When I sat down to watch this, I had just seen Princess Mononoke and Nausicaa in the same day, and harbored doubts as to whether Miyazaki could do an all-out comedy. As it turned out, he is as unnervingly brilliant at evoking laughs as he is at fantasy. This is a rare animated film that works on every conceivable level, almost BECAUSE there's no compelling reason for it to be animated. Aside from the hero's identity as a pig (which is never fully explained, mind you), everything here is pretty much real-world (or the screwball comedy version of real world). The level of detail is, as expected, mind-boggling, and the flight models of the maneuvering planes are gorgeous. Fans of animation, aviation, comedy, or pretty much anything else should look into this.
Review of Porco Rosso
