The Movie

Kiki's Delivery Service is another fun filled, thoughtful movie from Japanese Director/Animator Hayao Miyazaki. Debuting three years after the amazing Castle In The Sky, Miyazaki chose to take a different direction with his latest animated film. Instead of making a daring, adventurous epic like Castle In The Sky, he went soft. Not that going soft is a bad thing, just different. Kiki's Delivery Service follows the first year of a young witch's trials as she tries to find her niche and place in the world. After watching this movie, you'll begin to wonder if J.K. Rowling's novels are as original as we all first thought.

Villains, mean characters, or any danger at all for that matter are completely absent. This is a feel-good movie, plain and simple, and it works. The reason it works is because Miyazaki knows how to show emotion without over doing it. Not a small feat in an animated film.

Kiki has just turned 13. During this year, every young witch must make yearlong pilgrimage during a full moon to become a full-fledged witch. Kiki find a witch-less city and tries to find the skill she excels at best. She decides that she's good at flying, so tries her hand at a delivery service. Things go well at first, but as she starts to lose her confidence in herself, she loses her witches powers. Through determination, and maturity, she learns to believe in herself again.

As with all Miyazaki movies, the characters stand out as much as the story. Kiki is probably one of the most loveable characters to ever be animated. Her bubbly personality and assertive nature makes watching her grow very enjoyable. And as we all know, every good witch needs a sidekick, and Kiki's is a skinny black cat named Jiji. Jiji is dry, snobby, and almost the complete opposite of Kiki, but they are best friends, and look out for one another.

As usual, the animation is beautiful. Every scene seems to flow organically and without hesitation. The flying scenes are fantastic, and prove to be an amazing accomplishment for a late-80's animated film. Miyazaki is the king of animation, and once again it shows here.

Kiki's Delivery Service is a wonderful movie that is perfect for people of all ages. There's not a hint of evil in this whole movie, so feel confident to let your little one's watch it without supervision. The animation is excellent, and the story is perfect for teaching kids to believe in themselves. This may not be the most memorable, or fantastic creation to come from Miyazaki, but it is great nonetheless. If you love Miyazaki's movies, than this movie is a must-see.


The DVD

Video: Kiki's Delivery Service is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. This transfer is nearly identical to the transfer in Castle In The Sky, which is unfortunate. Again the blaring downfall to this transfer is the use of edge enhancement. If you're one of the fortunate souls who has yet to visibly see the effects of edge enhancement and you want to see what all the hubbub is about, this movie is for you. The halo effects are so noticeable, you'll think the main characters have radiation poisoning of the nuclear kind. Oddly, the halo effects weren't nearly as distracting as the effect on the characters themselves. Edge enhancement left tons of sparkling specs, and spots in all of the characters faces that proved to be a constant reminder just how bad Disney and Buena Vista screwed up the digital video transfer. It helps if you watch on a small screen, but on my 119" widescreen setup, it was horribly evident.

I did not see the combing artifact that was noticeable on the Castle In The Sky DVD, so this leaves me to believe that it was the DVD and not my DVD player that caused this effect on that disc.

Colors looked on par with Castle In The Sky. Bright and punchy, but lacking the vibrancy that Miyazaki's animators intended audiences to see.

Audio: The sound is brought to us via an English Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. The Japanese track is also available, but only a 2.0 audio track. I actually preferred the English track because Kirsten Dunst and Phil Hartman were so wonderful as voice actors. Also, the 5.1 track made the movie's score much more emissive and enjoyable. Make no mistake, this is a cuddly movie and it has a mild audio track at best, so don't expect earth shaking bass or a constant 360 degree listening environment.

Extras: As with Castle In The Sky, Kiki's Delivery Service is a meaningless two-disc set. Anything worth watching is on Disc 1, as the only thing on Disc 2 is the entire film laid out in storyboards. Storyboard fanatics will rejoice no doubt, but the rest of us are left saying, so what?

Again we get to hear Pixar's John Lasseter say that Kiki's Delivery Service is one of his all-time favorite movies. This time his words are so vague, and so meaningless, you'll wonder what the point of having him this DVD is. The only somewhat entertaining special feature is a Behind The Microphone with a young Kirsten Dunst and the late Phil Hartman. The feature was interesting, but way too short. Also included are a bunch of Japanese movie trailers.


Final Thoughts:

This movie could have been a lot worse, and I still would have recommended it. But because it's a Miyazaki film, I don't have to tell you it's good. The story is heartwarming, and the characters are quirky yet loveable. If you're in the mood for a feel-good movie with no bad guys whatsoever, than Kiki's Delivery Service is worth a view. Recommended