Kiki - Consegne a domicilio

I have loved all of Miyazaki's films that I've seen so far. He is one of my favourite directors and I believe one of the best out there. While the animation is amazing and the characters are colourful, the best thing about his films is that they have heart.

Miyazaki's beautiful 'Majo no takkyûbin' tells the story of a young witch who travels to a new city in order to make it on her own. The sheer beauty of this film lies in its simplicity, subtlety and detailed animation. It is truly a solid example of cinematic art. There is nothing complex about the story and the characters are very easy to relate to. They are wonderfully drawn. There is an innocence and purity about it that shines through. The vivacious European city is stunning to look at. Miyazaki's attention to detail is positively astonishing. There's always something happening in the background. The music flows beautifully with the story and setting as it adds to the mood.

Needless to say 'Majo no takkyûbin' is another gem from the Studio Ghibli factory. It's one of those movies I never tire of revisiting and one that draws a smile on the face. Those in search of something uplifting should give this one a chance otherwise you don't know what you're missing.

First of all, 10 points to Ghibli for Variety. Producing this and 'Grave of the Fireflies' inside a year of each other would be like Disney doing 'Mary Poppins' and 'Judgement at Nuremberg' back to back.

Words that spring to mind after watching Kiki include 'delightful', 'light', 'bouyant', and so forth. It's obvious Miyazaki has refined his craft considerably from the early movies, which somehow seemed a bit... I don't know - stuttery. Kiki, though just flows effortlessly. Combine this with the beautiful use of lighting and colour to produce that summertime, Mediterranean sort of feel, and Kiki is a movie that is just thoroughly uplifting, never getting bogged down in complexities or dark intrigues.

Unfortunately - and this is the only thing holding it back from 4 stars from me - what it does get slightly bogged down in, is its own lightness. There were just a few sections where the lack of a villain, of any real action, of anything other than people being nice to each other, took the top 10% off what was otherwise a masterful movie. I suppose there were a few other flaws, too: some characters and situations which came into it were just not developed at all. And there was one moment that teetered on real poignancy - the old dog with what he thought was a stuffed toy - but it sort of didn't happen. Also allowing the cat - sorry, forgotten his name - to drop out of proceedings for most of the latter half the film, definitely removed a spark from the film (I can't believe I just complained about the LACK of a comic sidekick)

BTW, as someone who lives in Tasmania, which is allegedly the inspiration for much of the setting of this film, please come here by all means, but don't expect it to look like that. The bakery in Ross (central Tasmania) which supposedly inspired the one in the film is in one of the few Tasmanian towns that you _can't_ see the ocean from, and the general look of the movie is distinctly southern European, though I guess some of the rural shots look a bit Tasmanian.

Whatever the case, Miyazaki's attention to detail is, as usual, stunning. The town may have been cobbled together from his favourite bits of Italy, France, Tasmania and wherever else, but its nothing less than a labour of love nonetheless.

Anyway, 8 out of 10.

Another great Miyazaki film. A young witch, with a good heart, leaves her mom and dad on her 13th birthday with her black cat, as all witches are supposed to do to complete her training and make it on her own. She looks for a city in need of a witch and finds a city near an ocean. She meets some other good hearted people who help her along the way.

There really isn't a villain in the movie and it's mainly a slice of life type of film. In the end of the film it all comes together and she performs a heroic act.

I tried to watch the dubbed version. Dunst was fine, but I just couldn't stand Garofolo and Hartman. So set the DVD audio to the original Japanese soundtrack and used English subtitles.

If you watch the dubbed version. Turn on the subtitles and you will see all the additional dialog they added. They just couldn't help padding their roles, especially Hartman.

i've only seen the dub, but I must say this movie is superb, fantastic, wonderful and worthy of all the praise it gets. it's heartfelt, funny, and all in all a wonderful movie. the plot, characters, everything about this movie is perfect. it makes me feel oh so good when i watch it. I honestly see nothing wrong with this movie, not a thing. it's quite possibly the greatest coming of age story ever. This movie is too damn good for a review written by me out of complete bordem, so i'll end it by saying if you can a copy, dub or subtitled, rent/buy/steal it. i don't think you'll be disaponited. So go on and get a copy before I beat you. GO NOW.

Many people can claim to be fans of Anime, or Japanese Animation. It's been forced into the North American public by companies like Manga, US Corps and now, even Disney.

Movies like Akira shocked the people...bringing surreal story and amazing animation to the screen. Many others followed that simply blew away the animation and realism of American cartoons.

But then they started to suck. Bad. Over-produced to feed the masses.

And so, when I rented Kiki's Delivery Service, I was kinda expecting to be let down. Knowing it would probably be some spoon-fed animation to appeal to the 3-6 year olds.

Boy, was I wrong. This movie was simply amazing. The animation was wonderful. Not too cartoony, but not too jagged and harsh. Everything flowed smoothly and looked great. The story was AMAZING. It was what really shone. Subtle lessons at life that even got me, a nineteen-year-old computer engineer, cheering for Kiki. It is intelligent, thoughtful, and sweet to the max.

Though this movie is the near exact opposite from all those mechanoid blood-baths and samurai show-downs that populate most of the Anime world...this simple little movie...with the great voice of Phil Hartman I might add...actually got me interested in Anime again.

Check it out. Even if you're just in it for the cats, you won't be disappointed. ^_^