Kiki's Delivery Service
English Dubbed Version
Japanese title: Majo no takkyubin
AKA: Witch's Express Mail, The (Literal title)
Released: 1989
Version: VHS (Disney / Studio Gibli)
Approx. Rating: G (or unrated)
Length: Approx. 103 minutes
English Cast: Kirsten Dunst (as Kiki), Debbie Reynolds (as Miss Dora), Phil Hartman (as Gigi), Tress MacNeille (as Osono), Matthew Lawrence (as Tombo), Janeane Garofalo (as Ursula)
If you are interested in an anime drama, then search no further. Kiki's Delivery Service will fit the bill. While there are some comedic moments, it is a drama about a 13-year-old witch finding herself as she goes out into the world and tries to fit in. For some reason, Hayao Miyazaki went with Disney to distribute the bulk of his films in the USA. I find this very annoying, especially on VHS because Disney always feels the need to put a TON of boring trailers on them.
The story is about Kiki (duh!) and how she wants to strike out on her own. It seems that witches have to go out at the age of 13 and study all by their lonesome for a year in the witching ways. That's how it's explained in the first 10 minutes anyway. However, we never see Kiki learn any witching skills. Instead, the plot seems to be about her trying to figure out how to fit in, as I mentioned earlier.
She goes to the coast with her cat and best friend, Gigi, and finds a city in which to live. While there she meets Osono, a baker that's pregnant. Kiki does a delivery for Osono and Osono ends up hiring her as a delivery girl. Osono also lets Kiki have a room and set up a delivery service so Kiki can get other customers too.
When Kiki first came to town, she caught the eye of a boy named Tombo. He is really into flying and thinks Kiki's really cool. For some reason though, Kiki won't give Tombo the time of day. But Tombo is a persistent chap and invites her on a date or sorts. She plans to go, but one of her deliveries goes bad and she can't make it. This ends up making her very sad and she ends up quite sick (due to riding her broom in the rain on the aforementioned delivery).
Soon thereafter she seems to lose her witching powers (which entail flying on a broom and hearing her cat talk). A painter friend of hers that we met earlier in the film when she lost a toy cat on one of her deliveries comes to visit Kiki. Ursula is her name and she invites Kiki to come back to her hermit-like cabin and helps Kiki realize that all Kiki needs to do is learn about herself and everything will turn out all right.
The last major portion of the show entails Kiki rescuing Tombo from a dirigible that got caught in a bad wind and crashed into a clock tower.
I thought this show was quite good. It was one of my first exposures to anime and while I didn't really care for it all that much the first time I saw it, today it is a lot more enjoyable. While I like shows with a little more action or humor, this drama is a good way to kick back and relax and not have to worry about objectionable content.
The Good Stuff:
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The dub is very well done |
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The animation is on par with any Disney flick I've seen to date |
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It's an endearing and sometimes funny story |
The Bad Stuff:
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Some confusing elements, like why are witches so accepted and who would let such a young girl that can't fly very well (at first anyway) go off by herself? |
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You see a lot of Kiki's undies. While I can see that as somewhat typical of someone riding a broom in a dress, every now and then one wonders if the animators were playing this up a little or something. |
Kiki's Delivery Service is a great show. I would recommend it to just about anyone, with the following caveat: if you have a problem with witches, you probably won't like this as this show claims that there is such a thing as a good witch.
STORY: 
VIOLENCE:
(Kiki slams into trees and a rooftop or two)
SEXUAL CONTENT:
(underwear shots on
occasion, although there was nothing sexual about it)
COMEDIC FACTOR:
LANGUAGE: n/a
ACTION:
OVERALL SCORE: