Every Studio Ghibli Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

In the weird world of Studio Ghibli, Porco Rosso stands out like a sore thumb - mostly because it's not actually all that weird at all. Okay, so the hero is a pilot who is also a pig, but that's not even remotely remarkable in the grand scheme of things.

Because of how well the film tells the story of his becoming a pig - he believes he's being punished for surviving a dogfight his comrades were all killed in - it becomes merely incidental detail. What's more important is the character beneath the pork: Marco/Porco is an irresistibly charming, rascally figure, a cynical hero of the oldest Hollywood tradition who stands in place of the usual Ghibli fascination with deeper allegory.

There are elements of Beauty & The Beast in there, with Porco reclaiming his soul through acts of heroism and selflessness, but there's also something even more complex in the portrait of him reclaiming himself from himself and reconnecting. Sure, the message that war transforms men into pigs isn't the most artful, but it is as Ghibli as they come.