In the world of animation, there are few filmmakers as widely regarded and beloved as Hayao Miyazaki. The co-founder of the legendary Studio Ghibli is responsible for producing many of the most visually beautiful and deeply emotional animated films of the last forty years. Whether it is his epic fantasy films like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and Princess Mononoke, his more child-friendly features like My Neighbor Totoro and Ponyo Rosso, or his dramatic material like The Wind Rises, every one of Miyazaki’s movies brings its own fresh energy, perspective, and pure love for storytelling to the screen.
One of Miyazaki’s most famous and praised works is the 1989 film Kiki’s Delivery Service which I will review in this post. The film’s plot is simple (some who would say light) but nevertheless it is full of charm and delightful energy. The film was directed by Hayao Miyazaki himself who also worked on the screenplay, deviating in some ways from the original children’s novel on which the film was based.
The film depicts the life of Kiki, who has just turned 13, the age at which an apprentice witch must leave the country and spend a year in an unfamiliar town. Under a glorious full moon, Kiki sets off to the city with her black cat Jiji. By morning, she arrives in the bustling seaside town of Koriko. The owner of a bakery lets her stay in the spare room and Kiki helps out in the shop while starting a delivery service using her one and only magical skill – the ability to fly on a broomstick. She makes plenty of mistakes, dropping things and struggling to deliver packages, and getting negative reactions from the recipients, but she matures through her experiences and interactions with the people she meets. Among them is her older painter friend, Ursula who comes to the city to visit Kiki. Ursula understands Kiki’s despair —having experienced failures as an artist herself. She invites Kiki to come out to her cabin in the woods to take a break and relax. Being in the cabin and talking with Ursula allows Kiki to step back from her daily life and struggles and get a fresh perspective.
Ursula: When I was your age, I’d already decided to become an artist. I love to paint so much. I’d paint all day until I fell asleep right at my easel. And then one day, for some reason, I just couldn’t paint anymore. I tried and tried, but nothing I did seemed any good. They were copies of paintings I’d seen somewhere before… and not very good copies either. I just felt like I’d lost my ability.
Kiki: That sounds like me.
Ursula: It’s exactly the same, but then I found the answer. You see, I hadn’t figured out what or why I wanted to paint. I had to discover my own style. When you fly, you rely on what’s inside of you, don’t you?
Kiki: Uh-huh. We fly with our spirit.
Ursula: Trusting your spirit! Yes, yes! That’s exactly what I’m talking about. That same spirit is what makes me paint and makes your friend bake. But we each need to find our own inspiration, Kiki.
Kiki: I guess I never gave much thought to why I wanted to do this. I got so caught up in all the training and stuff. Maybe I have to find my own inspiration.
The touching portrayal of Kiki’s trials and tribulations draw the viewer in from beginning to end and revealed a different aspect of Miyazaki’s storytelling, beyond science fiction and adventure. I won’t spoil the climactic final scene for you, but I think we all know where this is going. The movie ends with Kiki realizing that her magic resides within her and that she alone must find ways to unleash its power.
How did the film do in the box office? Thanks to tie-ins with Japanese Yamato Transport and cooperation from TV stations, the movie benefitted from a massive publicity campaign, which together brought 2.64 million people into movie theaters – an unprecedented audience for an animation film.
Snippets from the film