When I get the chance to write on the site, it’s usually to profess my love for all things Studio Ghibli. And why not? It’s my site and I might as well use it to share with you the joy of a studio I first discovered over 20 years ago. I’ve often stated that Hayao Miyazaki is one of the top 5 living filmmakers in the world and that his films like Princess Mononoke, Laputa: Castle in the Sky and Nausicaa Of The Valley Of The Wind played a big part in my life.
Funny then, that I recently realized while watching the new Blu-ray release of his classic Porco Rosso that I’d been watching it completely wrong this entire time!
I consider myself as close to a purist as you can get. I watch my Studio Ghibli films with the original Japanese language track on with English subtitles. John Lasseter and Disney Home Video have done a great job for years of doing English language translations upon releasing these films in the U.S. but for an old fan like myself, who grew up with the original language tracks, I have to accept no substitutes. That is, unless it comes to Porco Rosso.
The English language track great. Michael Keaton and Cary Elwes do a great job of headlining the American cast of this strange yet sweet story of a peerless Italian pilot who’s been cursed to fly as a pig. This really is one of my favorite Ghibli films, as the humor and tale of missed opportunities strikes a fantastic balance between levity and depth that surrounds the entire movie. Scenes in which Porco Rosso (Keaton) is flying circles around and thwarting the ridiculously cartoonish sky pirates and his rival aviator Curtis (Elwes) are some of the funniest moments in any Studio Ghibli scene. But the storyline that really grounds the film, the one revolving around Porco Rosso’s curse and the impossible love story with the beautiful Gina reveals Porco Rosso to be a tragic fairy tale with the same level of character depth as any other Ghibli film. It’s one of my favorite endings to any of Miyazaki’s films, as it leaves you with more questions than answers and must be seen to understand what a sweet gift this movie really is. Kids will love it because it’s got a flying pig and adults will love it for all the reasons on layers and depth that I’ve just listed.
Porco Rosso
But neither the English or Japanese language tracks are still the way to watch this film.
No. You want to watch Porco Rosso with the French language track on. I’m serious. And I don’t even know French. But I know that Jean Reno’s rendition of Porco Rosso is the best version of the character and that the film, which takes place in the Adriatic in the years after WWI and whose majority of characters are Italian, just feels RIGHT experienced in a romance language. Obviously, an Italian language track would be the absolute best way to watch this film, but are you really going to turn your nose as Jean Reno playing an ace combat flying pig?
Disney has spared no expense in bringing the absolute best version of the film to Blu-ray. The image is sharp and the audio quality is top notch. Like their Blu-ray releases of Princess Mononoke, The Wind Rises and Kiki’s Delivery Service from last year, we know that the folks at Disney are as big a fans of these films as we are and put care into bringing them Stateside. Porco Rosso goes one step further in also including the original film’s trailers, storyboards and an interview with film producer Toshio Suzuki taken from an earlier release of the film. It’s not just an interview either but a mini-documentary on the production of the film. For fans who bemoan the industry wide shift from traditional cell animation to CGI, it’s worth watching. And trust me on the French language track. It IS the best way to watch this classic, and is available in top form here.
Also released this week on Disney Blu-ray are two other Studio Ghibli films. Tales From Earthsea, directed by Hayao’s son Goro, is a mixed narrative bag that is probably reserved for only Ghibli completionists. Based on the “Earthsea” fantasy book series by Ursula K. Le Guin, the urgency of the film’s story never gets off the ground. The protagonists split the storyline in semi-Episode 1 fashion between following archmage Sparrowhawk and young prince Arren in their quest to solve the deep seeded chaos that is overcoming their kingdom. The plotting is vague and you honestly don’t meet the villain (voiced in the English track by Willem Dafoe in of the Blu-ray’s highlights) until almost halfway through the film.
Tales From Earthsea
Although Earthsea does feature some incredible animated sequences, some of them do feel like they were handled by secondary studios without the care or the time necessary to pull them off. Fans consider this to be one of Studio Ghibli’s big missed opportunities and it’s pretty apparent here. The technical quality of the Blu-ray translation is top notch but the movie is pretty flawed. That being said, you should watch the English language track if only for one of my favorite Willem Dafoe lines in any movie. It happens towards the end and will have you howling. I won’t spoil it for you here but you’ll know it when you see it. Trust me.
On top of that, Disney Blu-ray also brought out an incredible translation of Isao Takahata’s strange but very enjoyable Pom Poko, about a community of raccoons battling against the encroachment of civilization. There aren’t a lot of bells and whistles to this Blu-ray but the film is one of the more curious ones in the Studio Ghibli library. It has it’s charms and is definitely worth picking up if you’re even a modest Anime fan. The level of weirdness (and humor) in this movie is just something that you’re not going to find in many other cinematic corners. This one is a must watch if only for the risks that it takes in being told. It is not the typical Studio Ghibli story of nature versus civilization and deserves to be experienced at least once.
All three films, Porco Rosso, Tales From Earthsea and Pom Poko are available this week on Disney Blu-ray from Disney Home Entertainment.
Pom Poko