Miyazaki Reviews: Kiki's Delivery Service

Yeeeah atlesat for most of these first movies I'm gonna do em once a day, cause I wanna get em over with and get to movies I've actually seen the other day, and not the other month.=T So hence, I present you: Kiki's Delivery Service.

Kiki's Delivery Service is a 1989 movie loosely based on the book of the same name, and tells about a young witch in training going off to start her witch duties and ends up starting a delivery service. Because there aren't bunches of "witch in training" stories already for say, 20 years.... but anyway, Kiki is a newly aged, 16 13 year old girl who has to go off on a journey to a new city for a year....for some reason. Also did I mention she has a snarky narccistic cat? Ok thats the last of those, I promise. ;)

Dat ass...

So anyways, she goes off on her broom that she is so good at, and meets a random other which that seems like she'd be an antagonist, but she goes nowhere and never comes back in the story ever again. A Big Mouthed Witch Bitch Moment I guess. (I'm experimenting with links in this post a lot aren't I?) But so she finds a big city to stop by, to Phil Hartcat's dismay, and finds out that in big cities people aren't quite as nice to eachother than in a small village. GASP!
But then she meets a random baker lady and after some events with her broom, the lady gives her a sweeping job--er I mean delivery job. And thus, she lives with her and goes around delivering stuff of all shapes and sizes around on her broom. Meanwhile, a stalker-ish nerdy kid named Tombo thinks she's hot and is the Local Town Love Interest. Also he's apparently obsessed with flying stuff and is interested in her riding that broom a little too much...KUKUKU....And most of the film is her meeting new nice characters, delivering stuff. Until she starts to randomly lose her powers! Phil Hartcat loses his philhartman-ness, and Kiki can't fly her broom anymore....for some odd reason. It is never quite explained why her powers are dying, they just are. But so she ends up trying to gain confidence in herself(being the only thing that could have triggered it, or a cold from earlier, once again never explained =/ )

But then when Love Interest is on a floating blimp for complicated reasons I won't get into, she has to save the day and gains her abilities once more. So she saves the guy, gets her powers back, is revered as a hero in the whole city, and it goes to credits with a montage of her doin' stuff for the rest of the year she's there. The end.

So that's Kiki's Delivery Service in a nutshell. Contrary to belief, and the fact I rag on it so much in general let alone this review, I do like the film. It is a great film and just as good as any other miyazaki film, though probably the most subtle. The one thing I don't like about it is the fact that it isn't nearly as fantastical as other miyazaki movies. Other than the beautiful generic city, and the fact she can fly high in the air on her broom, your not gonna get much out of this movie for amazing visuals and unique worlds. To be fair though, I haven't even scratched the surface on the different characters in the film, in particular Jiji the cat voiced by Phil Hartman, is probably the best parts of the movie. Its one of Miyazaki's more cuter films, along with Ponyo to be honest, and is a well made, coming-of-age story. Now the next movie I'm reviewing on the other hand...

Next Time, Princess Mononoke