Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989)

Throughout history the term witch has always had a negative image. Wizards were usually good in fairytales, TV shows and movies, but witches were mostly evil. If the society of witches needed an advertisement to change that image then this movie would be perfect for them. The broomstick and black cat are present, but every other thing you might associate with witches will not appear here. As this is a Studio Ghibli film it does posess the animation magic you’d expect from them.

If you have never seen any Studio Ghibli movies you might think during the opening shot that the studio is showing off. It introduces the viewer to Kiki, a 13 year old witch, who is layin in the grass listening to the radio. All the individual leaves of grass are animated, which is a stunning effect and makes you wonder how much time animators spent on it. After being wowed you learn that when witches are 13 they will have to move away from their parents for a year to learn what they are good at and gain life experience. That moment has come for Kiki and together with her talking cat she heads towards the coast on her broomstick as she always dreamt of going there. Once she sees a big town she decides to start her practise there. She soon finds out that things are very different in a big town compared to the life she was used to living in a small community. Luckily she meets the right person, a woman running a bakery, who offers her a place to stay and her first job, delivering packages.

There is a lot to love about this movie. The animation and art direction is beautiful and the story about Kiki having to grow up, dealing with feelings of insecurity (about boys, belonging to a group, her own abilities) makes for compelling viewing. The world is imaginative and the story never goes into dark territory even though there were opportunities to do so. Except for his last movie I have now seen all the movies Miyazaki has directed at Ghibli and it is a blast. There will be a live action version later this year and I am wondering if it will be able to have the same magic.