Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

• Year: 1989
• Released: 20 Dec 1990
• Country: Japan
• Adwords: 4 wins
• IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097814/
• Rotten Tomatoes: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/kikis_delivery_service
• Metacritics: https://www.metacritic.com/movie/kikis-delivery-service
• Available in: 720p, 1080p,
• Language: Japanese, English
• MPA Rating: G
• Genre: Animation, Family, Fantasy
• Runtime: 103 min
• Writer: Eiko Kadono, Hayao Miyazaki
• Director: Hayao Miyazaki
• Cast: Kirsten Dunst, Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma
• Keywords: coming of age, dog, anime, witch, cat,

	7.8/10
	83/100
	98% – Critics
	88% – Audience

Kiki’s Delivery Service Storyline

Kiki, a teenage witch-in-training, has reached the age of 13. According to tradition, all witches of that age must leave home for one year, so that they can learn how to live on their own. Kiki, along with her talking cat Jiji, fly away to live in the seaside town of Koriko. After starting her own delivery service (using her broom as the delivery vehicle), Kiki must learn how to deal with her new life, especially after she loses the power to fly.

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Kiki’s Delivery Service Movie Reviews

One of the greatest children’s films ever made

This ranks up there with Pinocchio as the greatest movie for children ever made. One huge problem with most animated children’s films are that the plots are so conventional and often contain very 1950s ideals for society that they become detrimental to society. One’s childhood is the most impressionable time in their life, so movies that are directed towards them teach them what places different sorts of people play in society. There is a very humorous, but also very serious bit of dialogue in a film called The Last Days of Disco where characters discuss the effects Lady and the Tramp could have on little girls, depicting a young female dog falling for a vagabond Tramp. This, they muse, sets young women up to fall for rebellious men later in life. This may seem like a humorous idea, but it’s absolutely true. Even good Disney movies give children these standards. As nice as The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella or Snow White and the Seven Dwarves may be, they basically teach that it is the woman’s place to grow up and get married, prefereably to a handsome rich man (perhaps the rich part is never said, but both the main male characters in these films do happen to own castles). The writers of these films probably had no idea that that is what they were doing, but it is.

That is why Pinocchio is the best Disney movie. It is probably the only Disney animated film that I can think of that actually concerns the predicament of its target audience: children. I can hardly think of a single (American) animated film besides it that has a child as its main character (oh, the Jungle Book, which is also excellent).

Then comes Kiki’s Delivery Service. It is an absolutely perfect movie about a young girl out on her own trying to handle the responsibilities of life. It is, in my opinion, the best movie that a child can watch. And not only will it teach children, it is also marvelously animated, directed, and written. There is a plethora of great characters, exciting moments, and imaginative situations. It should also expand a child’s mind, not only because of the imagination involved, which will help to break children away from conventions in their film experience, thus making them more intelligent, but because it comes from another culture. It doesn’t overtly show its Japaneseness, unless you count the imagination involved (though you should count that as a credit towards Hayao Miyazaki, who is the greatest genius of animation as far as I’m concerned). But it may spark an interest in children old enough to understand that someone from another country made it. Also, for younger kids, Miyazaki’s fantastic, equally good My Neighbor Totoro. 10/10

(ps: I have only seen the dubbed version of this film. I find it perfectly acceptable and great. Nothing made me cringe, anyway. I think Kirsten Dunst did a very good job characterizing Kiki, a much better job than Claire Danes did characterizing San from Princess Mononoke.)

Simply magical

This is an amazing movie that seems to get better with repeated viewings. Both my kids loved it so much, that we watched it many times, but oddly I didn’t become tired of this cheery and unusual full-length cartoon.

When the film began, one of the first things I noticed was the strange parallel world style of the artwork. It was if it was some OTHER planet Earth, where many of our towns are somehow merged into a mythical land that looks like Earth yet isn’t. While there were many Japanese references, the towns looked rather European as well–like Denmark perhaps. Plus, in this parallel world, inventions of the early 20th century like zeppelins live on and people are NOT that amazed or scared at the prospect of a witch moving into town! As for the quality of this film, the animation, voices and story are terrific and exciting. While I have heard many refer to director Miyazaki as “the Japanese Disney”, this isn’t very accurate, as the style of his films is so very different from American animation–not better, not worse–just different.

So overall, this is about as good as you’ll get for an anime movie and it should appeal to all ages provided they are open-minded enough to give a foreign film a try.

A delightful little gem

Like I said with Nausicaa, Kiki’s Delivery Service for me isn’t quite a top 5 of my favourite Ghibli movies, it makes for a solid position in my top 10. It is a beautiful film, light-hearted and entertaining with very little to criticise really. The story is simple yet very imaginative, the dialogue is good and the pacing is well judged. My favourite assets of Kiki’s Delivery Service are the animation, music and characters. The animation as you would expect is gorgeous especially in the colours, and the music is stunning. The characters are unique, likable and always engaging, I have to say Kiki is one of my favourite protagonists ever in a Ghibli movie and I mean that. Overall, lovely and delightful. 9.5/10 Bethany Cox