Porco Rosso
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Year Released: 1992
Rating: 2.0
Italian swine that bears a physical resemblance to Hardy from Laurel and Hardy (but with the suave flair of Marcello Mastroianni) battles space pirates in Miyazaki's most mediocre film. Sure, the jaw-dropping attention to detail and technique are there - if anything, it's a meticulous display of craft - but the story gives out, and the third act is anticlimactic, tying up none of the loose ends (did Studio Ghibli run out of funding?). Maybe the reason for this is because the original intent was never to make it a feature length film - it was originally designed to be an 'in-flight movie,' which is odd because people who fear flying might be even more terrified by the idea of planes being shot-down - and what they could manage to stitch together was missing the strengths (theme, complex characters) that were so prevalent in his most developed features (Kiki's Delivery Service, Spirited Away and so on).
