Ranked #235

Kiki's Delivery Service

For my second Hayao Miyazaki movie, I’d say it was pretty good.

I liked the plot of Spirited Away much, much better though. Spirited Away had a more complex and interesting plot, while Kiki’s story was simpler. I guess the advantage of that is it’s easy to understand. As much as I like stories about witches living amongst normal humans, Kiki didn’t really act or live like a witch. She was more of a human who can fly and happens to own a cat that talks.

Since I brought up the subject of the talking cat, I’m glad I picked the English dub over the original Japanese dub. I fell in love with the cast when I saw their interviews, so I decided to go with the Disney dub.Sure it became more Disney-ish, but it was actually pretty good. I like how they made Jiji talk more – I realized that in the Japanese dub Jiji wasn’t as talkative. Also, Phil Hartman made Jiji way funnier.

As expected of Hayao Miyazaki, the animation was fantastic – even if it was a 1989 movie. Since it’s from 1989, I’m assuming everything is hand drawn. The backgrounds were very detail, but it wasn’t overwhelming. It’s kind of looking at a fine, intricate watercolor painting that moves.

I did notice a lot of fan service throughout the movie. I know that seems weird, but there were numerous panty flashes from Kiki herself. I was beginning to think if that was intentional.

Disney edited the music, for sure. There were poppy, contemporary songs (both by Sydney Forest) during the beginning and the ending scenes of the movie. I can’t say I like the songs that much, but they were pretty catchy. I also noticed that a lot of the original BGM was omitted – I don’t know why that is. For the BGM I heard, I thought those tracks were very nice. They were easy to listen to and made the scenes especially peaceful and serene.

I’m probably gonna watch it again. It’s the kind of thing that you can watch any time and you’ll never get tired of it. read more

If it's one thing Studio Ghibli does well, it's charming a viewer with something whimsical and fantastic. And that's what Kiki's Delivery Service is, most definitely.

The story is pretty sweet and simple. A young apprentice witch named Kiki goes to a busy town to hone her witch skills. She is employed by a local baker and his wife to deliver baked goods via flying on her broomstick. Saying she gets into various scrapes and hijinks ensue would be belittling the plot. Lots of small things happen with a rather big event that comes along at the end of the movie, but the most important thing is that all these events are important to Kiki herself, no matter its significance to the wider world. Meeting an artist, helping an old lady bake something, saving the city; it all means something to Kiki. More than fantasy, the story has stronger slice of life themes. This movie is slow-paced, but it's bursting with so much energy and life from its scenes.

As expected, the art and animation are excellent. Of course, it does look old, but this is an old anime. Yet, it has some impressive visuals. Kiki flying through the air, hair being tousled by the wind, a bike speeding down a hill, a fire crackling--it's all impressively animated. The character design is pretty simple and not detailed, but it does use the trademark Ghibli look. Also, the town and countryside are drawn and coloured beautifully.

Sound was pretty good as well. It suited the anime very much. Well, the Japanese version. The American version, with the changed English songs sounded too "girl power"-y for its own good. Studio Ghibli has a much subtler take on feminism, so they didn't lunge ballad-like songs down the listeners' throats. The Japanese soundtrack was very fun.

Kiki's Delivery Service has a great ensemble cast. There's Kiki, a hard-working, upbeat young witch who tries her best at what she does. It's funny that she is more excited about simple things in life when everyone else is fascinated that she is a witch. There is a young boy she befriends, who is sort of a geek, but he knows how to have great simple fun. Plus, there is the baker, and there's his wife, who offer Kiki a lot of emotional support. They sort of serve as surrogate parents for the young witch. And of course, there's the talking cat Jiji. He is pretty humorous, with his one-liners and random comments.

What can I say? This is a tremendously fun movie. The re-watch value is also extremely high. I've seen this movie countless times growing up. Any time it was on TV, I'd watch it without fail, and never get bored. Two years ago, I got the DVD. It's that good.

Kiki's Delivery Service is a quirky, simple, fun movie that delivers much more than just bread and cookies. read more