Porco Rosso

The opening scene shows Porco in his flight suit, resting on the beach of a tiny island. After he finishes negotiating the price of his services by telephone, he leisurely takes off in his red seaplane to rescue a kidnapped group of girls from a gang of bumbling seaplane pirates. He succeeds in rescuing the girls but lets the pirates keep some of the loot for repairs. Afterward, he flies to the Hotel Adriano for dinner and spends some time with Gina, one of his closest friends and the owner of the hotel. While at the hotel, Porco also meets Curtis, an American pilot who is negotiating an employment contract with a band of pirates.
Some time later, as Porco flies his plane into Milan for repairs, Curtis attempts to shoot him down. Porco's engine breaks down and he crashes. Curtis claims to have shot the plane down, and believes Porco to be dead, but Porco has landed his damaged plane on an island. Porco finishes his journey to Milan and has his plane repaired by Piccolo S.P.A., an aircraft design shop owned by an old mechanic and friend of Porco's. Because of the Great Depression, the men of the company have left in droves to find work abroad, so the company enlists the aid of the owner's granddaughter, Fio, along with a workforce of female relatives, to work on redesign and repair of the plane. Despite his initial misgivings, Porco soon realizes that Fio, in spite of her age and gender, is a mechanical genius. His plane is completed, and she insists on flying with him in case adjustments need to be made to the plane. At first he is resolutely against it, but she talks him into letting her on, and Fio flies off with him, barely avoiding an ambush by the Italian secret police.