80s Movie Review - Kiki's Delivery Service

Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Genre: Animation/ Adventure
Runtime: 103 minutes
Year: 1989
Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Phil Hartman, Janeane Garofalo, Julia Fletcher, Barbara Goodson, Matthew Lawrence, Debbie Reynolds

Description: A young witch (Kirsten Dunst), on het mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.

Review: The word witch has always evoked a very negative image in both fairy tales and film. The wizard, on the other hand, was often a good person. If witches need an advertisement to change their images, this film might be the perfect choice. The broomstick and black cat are present, but any other stereotypical images aren’t present. “Kiki’s Delivery Service” is a studio Ghibli film and therefore contains the magical animations you expect from the company.
The opening scene already shows why Studio Ghibli animations are so amazing. Kiki, a 13 -year-old witch, lies in the grass listening to the radio. Around her, all the grass blades are individually moving through the wind. Already you can see the amazing eye for detail and craftsmanship.
In this world, when witches are 13 years old, they have to move away from their parents and live on their own to find out what they are good at and gain life experience. That moment has come for Kiki and together with her talking cat Jiji she flies off to the coast, a place she always wanted to go. When she sees a big city, Kiki decides to stay there and help people. She soon finds out that things are different in a big city. Luckily she meets just the person, Osono, a woman who runs a bakery and offers Kiki a place to sleep and her first job: helping out in the bakery and delivering parcels.
There are many reasons to love this film. The animations is one thing. I always loved Hayao Miyazaki’s style, soft colors and creation of beautiful landscapes. Second is the story, which is a beautiful tale of a girl growing up and dealing with feelings of insecurity and who she really is.

Rating: 5/ 5