Most critics like Porco Rosso, and the praise clusters on the same things: the colour of the animation and the seaplane dogfights over the Adriatic, which several reviews call the reason to watch. A number are struck by how much Miyazaki fits around a pig in a cockpit: pre-fascist Italy, aviation history, the men who came home from war, and women who are consistently smarter and more capable than the men around them. Comparisons run to Tintin and to Casablanca, with the hero cast as a gruff, decent Bogart figure.
The reservations are mild and land on the story. Radio Times finds the adult plot flimsy and underdeveloped and misses the director’s usual charm, and Empire, though approving, thinks Miyazaki has made stronger films. The spread is narrow, with no negative notices; the warmest reviews come from critics who take the anti-war material seriously rather than treating it as a backdrop to the flying.