Miyazaki and Porco Rosso

I am a fan of Hayao Miyazaki, the Oscar winning director of "Spirited Away" The Japanese film director and producer was an artist first.  It is a little known fact that anime producers render the entire process. They write the story and produce the art, then animate it. Perhaps someone else writes the music. Miyazaki did all of these. As an artist his watercolors are colorful and energetic. Many of Miyazaki's works show his love of aviation. (A subject close to my heart.) His love of aviation is best shown in "Porco Rosso". This film is about a bounty hunting aviator cursed with a pig's face in the years prior to WWII known as the "golden years of aviation". The young widow singing the song is Porco's love interest. The pirates of the Mediterranean and Adriatic fly seaplanes.  The planes show all of Miyazaki's imagination in their design. Actually, Miyazaki's grandfather operated a factory that produced parts for the most famous Japanese fighter plane, the Zero. In the American version "Porco Rosso" the  voice actress notes that she was singing a song in French in a Japanese film set in Italy with English dialogue. Porco also appeared in manga, the Japanese comics as well. Miyazaki contributed to newspaper comic strips also. His stories featured the constant conflict of good versus evil. Progress versus the destruction of the environment. Miyazaki confirms my idea that creativity transcends various genres of creative endeavors. I am a great fan of those creators the "do it all".  And I like to follow suite in my own small way. 

Interestingly enough, but maybe not for me, is the contrast between my favorite anime films, "Porco Rosso" and "Cowboy Bebop". Kind of a comparison between the Wright Flyer and the Lockheed Martin F-35.