Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's Delivery Service in a nutshell: a 13 year old witch leaves home and sets up a delivery service in a seaside town, and umm... delivers stuff. It's not an action-packed, high octane thriller, but it IS well paced and the delivery challenges Kiki faces - which were I to name them, may seem rather dull - are exciting. The whole "coming of age" scenario is easy to relate to (even retrospectively), and the whole wonder of discovery and independence that this film oozes is helped by the beautiful artwork of the film.

Negatives? Well it's a single DVD release with special features that only just trump the older, poorer Buena Vista-version - the full-length storyboards which are of debateable appeal, a featurette on the story behind Ursula's Kiki-inspired painting that appears in the movie and the original Japanese promotional trailers. Nice to see Optimum at least getting some more content for the movie I suppose.

I couldn't possibly give this film less than the full 5 stars. KDS is a film for just about everyone. The relative lack of action will inevitably put some off, but it is still well paced and I defy anyone to claim that they didn't still enjoy it after watching it. Most importantly (even speaking as an Anime fan) I can guarantee that the fact that this is anime will not get in the way of your enjoyment of the film. Regardless of the fact that anime is needlessly shunned by the UK mainstream, KDS isn't overtly Japanese in its style or presentation. I don't doubt that only a Japanese studio could come up with something as sublime as this film, but the setting, characters, artwork and messages are far more appealing to a Western audience than the vast majority of anime.

If you're looking at this film off the back of another Ghibli production - Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke or any of the already released Optimum-Ghibli collection, you'll find more of the magic and artistic integrity that you found in those films. If you're young, old, male or female, you will inevitably enjoy this film, though an audience of serial killers or male teenagers would probably not be so interested... But then, I personally like to imagine that every stereotypical monosyllabic pubescent guy has U-Rated and sugary sweet Kiki DVD stashed away where their peer-group can't see. Its more likely with this updated un-pink DVD-case as well. I love the artwork Optimum have for this and other releases!


One of the best ever children's movies   March 6, 2006
 14 out of 16 found this review helpful

Pretty much defines "delightful."

Everyone with a child from 1 to 4 years needs a copy.

For the aduilts ... apart from anything else, simply the best architectural art direction of any movie, ever, in any format (animation, live action, CG, whatever). Every single house and building is glorious, the epitome of Euro-Italian charm and elegance. (The movie is set in a hyper-idealized vaguely Italian coastal town...it is beyond beautiful.)

Just another masterpice from Studio Ghibli...