Kiki's Delivery Service

Rating:
Summary: A true feel-good story
Review: Kiki is a witch-in-training. She has reached the age when her parents cannot teach her anymore, and she has to go out in the word as an apprentice witch and find her true speciality.
It turns out that while she is not a great spell-caster she has the nack of caring for others. The small town she settles in does not have a great need for a witch, but they do need a speedy delivery service! With her flying broom Kiki fits the job description perfectly.
The story does really deal with subjects close to all our hearts: what is my role in society, what do I do best, and, most important, what is it I really want to do?!
Too many anime have too much of a dreamlike quality; this one is surprisingly realistic. It is not escapism - it is reality but softened somewhat. We have the subplot of the old lady abandoned by her family, and other problems that plague real life. This means that everyone can watch it and feel they get something out of it. The animations are top-notch.
European viewers will recognise the town: it is modelled on Stockholm, London, and Prague.

Rating:
Summary: Watch it over and over again
Review: A story your children will want to watch over and over again - the suprising part is that you won't mind watching it with them and may even find yourself requesting it.

Phil hartman does the voice for the cat (Jiji) - excellent! (I also believe this was his last project before he died - making it special for fans of his work.)

A good time for everyone.

Rating:
Summary: A story about the bitter-sweetness of growing up
Review: When we are little kids, we believe all people are kind and generous. However, when we grow older, we will find that there is another aspect of this world; there is cruelty, rejection and prejudice. Some people may reject you just because the way you look, or because the way you dress. Even if we treat other people with kindness, others may not return us with kindness. Facing this reality, we may feel lost and confused, trying to find ourselves in this world.

Kiki is a little witch who has to leave home to live by herself for one year, as this is part of her training. And this is a story about her growing up and facing the reality, and discover her inner-strength. At first she is naive and think that everyone will be kind and nice; but soon she will be disillusioned. For example, in one scene, she meets an old grandma who wants to make a pie for her grand-daughter as a birthday gift. With eagerness, she helps the grandma make the pie and hurriedly deliver the pie for her(even though the sky was raining heavily and she was soaking wet). Guess what happened next? That grand-daughter opened the door and look at her with contempt(because Kiki dressed like a poor kid), and harshly asked "What is it?". After Kiki explained to that girl, the girl again replied harshly "I hate grandma's stupid pie", and then quickly get the pie and banged the door close. So you see, sometimes this is what you get in return for your kindness. There is no wonder why Kiki lost her confidence. And this is something that most of us will face at some point in our life. And like Kiki, we all will have to find our inner-strength, to find kindness within our heart; even with full knowledge that there will be cruelty and rejection.

This movie is certainly for everyone, both grown-ups and kids. I think as we grow older and have more experience, we will understand this movie more. I highly recommend this movie to everyone.

Rating:
Summary: What's a Young Witch to do?
Review: Kiki is a young witch. As is traditional, Kiki will journey out into the world for a year to as part of her training. Kiki finds herself going from small town to big city. Her kindness and caring quickly befriend her to a local baker. There she decides to use her flying broom to run a delivery service. But her nature fascinates others including a young man who becomes very interested in her.

Kiki's business is not all roses and sunshine as she finds herself making deliveries in rain and storm. Although she meets many nice people she also becomes somewhat disillusioned with others. Her negative thoughts lead to a loss of her powers and a lack of belief in herself. But in the end others depend on her and it is up to her to regain her confidence and thus her powers.

A very fun story with many interesting characters (the baker's husband and Gigi the cat (Phil Hartman) are my two favorites). The story shows many different types of personalities in a way that is often missing from children's movies. The dialogue and action are more than sufficient to keep adults interested. All in all a very fine film.

Rating:
Summary: A Fantastic Movie
Review: Though not as good as Spirited Away, this movie is one of my favorite Japanese animation movies! The story talks about many different things, such as KiKi proving herself as a witch, and proving herself to the world, and town in which she resides. All the characters are memorable, especially KiKi's cranky cat, whose name I can't remember at the moment. The animation is colorful and entertaining, as is most Japanese animation.

I would recommend this movie to anyone who has enjoyed other movies of Hayao Miyazaki's, to anyone who loves Japanese animation, or to anyone looking for a good movie to watch with the family (Although girls may tend to enjoy it more then boys).

Rating:
Summary: Charm In Film, Thy Name Is "Kiki's Delivery Service"
Review: Another perfect movie from Studio Ghibli,this one about a young witch-in-training named Kiki heading off for the customary year away to see the world and hone her skills, taking her talking cat along with her, of course. "Kiki's Delivery Service" could almost be described as a slice-of-life movie set in a world where broomsticks are a common means of transportation, idyllic pastoral-style villages looking about 1800-ish European have television sets, animals and humans communicate more easily, and the world, despite having a few snobs, is in general a much kinder and more inviting place. Not as 'big-event'-oriented as Ghibli titles like "Castle In The Sky" or "Princess Mononoke". "Kiki's Delivery Service" has the time it needs to mine tonnes of charm from things like Kiki setting up her delivery service in the bakery shop and the young bespectacled boy smitten with Kiki who finds any excuse to just happen to be in the neighborhood and stop by the store; to mine tonnes of wonder from such things as the villagers's attempts to launch their zeppelin; plus plentiful dashes of humor and adventure. All this and the standard Ghibli gorgeous animation. A beautiful movie.

Rating:
Summary: Another enchanting fantasy by Miyazaki
Review: Another enchanting fantasy by Miyazaki. You can tell that he has an eye for true fantasy, and never falls into clichés or old standbys : his movies are always fresh and inspired.

Kiki's Delivery Service is about a young witch (flying broom and all) named Kiki, who has to leave home and begin her own apprenticeship in another city. She finds herself in a bad situation, ending up in a city where mysteriously no one knows about magic or needs it. She ends up taking rent in a bakery and running a delivery service from there thanks to her flying broom.

I thought Miyasaki was particularily clever in placing Kiki in a completely alien environment and seeing how she would be able to do something useful with her skills. The animation is, of course, excellent, and while the movie does not involve mysterious spirits or flying castles (and unfortunately carries with it an anti-technological message, unlike some of his fairer movies), it's still a good yarn.


Rating:
Summary: Kiki delivers
Review: While I Am not normally into japanimation anime, I must make an exception with this title, mostly for reasons of the storyline. A young witch sets off to "train" somewhere afar off until she comes upon a bustling towne where she acquires a job with a bread shoppe, making deliveries via her broom, until one day for some reason, her powers falter, so she must find a purpose in her existence, eventually regaining them to rescue what becomes her inventive boyfriend from a doomed durigible flight. She carries a her black cat "Jiji"with her, a wise-cracking and sometimes nagging little feline who himself becomes imfatuated with a neighboring white cat, and end up mating. This is a charming presentation which may have been in part responsible for inspiring "Sabrina, The Teenage Witch" - the latter which I would not necessarily recommend, but this little film is recommended for Infernal Progeny. The only issue I had with it is, that she does not really use any "powers" for anything other than for flight - on the way to the township, she meets another witch in flight whose speciality was fortune-telling, but it seems that Kiki never found hers, and unfortunately, she may probably one day marry the mortal, as ingenious as he is, yet still not a proper Warlock, as it should be.