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Usually it's not too hard to find five screenshots to include along with the
reviews on AA. Many times I'm limited to screencaps I can find on fansites, in
which the options are already laid out in nice convenient thumbnails for me.
When I take them myself, I can usually visualize my five favorite scenes and
can hop right to them. But in a high-quality movie like
Kiki's Delivery Service
picking five shots is difficult. The urge to hit the screencap button every
few seconds so I could share the amazing visuals and engrossing story with the
world was overwhelming. There were eighty-six images in my PowerDVD screencap
folder after I got through my third viewing of the film, and after a long
grueling weeding process I did eventually narrow those down to five. I feel
bad I had to leave as much on the cutting room floor as I did.
"YEOWCH!!"
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In a nutshell,
that's
how good
Kiki's
is.
Kiki's
was recently released on DVD by Disney (who is slowly but surely churning out
all of the Studio Ghibli films), often considered to be the antithesis of the
true anime fan. Fortunately, I'm nowhere
near
a true anime fan, so I have no problem enjoying a good Disney flick. Hopefully
these people manage to find a different version of the film to watch, since it
would be a real shame to let one's personal bias get in the way of a truly
magnificent gem.
Characters:
Kiki's Delivery Service
is full of fun, whimsical characters who never cease you surprise you. Kiki
herself is the best of them all. When she bursts into laughter, she'll make
you want to laugh too. Kiki manages to hit a lot of those "in-between"
emotions cartoon characters tend not to have: frusteration, exhaustion,
loneliness... and oftentimes she hits them without a single word. Through
Kiki's eyes, the most mundane things become magical; I never thought of cars as
things of any particular wonder until I heard Kiki say "Wow, look at all the
cars!"
"Hmm... I don't know Stopra yet; should I come back later?"
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Playing opposite Kiki is her sarcastic yet faithful feline companion Jiji.
Jiji's primary job is to keep Kiki's head out of the clouds, with his secondary
job being to make snide remarks about everything. He accomplishes both tasks
masterfully, while at the same time being as delightful and entertaining as any
talking animal in any
real
Disney flick. He never (well, okay,
rarely)
steals the spotlight from Kiki, however; he knows his name isn't in the title.
The rest of the cast is made up of the people Kiki meets during her adventures.
There's Osono, the generous baker lady who gives Kiki a place to stay, and
Ursula, the artistic recluse who has befriended the crows, and of course Tombo,
the young aviation whiz who is stricken with Kiki the first time he sees her.
They, too, know better than to make a grab for Kiki's thunder, keeping the plot
on track and the heroine in focus.
Story:
Kiki is a thirteen year old witch and, as her rite of passage, she is to eke
out a life for herself in a faraway land. She and Jiji set out on Kiki's magic
broom and eventually settle in a seaside town, where Kiki quickly befriends
Osono and sets up a job for herself delivering knick-knacks and paddywhacks for
the citizens (despite Jiji's protests). She's decided on a delivery service
because, unlike other witches who can brew potions or tell fortunes or other
such witchly things, all she can do is fly on her broom.
"Has anyone seen Archie and Jughead?"
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For a time, Kiki makes the best of things, scraping together enough money to
make herself and Jiji pancakes to eat every day. Eventually, however, Kiki
gets burned out as she learns that being on her own is a quite a bit harder and
a
lot
less fun than she expected. It gets to the point where *
she completely loses her magic powers, which only complicates matters since
that means she can no longer earn a living.
*
Kiki's Delivery Service
is, at heart, a story about a kid coming into her own and discovering that
she's capable of being stronger than she ever imagined. This is the kind of
story that gets done in every coming-of-age story, to be sure, but this one
crests and troughs more steeply than most; sometimes it's hard to determine
whether Kiki is genuinely happy about something, or just trying to put on a
brave face.
Kiki's
is a great example of how the right hands can take a reletively ordinary story
and mold it into something particularly extraordinary.
Animation:
Kiki's
is a hundred-and-change minutes of some of the most beautiful animation you're
likely to ever see. Even the most base and mediocre of settings come alive
down to the
A typical Kiki landing.
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very last magical detail. Your second or third time watching the
movie, try focusing your attention on the background rather than the action,
and you'll see what I mean.
Since this is a story about a young witch's delivery service, there's
lots
of airtime devoted to Kiki flying around on her broom. These scenes would get
boring quickly if they were just Kiki gliding around bantering with Jiji, but
this isn't the case; she rocks back and forth on every stray wind and twirls
around when she loses her concentration, with Jiji squirming and shrieking and
crawling about her the whole time. This is just one example of how the
animation helps the entire
Kiki's
experience so lovable.
I think if you only gave me one single word to describe
Kiki's
visuals, I'd use "bouncy." Make of that what you will.
Culture Shock:
For all intents and purposes,
Kiki's
takes place in a totally fictional setting, which is Anytown, USA if it's
anywhere else. That means it's entirely (and welcomely) devoid of the usual
anime nuances and quirks. Not a schoolgirl outfit or Pachinko parlor or
tentacle demon in sight.
Bake the bread, Cinderelly!
Clean the oven, Cinderelly!
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That there cake is worth six hamhams already, so the flawless dub job is just
icing. And what else would one expect of Disney? Even their stepchildren get
the royal treatment, apparently, since
Kiki's
is as star-studded as any of their other feature films. Watching the original
Japanese language track just isn't the same without Janeane Garofalo as
sweet-and-sassy Ursula or Phil Hartman piloting Jiji. Yes,
that
Phil Hartman. Doesn't he make the
perfect
smart-alec cat? I think so too.
Kiki's
delivers hand-over-fist on every level imaginable. It's fun to look at, and
enchanting to
listen to, and chock full of characters and places you can't help but fall in
love with.
Alright, so you're a hip young adult (or not, I don't know I guess) and you
don't want to be seen renting or buying a G-rated movie. Since I have no sense
of social acceptance, I don't know what that feels like. So I'll just say
this:
get over yourself and watch
Kiki's Delivery Service!
The only reason I stopped the rating at 5.5 is that it's not the
best
anime on the planet. But for all intents and purposes it may as well be.
Overall Rating:
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