It’s easy to fall in love with Kiki, a gentle and kindhearted young witch who soars away on her broomstick to practice witchcraft for a year, as tradition calls for. Along with her wisecracking black cat Jiji, Kiki settles in a picturesque seaside town and starts a high-flying delivery service. Here begins her magical encounter with independence and responsibility, making lifelong friends and sharing in an extraordinary adventure with a boy named Tombo as she finds her place in the world.
If you looked up the word ‘charm’ in the dictionary, chances are you’ll find a picture of Kiki next to it…
Audio:
For this review, I listened to the Japanese track. The option of 4 languages are on the disc, along with English and Japanese, there were also options of Italian and Spanish. Briefly scanning through them all they had all been re-created in Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound. Whilst only briefly listening to the other soundtracks, all came through concise and clear.
The remastered audio is great to listen to, because of the atmosphere show in Kiki’s world, whether it’s the echoing sounds of the birds and the sea, or the sounds of the bakery in full work on an early morning. The Japanese Soundtrack give a perfect sound when echoing on the speakers whatever the situation Kiki is in, giving the movie a true theatre like effect.
Video:
Being a classic Miyazaki movie first made in 1989, the DVD version has been beautifully remastered for home format. Like with the audio, the widescreen effect makes it perfect for home theatre, with the lush backgrounds and animation utterly fantastic even in today’s market. Watching the movie fully, there was no breaks or flaws I could detect making this a near perfect transfer. Simple scenes such as Kiki relaxing on a train, or flying with Tonbo on an air bike were an utter joy to view and you had the option of English/Italian/Spanish/Portugese subtitles coming in clear as day.
One bonus point for me for the high grade is the simply wonderful artwork of the make believe European town of Koriko. Miyazaki apparently travelled to various places in Europe to get a better feel of the landscapes and being from Europe obviously myself I felt this really hit the nail on the head as being ‘close to home.’ Beautiful.
Packaging:
This version of Kiki’s Delivery Service was not the Studio Ghibli version released so the packaging is slightly different. On the front, you get a shot of Kiki flying on her broom trying to deliver the stuffed cat whilst the real cat Jiji claws on for dear life on the broom as she flies across the seaside town of Koriko, as on the top a gold bar with the words ‘The Studio Ghibli Collection’ appear on a dull pink background. The back has a shot of Kiki in her nightclothes staring at the stars and a few small screenshots of the film. Whilst the shot of Kiki in both places are pleasant enough, a combination of the poor background and no inserts in the DVD in this copy made it quite disappointing considering it is a Miyazaki film (and more so as this was released after Spirited Away won at the Oscars).
Menu:
A rather basic menu showing Kiki holding some bread across a backdrop of Koriko with easy selections of scene selection, set up, bonus materials and to play the movie. The menu came after the option of choosing your language between English, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese as what seems par the norm for Disney releases. Four options with subtitles, but unfortunately as I found out when I switched it to English, the English subtitles are the infamous ‘dubtitles’ which just follow straight from the dub for the hard of hearing and not a direct translation. I first encountered this with Princess Mononoke, and it seems that it’s a trend with the UK Releases that I’m not completely fond of.
Extras:
Just one extra on this release but it’s a rather large one as it shows the entire movie but in storyboard format. It’s only in Japanese with subtitles but the remastered music is there as per the movie and shows you how the original sketches and drawings throughout the movie, how the colourings were originally being looked into and you can compare with how the original drawings were set to the movie. It’s a very interesting extra which can be hard to work through if you’ve just seen the movie but give it a couple of days and watch it and you’ll be very interested. Sadly though, compared to the US release this was the only extra on this disc (again, this wasn’t the silver Studio Ghibli version released so I don’t know how/if they compare).
Content:
When Miyazaki does something, most people step up and take notice. With recent works of Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle showing to be popular, people are starting to take notice of his previous works – so much that collections of many of his classic movies have been released at decent prices.
And they don’t get much better than Kiki’s Delivery Service.
You get introduced to Kiki, a young 13 year old girl who hears on the radio about a weather report being good, and she makes a decision on that day to leave home as per tradition, when a child of her nature is 13, she must leave her home and travel to a new town for a year. Of course, we quickly learn that her nature is that of a practicing witch.
