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Hayao Miyazaki: Kiki's Delivery Service
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In Hayao Miyazaki's magical Kiki's Delivery Service, a 13-year-old girl meets the world head on as she spends her first year soloing as an apprentice witch. Kiki (Kirsten Dunst) is still a little green and plenty headstrong, but ... resourceful, imaginative, and determined. With her trusty wisp of a cat Jiji (a gently subdued Phil Hartman) by her side she's ready to take on the world, or at least the quaintly European seaside village she's chosen as her new home. Miyazaki's gentle rhythm and meandering narrative capture the easy pulse of real life (even if his subject is a girl flying high upon a broomstick) and charts the everyday struggles and growing pains of his plucky heroine with sensitivity and understanding. Beautifully detailed animation and the rich designs of the picture-postcard seaside town of red-tiled roofs and cobblestone streets only add to the sense of wonder. This charming animated fantasy is a wholesome, life-affirming picture that doesn't speak down to kids or up to adults.
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From Hayao Miyazaki, the creator of "Kiki's Delivery Service," comes this magical animated adventure about 10-year-old Chihiro, who, along with her parents, is trapped by a witch in a mystical spirit realm. Chihiro struggles to break the spell that's turned her folks into pigs and find the way home. Lauren Holly, Michael Chiklis, Suzanne Pleshette, Jason Marsden, Daveigh Chase provide voices. 125 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1, English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1; Subtitles: English; art gallery; theatrical trailers; storyboard comparison; featurettes; more. In Japanese with English subtitles/Dubbed in English.
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Miyazaki continued to gain recognition with his next three films. Laputa: Castle in the Sky (1986) recounts the adventure of two orphans seeking a magical floating island; My Neighbor Totoro (Tonari no Totoro, 1988) tells of the adventure of two girls and their interaction with forest spirits; and Kiki's Delivery Service (1989), adapted from a novel by Eiko Kadono, tells the story of a small-town girl who leaves home to begin life as a witch in a big city. Miyazaki's fascination with flight is evident throughout these films, ranging from the ornithopters flown by pirates in Castle in the Sky, to the Totoro and the Cat Bus soaring through the air, and Kiki flying her broom.
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Based on a successful Japanese children's book, Kiki's Delivery Service tackles Miyazaki's typical humanist themes of transition, wonderment and emotional growth in exquisite fashion. A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult. In order to support herself she runs her own air courier service.
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Making movies he liked led Miyazaki far afield. His first big hit, Nausica of Windy Valley, could only be called science fiction. So was his next movie, Sky Castle of Laputa??. Then came Tonari no Totoro (Neighbor Totoro), a tale about a raccoon dog set in 1950s Japan. Japan is ... the setting for Majo no Takyubin (Kiki's Delivery Service), but it's in the present and the protagonist is a (young, would-be) witch. Miyazaki's latest movie is Porco Rosso, also known as the Crimson Pig, or Kurenai no Buta.
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Kiki's Delivery Service