Official Review:
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Porco Rosso (The Crimson Pig, 1992) ranks as Hayao Miyazaki's oddest film: a bittersweet period adventure about a dashing pilot who has somehow been turned into a pig. Miyazaki once said, "Initially, it was supposed to be a 45-minute film for tired businessmen to watch on long airplane flights... Why kids love it is a mystery to me." The early 1930s setting enabled Miyazaki to focus on the old airplanes he loves, and the film boasts complex and extremely effective aerial stunts and dogfights. In the new English dub from Disney, Michael Keaton as Porco delivers lines like "All middle-aged men are pigs" with appropriate cynicism, but his voice may be too familiar for some Miyazaki fans. Susan Egan makes a curiously distant Gina, the thrice-widowed hotel owner bound to Porco by years of friendship; Kimberly Williams is more effective as the irrepressible young engineer Fio. Porco Rosso may be an odd film, but Miyazaki's directorial imagination never flags.-- Charles Solomon
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Porco Rosso User Reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: An Overlooked Masterpiece ... Again!
Comment: This little known Ghibli masterpiece can be overlooked for a few reasons, it IS alot slower than the most famous of ghiblis, and it is a bit less 'magic' but nevertheless, the story is wonderful, the pace is more peaceful but the beautiful animation, humour and action packed plot keep you hooked all the way through.
Set in the mediterranean, it animates the italian and french life with a loving wit (every vehicle is a fiat in Milan!). Miyazaki is in his prime writing and animating planes, which he loves, both the aesthetics and mechanics of the crafts obviously comes naturally to him.
Although Miyazaki never explains Porco's transformation into a pig, it only adds to the replay value of the film, each time i watch it i notice something new and appreciate it even more.
This is my fourth time watching this film now and i can say that it is a gripping, witty and touching story, a step away from the fantastical world we might be used to with ghibli, but if you can accept that, then you can appreciate and enjoy this amazing film again and again.
Customer Rating: 
Summary: Best Miyazaki
Comment: Probably my favourite Miyazaki film (for now!). The superb animation combined with a rather melancholic tone link it quite firmly with its more famous descendent "Spirited Away". However this film is more whimsical and has some great set pieces that inject a lot of energy. The backdrop of romantic 1930s adventure, the threat of Italian fascism and the trauma of war all underlie, as usual, an apparently mere 'cartoon' or children's tale.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Porco Rosso
Comment: I think I bought this as my 7th Studio Ghibli film and it lived up to all of the others. I actually laughed out loud during this film and found how sarcastic Porco can be to be amusing. The voices were great and the landscapes are amazing as usual. Recommend for all Studio Ghibli fans.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Miyazaki really respects women
Comment: I was hooked on Ghibli a few months ago and now have all the collection. It is the rolls royce of animation. I love the way that girls and women feature in all his work. More often than not they are the heroines of the movie but even when not Miyazaki is at pains to show that nothing is beyond their capabilities. In this film the genius aero engineer is Fio, a young and beautiful woman who is building her first plane from scratch....and as the italian men have all disappeared, recruited into the army, it is the village women who actually build the plane. The other loves of Miyazaki have got to be: cats, wildlife and the environment, planes and trains.
I will have to be patient until the next Ghibli comes out (Ponyo)
Customer Rating:
Summary: Up in the air
Comment: I'm always chary about flying films. Old Aeroplanes are my first passion and though the film industry occasionally tries to get some of it right, I usually end up shouting at the screen (Typically, "NO, you idiot!")
Not so with PR. Oh, the plot's straight Biggles and the characters seem to be Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn and Popeye's old adversary Bluto .... but Ah! the aeroplanes! They're from before my true period of expertise, and rather a mix of vintages themselves, but they're done with a care and affection which Hollywood can never be bothered with, not even in "Rocketeer."
I watched this film with a soppy grin all over my face (most of the time) and I'd give it six stars if they'd let me. Don't just sit there, order it! - Bri.
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