We get introduced to Kiki’s family, and her cat Jiji, who is coming along for the ride. A family goodbye later and Kiki is on her journey to maturity…but gets caught in a coming storm. Unprepared for this, she’s forced to fly on a train and rest on a hay bale, unknowing that the train is going to take her to her new journey…
Once she awakes, she sees a seaside town called Koriko which she’s happy to notice (as it doesn’t have a resident witch – towns which do Kiki couldn’t reside in) – after a few embarrassing moments in flight to the awe of the passers-by, she bumps into a young boy named Tombo, who at first sight seems to take an interest to the young witch, but Kiki considering him being rude at first and is on her way, although you know there’s going to be something between those two as the film continues.
She later meets Osono, a pregnant baker who Kiki helps out, and in return, allows her to stay at her place with her non-speaking husband. There, Kiki decides to make her profession – a delivery service using her skills in flight to good use. Her first job doesn’t go smoothly as the stuffed cat doll falls out of her basket, so Jiji is made to good use whilst she looks for it…
…she meets a woman named Ursula, an artist who lives in the woods. She finds the doll but is damaged, and Ursula fixes it for her though Kiki has to promise to be a model for Ursula. These scenes ooze with charm and comedy especially when Jiji gets thrown back into the mix, pretending to be a stuffed toy whilst the dog comes nearer…
It leads to some more work for Kiki, and another run in with Tombo which does lead to Kiki takes more of an interest in him and whether to join him for a party – however, she gets a delivery job and her kindness shows through here for the old aunt she has to help even if her niece isn’t very appreciate of her works. She’s get a bit of a cold but still soldiers on, apologising to Tombo for missing the party but Tombo shows her his true work – creating an air bike, which leads to one of the most fantastic animated pieces I’ve ever seen, with Tombo and Kiki riding down the roads of Koriko, the fantastic art of the town, the seaside, the hills, it’s a wonder to behold.
However, after that, something happens to Kiki, which seems to make her lose her communication skills with Jiji and her ability to fly. The remainder of the movie is Kiki trying to get her magic to be stronger, with help from Ursula and the final scenes with Tonbo as Kiki has to save him as she struggles to get herself back to normal – it’s very sweet and touching which is pretty much the whole of the movie.
The movie is a visual masterpiece as mentioned, but it needs an enjoyable cast and post to be called a true masterpiece. Kiki however fits that like a glove – she is an adorable character with a lot of naivety, a touch of klutziness but always looking for the right thing to do and the eagerness to give it her all. It’s a true coming of age story as she struggles against physical pains (the weather), mental pains (frustration of not getting her magic right when she needs) and emotional pains (certain people aren’t quite as nice as Osano or Ursula). To counter her, we have Jiji, a wise-cracking, sarcastic black cat who is the Achilles’ heel to Kiki, but also has his own problems, whether it’s courting the neighbourhood white cat Lily or trying to avoid getting eaten by a slumbering dog, all the time being a comic sidekick to keep the smile plastered onto my face throughout the film. The secondary cast also are a vital role, with Osono as the friendly mother like figure in place of Kiki’s real mother, Tombo as the misunderstood young boy who has dreams equal to that of any grown-up, and Ursula, the loud and brash artist with exceptional talent and teaches Kiki the ways of the world.
In summary:
One of the truly great Miyazaki films, Kiki’s Delivery Service hits everything spot on – the gorgeous viewing of the European style cities, the sights and sounds coming through clearly, the wonderful characters especially the charming Kiki, and a true story of a girl going through life but not as we know it. With it’s mixture of side characters, wonderful music and flowing animation, Kiki’s Delivery Service is a masterpiece that everyone young or adult should truly watch and enjoy. Experience the life and hardships of a child through Kiki and cheer for her as she comes through the adversities. Fantastic.
Toshiba 37C3030 - 37" Widescreen HD Ready LCD TV – Tangent Ht-50 Home Theatre System Multi-Regional DVD Players/Speakers – Tangent Subwoofer 50-150 Hz, Impedenced 8 OHM
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