Miyazaki Madness marches on after a bit of a delay, and now it's time for Kiki's Delivery Service. Kiki's Delivery Service is Miyazaki's 4th movie with Studio Ghibli and was the first movie released under the long-lasting partnership between Ghibli and Disney. Released in 1989 in Japan, it was very successful, being the highest grossing film of '89 and the best selling DVD in the month it was released. While it was only released direct-to-video in America, it still received a notable amount of success stateside as well. So, is this film worthy of all the accolades?
So, as the film begins, Kiki has just recently turned 13 and is preparing to leave home with her cat Jiji to train her magic as is their custom. Which is good, since her abilities are a bit rough - flying is basically all she can do, and even that's a bit rough. However, when she finds a town that she's happy with, she finds the welcome somewhat cold and distant, which leaves her feeling like an outsider. However, she soon finds a kind heart in young Tombo, a boy around her own age who is fascinated by flight, but her previous reception leads to her being somewhat icy towards him at first.
She soon finds another friend in the baker Osono. After Kiki helps to return a lost item, Osono is grateful and agrees to let Kiki stay in her spare room provided Kiki helps to mind the bakery occasionally. It is also here where Kiki finds her inspiration to start a delivery service, and the movie then proceeds to follow Kiki's life in the city as she struggles with her emerging business. She also has to deal with all kinds of personal struggles throughout the movie, which later take on a tangible presence with Kiki facing the possible loss of her magic powers because of them.
The plot of Kiki's Delivery Service is, at its core, a pretty typical, somewhat simple coming of age story. However, the movie presents this very familiar plot in a fantastic way with a respectable amount of depth. Throughout the movie, while trying to make a success of her newfound independence, Kiki is also struggling with a lot of internal conflict like her feelings of isolation and notable lack of self confidence. She also has to try to find out who she is outside of her training and find her own inspiration that gives her a reason to use her powers. The end result of all this internal conflict is that there's little to nothing as far as external conflict: a couple of problems during deliveries and a climatic event. In this way it reminds me of Totoro - not a lot of plot-driven drama, but it makes up for it with an emphasis on the characters and their lives presented in an charming way.
Speaking of characters, the cast of Kiki's Delivery service are all endearing, likeable characters. However, it does seem to have a pretty small cast, with Kiki, Tombo, and Osono as the main characters and Jiji and Ursula (a painter living in the woods) for supporting cast. I felt Kiki was a great heroine, a mostly upbeat and cheerful girl who also had some issues and would get serious or depressed at times and mostly came off feeling like a very well-rounded character. Tombo acted how I would expect a young boy with a crush to act - excitable, energetic and always wanting to impress Kiki. Osono was great nurturing surrogate mother character; Jiji, while tiringly pessimistic at times, provided some nice comic relief; and Ursula, while not having a large presence in the movie served a nice inspirational role to Kiki. In the end, most of the cast was only important in how they related to Kiki, but they still were likeable and none were too annoying.
When it comes to discussing art and animation in this series of reviews, I feel like I'm getting a bit repetitive, but what can I say - Miyazaki's art is consistently amazing. His traditional hand-drawn style once again lends itself to great character designs and beautiful backgrounds. The town seems vibrant, the characters all look good, and there's a lot of attention to detail. All in all it's another feast for the eyes. The same can be said for animation as well. All the movement flows really well and there's not a lot of still shots or anything. Like most of his movies, it's very well put together.
The music set the mood well with a lot of light and upbeat tunes during the cheerier parts and slower more serious melodies when called for. I also found that the dubbed songs both in-film and during the credits were well done and sounded a lot better than some I've heard. However, on the whole it wasn't particularly memorable and nothing really stuck with me. The dub cast all performed their roles admirably with no weak voices I can think of. Kirsten Dunst did a great job as Kiki, bringing the right sound for every mood, and Matthew Lawrence sounded just right for an excitable kid like Tombo. My favorite voice in the dub has to go to Phil Hartman as Jiji. His voice was perfect for Jiji's snarking personality and brought a lot of charm to the role.
All in all, Kiki's Delivery Service is a great coming of age story with charming characters and beautiful art. I fully recommend it to anyone looking for a cheery and light-hearted story or just looking for a good anime movie in general. Be sure to keep an eye out for my next Miyazaki Madness review on one of his more overlooked movies, at least by me: Porco Rosso!
No comments:
Post a Comment