Kiki's Delivery Service - Cheap Thoughts

Studio Ghibli are one of the leaders when it comes to animation, they've been in business for over 30 years and have been strong ever since. In 1988 they released two feature length films, one was a serious anti-war drama about two children struggling to survive during WW2...the other was My Neighbour Totoro, so safe to say they have a wide variety of films, but they're mostly known for their family friendly relaxing fantasy films, filled with colourful animation, enjoyable characters and a simple yet charming story, Kiki's Delivery Service is one of those films, but gosh darn it, they do it so well. Kiki's Delivery Service is based around a teenage girl named Kiki, a witch who leaves home to start a life on her own. She arrives in a town near the ocean and thanks to her skills at flying, she starts up her own delivery service and...that's kind of it. The majority of the movie is Kiki getting used to the town and interacting with it's citizens.

One of the things that makes Hayao Miyazaki's films stand out is how natural the unnatural is. In this case, the idea of witches isn't a strange concept, they're not common but people are still aware they exist. Complimenting his style and artwork is almost irrelevant at this point because so many people have talked about his talent in the past that i can't really add anything new. I will admit his writing isn't for everyone, very often you're thrown into a fantasy world with little explanation on how it works or what roles people play, you just sort of have to adapt as they go along. I will say this is one of his simpler films as it shares a lot of similarities to our reality, just happier and...well, witches exist. Also the way how witches function in this film is very interesting, there are no good witches or bad witches, they're just people with special powers, nothing godlike, just something that helps them get by in life, in Kiki's case she happens to be an excellent flier.

There's not much to talk about in terms of story, the majority of the film is her interacting with the townsfolk and yet that's all that's needed. The film has a very relaxed and laid back attitude yet you get very invested in the small events in these peoples lives, like Kiki helping an old woman bake a cake can have a surprising amount of emotional weight. The only relationship in the film i find strange is how Kiki treats Tombo at first, she's sort of rude to him for no real reason, eventually she takes a liking to him but it's still rather uncalled for at first. I will say the ending feels rather jarring, for such a peaceful story it turns into a giant climax with danger and suspense and it doesn't really fit well with the rest of the film, also the movie just sort of ends there, there's not much of an epilogue, there's a disaster, disaster ends, cut to credits.

The animation is of course phenomenal, but again, that's sort of a given, saying a Ghibli film looks good is literally the minimum anyone expects from them. The use of colours is great, the movement is fluid and the designs are unique. The movie does share a lot of tropes that are often found in Miyazaki films, for example, the parents in this film are the same parents he uses in most of his films, hell i'd say these are the exact same parents from Totoro just with a different hair colour. I also think Kirsten Dunst does an excellent job in the lead role, when it comes to sub vs dub, it's pretty 50/50 with Ghibli films, usually the more grounded in reality the film is, i lean towards to dub, but if it's a straight up fantasy then i find the sub to be more appropriate.

To sum it up, the film is very charming, it's very relaxing and has all of the best qualities of Miyazaki, but it also has a lot of his bad qualities and the ending of the movie is a bit jarring. 8/10.

-Danny