Kiki’s Delivery Service Review
Kiki’s Delivery Service came out in 1989 in Japan, at a time when the legendary Hayao Miyazaki was just starting to make waves with his new co-founded company Studio Ghibli, having released My Neighbour Totoro just a few years earlier to modest success, but it was Kiki’s Delivery Service that gave the studio its first big hit and began the real push forward for Ghibli as a force in animation. It was based on a novel of the same name by Eiko Kadono (1985) and though Miyazaki would end up adding and changing a fair bit for his film version, the heart of the story remains the same, by all accounts. The film would finally see release in English territories in 1998, where despite being nearly 10 years old it was met with praise and acclaim, at least as much as an animated film released straight to video could at the time. The English dub, which I watched for the purpose of this review, is quite star-studded too, featuring the likes of Phil Hartman, Tress MacNeille, Matthew Lawrence and Kirsten Dunst as Kiki herself.
So enough about behind the scenes, what’s the film about? Well, a young teenage witch called Kiki decides to move out of her sheltered life and live in an idealistic seaside town in an unnamed European country with her cat familiar Jiji by her side. She meets the locals and soon comes up with the idea to use her ability to fly on her broom to set up a delivery service. The first half or so of the film, Kiki is loving her new independent life and her new friend Tombo, but the latter’s friends treat her quite poorly, and some of the people she delivers to aren’t all that friendly either so she starts to suffer from self-doubt and loneliness, which then causes her to lose her powers, including the ability to talk to Jiji, making her lonelier still. It probably wouldn’t be a spoiler to reveal she does eventually overcome her issues and find happiness again, but I guess I’ll leave out the specifics!
Either way, the film is a wonderful, warm story about a girl growing up, where it’s all exciting at first before reality can make things scary and lonely, only to find a bit of maturity and become happy again. That’s an extremely simple sum-up obviously, it’s more brilliantly and subtly told during the run time. Speaking of which, at 102 minutes it’s not as long as major films nowadays and even at that, some might find the pacing slower than a lot of modern experiences, but I can’t imagine they won’t still be drawn in to the story.
The visuals are stunning, the soundtrack uplifting, and generally the whole film is a comforting hug of an experience, even 30 plus years later. If you have the opportunity to watch this on the big screen in all its remastered glory then I can’t recommend it enough, and if you have young children who have never seen the film before then please bring them. It might be slower than a lot of kids’ films nowadays but I can guarantee you they’ll be engrossed and lost in the magical world of Kiki’s Delivery Service, just as I was when I first saw it, and as I was now in my 40s.
Our screener was provided by GKIDS,
