minutes, "Porco Rosso" has a leisurely pace that feels as if Miyazaki knows exactly where he is going and is in no hurry to get there. I was surprised by just how much humor there is in the movie. The pirates bungle and bumble quite often, but they also drop these throw away lines that are simply funny, but only when you're watching the movie. Trying to list a series of these lines wouldn't be funny when one line that made me laugh was simply "okay", but it was when and how it was said that made the joke. The other thing about this movie was that I was interested in what happens to Porco, and what did happen to Porco, and what will happen. I cared about the character and also in his Engineer friend and the friend's granddaughter (voiced by Kimberly Williams) who is just as good of an engineer as any and a very important character.
Simply put, the movie worked. On all levels. Animation gives the false impression that it is automatically for children, and children can and would enjoy "Porco Rosso", but Miyazaki's films work for adults as well. This is just a good movie. Period. It joins "Princess Mononoke" and "Kiki's Delivery Service" as my favorites Miyazaki movies and is one I happily recommend.
-Joe Sherry
Movie Review: Excellent Japanese Release, but...
Summary: 5 Stars
(*****) for the Japanese-language track on this long-awaited Region 1 release of Kurenai no buta on DVD. Compared to grey- and black-market DVDs and VHSs to which Miyazaki fans have had to resort, this new DVD mastering and cleanup with remastered soundtrack is wonderful. Bravo, well done!
( ****) for this Disney-fied English-track leg-lift aimed at North Americans! Judging by soundtrack "enhancements", dramatic-element telegraphing and noticeable character & plot alterations, we-all Yanks must be too stupid to understand what Miyazaki-san originally had in mind. And apparently only name-brand vocal stars will get us into theaters.
While the English track of this DVD fares much better than Disney's recent release of Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, there are still bones to pick. Why does the Pig (well-voiced here by Michael Keaton) no longer threaten (bluff) to kill all the air pirates when they're holding some kids hostage? Why does the Pig demand that these seven-year old girls (who now belong to a swim "club" instead of a swim team), wet but sunning themselves in their underwear after escaping from their captors, put their clothes back on? And why did they make Madame Gina (normally calm, supremely self-assured and patient) relatively temperamental, insecure, and girlish?
One inexcusable point: the lovely French song Gina sings early on was rerecorded and rearranged, evidently by a poor excuse for a Las Vegas lounge singer, dripping with distasteful American-style sloppy emoting. A nasty change, and unwarranted.
Questionable translations, plot surgery and gratuitous tinkering-by-focus group have made some elements a bit of a concern for Miyazaki purists, but thankfully the story's mostly unchanged. I still hate when Disney sneaks in "fill-in" dialog when characters' backs are turned. Why can't a longing gaze at the sunset remain just that?
I can recommend this to anyone over about eight years old. The themes are mostly adult, and there are situations of threat, suspense, lots of gunfire, and slapstick violence. Not for small children, but then again not as intense as Princess Mononoke or Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
Movie Review: wow, what a surprise
Summary: 5 Stars
I really didn't want to see this movie a whole lot. I am a fan of Miyazaki and have loved every movie of his I've seen, but a story about a flying pig in Italy? Get real. But I had nothing else I wanted to watch and it was either this movie or The Cat Returns and I hate cats, so I got this movie.
All I have to say is I was shocked. I actually liked this movie. Not just a "its okay" kind of liked, but a "wow that was amazing" like. The animation was amazing and the voice acting was better than any other Miyazaki English dub with the exception of Spirited Away. But what really made this movie great was the fact that it's really, REALLY funny. Even parts that I would normally consider corny, like when Fio is talking to the air pirates about how great they supposedly are, are saved by the fact that they aren't taken seriously, they are made fun of. Instead of all the pirates going sober and calming down, they burst out cheering and going nuts. Its one of the funniest things you'll ever see.
As for flaws, there aren't very many. Sure you don't really know why Porco is a pig in the first place and the American pilot acts very stupid, but these are minor problems that don't really bring this movie down a whole lot.
This movie may not be for everyone. I loved it, but for someone expecting a movie of the same caliber of Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind or Spirited Away, you may be disappointed. This movie is weak compared to those movies, but than again, so is everything else. if you read this review, please leave a comment. if you read this review, please leave a comment.
Movie Review: Far Beyond What I expected
Summary: 5 Stars
Looking at the front cover of Porco Rosso I automatically thought that the animation will a little old and foggy so I hesitated to buy it. I am ashamed of myself for judging the anime by its cover because this film has some of the most beautiful animation I've ever seen. Porco starts the film with his pig head so you will have to watch the film to find out how he got this curse. It is said Porco Rosso is one of Miyazaki's oddest films but the only thing odd in this is Porcos head.
One of the biggest influences for Miyazaki creating this film was his love and obsession for planes. He shows off his love with this cursed ex military pilot turned bounty hunter who is just trying to live out the rest of his life while having absolute joy in tracking down pirates and getting paid to do it. Even though Porco is cursed with this head many for his heroic act in the military love him.
Someone who just wants to be able to say I took out the legend but Porco is far from dead has shot down his plane. He takes his plane to Italy for repairs but trouble is still on him as his home Italy wants him for abandoning the military. He finds a young girl there that is an amazing designer and she makes Porco a plane even better than what he had. The two become partener and the rest is history.
Porco tries to play the hard bounty hunter but he still gets love and respect let it be from a group of schoolgirls he saved to a young woman who always worries about his safety. He uses his big pig head a lot but he also has a bigger heart that he puts to even more use. This is a film that you will not forget after you see it and it will make you want to buy everything that is Miyazaki. The ending could have been done better as you are left with questions that were only partially answered but I guess they weren't meant to be fully answered.
Movie Review: Miyazaki's Autobiography---Even a Pig Can Fly
Summary: 5 Stars
From a fan and student of Miyazaki-san: "Porco Rosso" is the master's most autobiographical work, for once he was not trying to impart any moral or environmental lessons to children or young girls or the Japanese society, as most of his other works did---but a heartfelt fantasy projection of himself (being an independent agent neither belonging to your typical Japanese Anime Industry or the Hollywood/Disney American Culture juggernaut, as symbolized by the brash American Pilot-Fighter, Curtis).
It's also a celebration of his fellow frustrated romantic and idealistic adults (many tired Japanese salary men and animators) who have not completely surrendered their youthful dreams to the MAN/military industry.
Set in Post WWI Europe, where Fascism was on the rise, the Continental world it captured was a last breath of fantastic and natural freedom before a long darkness set in...
The genius stroke here is by turning the protagonist into a PIG, a whimsical yet literal mockery on those old-fashioned/outdated all-male/brotherhood chauvinist melodramatic adventure genre it so lovingly appropriates, and a gentle dig on "mankind" in general, all in good and slightly surreal fun.
In this story, Miyazaki made fun (instead of preaching to) of his society, himself and his prominent role in it.
Yet, behind all the cartoony surface lies the touching elegiac sadness of a lost past and a yearning hope (placed esp. on a young female) for a better future, straight from Miyazaki-san's cynical/sentimental heart.
Presented as a light-hearted lark only makes its immersing nostalgia and lyricism all the more spontaneously enchanting
and unexpectedly affecting. A magical paradox of his great art.
"Porco Rosso" is the "Casablanca" of cartoons with a touch of Roald Dahl, and the most under-rated and overlooked of Miyazaki's fabulous work.