Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's Delivery Service 魔女の宅急便Majo no Takkyūbin, lit. Witch's Delivery Service, is the story of Kiki, a thirteen-year-old witch who sets out to find a town where she can set up on her own to prove herself as a full witch.

Summary
Kiki is a 13-year-old witch-in-training, living in a small rural village where her mother is the resident herbalist. The film opens at the time traditional for Kiki to leave her home to spend a year alone in a new town to establish herself as a full witch. Kiki therefore flies off on her mother's broom with her closest companion, Jiji, a loquacious black cat. At her departure from home, she has trouble controlling her newly inherited broom, and ricochets off of the trees in her front yard.

Soon after leaving, Kiki asks Jiji to turn on the radio. He flips to a lively pop song and the beginning credits roll. After the credits and song finish, Kiki and Jiji meet another witch in training. After giving some advice about inner skills, this newcomer flies down to the town where she is staying. Seconds after she leaves, Kiki and Jiji are caught in a thunderstorm, from which they take overnight refuge in a train - specifically, in a cattle transport wagon. The next morning, Kiki and Jiji leave to find a place to settle in.Kiki settles in the beautiful seaside European city of Koriko, and, after initially finding it difficult to adjust to the city's pace of life, finds friends and a new home with a baker and her husband, and starts a delivery service that takes advantage of her ability to fly. Kiki experiences several setbacks, such as slow business, misplaced merchandise, rude customers, and illness. She also must contend with her loneliness, worries, and homesickness. Having caught the eye of Tombo, a local boy about her age who has an interest in aviation and in Kiki herself, she at first rebuffs him, though she slowly begins to warm up to him. Jiji simultaneously courts a local cat named Lily, who had earlier snubbed him.

Because of slowly growing insecurity that finally comes to a head, Kiki's powers diminish and ultimately disappear, to her great shame. She also learns that, because of her loss of powers, Jiji has lost the ability to speak to her. Kiki learns about overcoming such obstacles with the help of a newfound friend, a young artist named Ursula, who gives Kiki advice regarding inspiration that she needs in order to regain her magical abilities.

In a moment of deadly crisis, Tombo is accidentally lifted into the air when some strong summer winds blow the dirigible into town. When she is his only hope of rescue, Kiki finds the inspiration to regain her flying ability. Improvising with a street-sweeper's push broom, Kiki manages to rescue Tombo with considerable difficulty. At that adventure's conclusion, Jiji rejoins her. Suddenly famous, she sends home a simple, modest letter to her parents, saying that she is becoming used to her new home and that things are working out well for her.

The story continues through the end titles, as she flies a high-guard formation with Tombo as he flies his human-powered aircraft in a flight sequence obviously inspired by the Gossamer Albatross. Later, she is on the street of her town and notices a little girl walking past, because the little girl has her hair and clothing styled like Kiki's and is even carrying a small deck broom like the one Kiki flew to save Tombo - an indication of her having become a local celebrity. Jiji and Lily are also shown, with several kittens in tow. (This summary was taken from Wikipedia)

Themes
Independence vs. Reliance

The theme of Kiki's Delivery Service is the gap between independence and reliance as viewed through the hope and spirit of a teenage Japanese girl. As we see in the movie, Kiki is remarkably independent in some regards, mostly running her own business and taking care of her own affairs. However, she is still dependent on the baker's family to give her a place to stay. Also, Kiki does not function well when she is completely cut off from others, or believes herself to be so. When her loss of magic renders her unable to understand Jiji, Kiki loses it. So we see that, in general, people may be very independent, but we almost always depend on others, even if it is only for their presence in our lives.

Influences
Kiki's Delivery Service is based off of a novel by Eiko Kadono by the same name. The book is similar to the film, though it bridges a larger time span. Also, Miyazaki made major alterations to the story. He added more dramatic moments, such as Kiki losing her powers, in order to give the movie more of a sense of story. The book's approach was much more episodic, with small stories and incidents that occurred during deliveries.

Reception
The film's total revenue was ¥2.17 billion, and it was the highest grossing film in Japan in 1989.

Critically, Kiki's Delivery Service did very well. On Rotten Tomatoes, it received a score of 100.

A conservative Christian group, Concerned Women for America, boycotted the film and called for a general boycott of Disney. Their reasons were that it supported witchcraft. Clearly, this boycott did not have much, if any affect.

Awards

 * Tokyo Metropolitan Cultural Honor
 * 7th Annual Money Making Director's Award
 * Best Anime--12th Annual Anime Grand Prix
 * Excellent Movie--Japanese Agency of Cultural Affairs
 * Best Film and Best Director--Japan Cinema Association Award
 * Special Award-- The Erandole Award
 * Special Achievement Award--The Movie's Day
 * Gold, Japanese Film--7th Annual Golden Gross Award
 * Special Award--Japan Academy Award
 * Best Japanese Film of the Year--Kinema Junpo
 * Best Animated Film--44th Mainichi Film Competition

Cast
Japanese:
 * Kiki, Ursula - Minami Takayama
 * Jiji - Rei Sakuma
 * Kokiri (Mom) - Mieko Nobuzawa
 * Osono - Keiko Toda
 * Tombo - Kappei Yamaguchi
 * Madame - Haruko Kato
 * Barsa - Hiroko Seki
 * Okino (Dad) - Kouichi Miura

English:
 * Kiki - Kirsten Dunst
 * Ursula - Janeane Garofalo
 * Jiji - Phil Hartman
 * Tombo - Matthew Lawrence
 * Osono - Tress MacNeille
 * Barsa - Edie McClurg
 * Madame - Debbie Reynolds
 * Dad - Jeff Bennett
 * Radio Announcer - Corey Burton
 * Senior Witch - Debi Derryberry
 * Mom - Kath Soucie
 * Ket - Pamela Segall