Continuing on with Miyazaki Week, we next come to my daughter’s favorite Miyazaki movie, Kiki’s Delivery Service. Based on a book by Eiko Kadono, this is a sweet coming of age story for a young witch. It’s also the first movie in the Studio Ghibli/Disney relationship. I have mixed feelings about that relationship. On one hand, the partnership makes sure that every Miyazaki movie will be released in the US theaters and get a DVD. But, on the other hand, I’m not sure Disney is doing a great job marketing Miyazaki and his films. So, let’s go visit Kiki.

Kiki is a 13 year witch waiting for her time to go. Witches traditionally go to a new city and live alone when they turn 13. With her parents hoping that she’ll wait a little longer, Kiki decides it’s time to go. Packing up her cat Jiji (her smart-aleck cat) and her broomstick, she heads out to the big city of Koriko. Through trying to be helpful, Kiki ends up finding a job as a delivery person for a bakery and a room to live in. So Kiki, starts living alone and learning about life. One of the things she starts learning about is a  boy named Tombo who, not only likes Kiki as a girl, but has an interest in flying (including building a human powered flying machine).

Things start going bad for Kiki and she is no longer able to fly successfully and loses her ability to talk to Jiji. A friend tells Kiki that she is just scared and insecure due to the changes in her life and everything not going as smoothly as Kiki had imagined it would. But when Tombo gets into some trouble, Kiki is forced to push towards regaining her powers.

Overall, it’s a sweet gentle movie about a teen-aged witch (not that one) who goes off to live on her own and is forced to deal with it. The relationship with Tombo provides the only true action pieces and Jiji (played by Phil Hartman in the English translation) is a wonderful companion for Kiki. I’ve heard complaints from some people who felt the English translation changed too much (especially Jiji). But it’s not as if it made the movie horrible, it’s just a different interpretation of the movie. Kiki is a wonderfully complex character who bites off more than she can chew and is then learns how to handle it. The animation and the town of Koriko really add to the ambiance of the movie. The town looks more like a small European town than anything in Japan (or the US), but it fits in with the movie. Highly recommended.