Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2202 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-02-27
• Rating: Universal, suitable for all
• Formats: Animated, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 104 minutes

Customer Reviews

Wonderful animated feature by Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki animated feature of a 13-old year witch leaving his parents and settling in a new town to form a (broom-based) delivery service is irresistible. As in many of his movies, the protagonist here is a plucky heroine defying all odds. What I found most enjoyable about the movie - though - is its background details. Miyazaki loves European culture - and the movie is set in never land Europe - a fantasy Europe that never existed. A lot of the clothes and the technology suggests the 1950s and the 1960s - but filtered through Miyazaki's sensibility (there are a number of anachronistic details that suggest perhaps a mid-20th century Europe if World War II had never happened). Miyazaki uses a lot of different sources in his movies - and they not always coalesce. In Porco Rosso, they didn't (Fascist Italy + Aviation Aces + Flying Pig?). But here they do.

Touching story, plush animation and lovely music
One of the loveliest of Studio Ghibli's films. It's a gentle film, very pleasing for children, but there is still something sinister going on in the subtext. One of the old ladies looks and sounds suspiciously like a proper Miyazaki witch (see Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle). It is when Kiki visits her that her powers start to ebb away. Only on her second visit to do they return. On the surface, though, the ebb and flow of Kiki's powers is determined by her levels of self-cofidence and self-belief.

Kiki never reaches the heights of Totoro, Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away, but the touching coming-of-age story, plush animation and lovely music make it more than a solid offering from director Miyazaki.

A broom, a blimp, and a cute sarcastic cat!
This isn't the strongest of Ghibli fare, but maybe that's because studio Ghibli have produced some absolutely corking films. The cat Jiji, and Kiki herself are great characters, but I didn't warm as much to the others.

The story tells of how the 13 year old witch Kiki comes of age and leaves her home to spend a year away. I don't think "the city" is ever given a name, but it certainly looks like a European city. Here she finds a place to stay and gets herself an admirer.

The film is as stunning as you'd expect from a Ghibli film, in fact, this is the most impressive Ghibli film I've seen - visually speaking. I felt that the film set up characters but never utilised them as well as it could have done (the spoilt child being the most obvious). But I still very much enjoyed the film. It has an innocent charm which warms the hackles and a pleasant soundtrack.

The film deals with the isolation and the feeling of being an outsider. Kiki is a strong young woman, but essentially still a vulnerable child. The final dramatic scenes in the film test Kiki's self confidence and cement her relationship with a local boy. I think children of around Kiki's age will get a lot from this film as they may be able to identify with her feeling of never quite fitting in, the way she sees herself as ugly compared to how she views others. As an audience we see that wearing fancy frocks does not make the person a good one, it's an old cliché but the "real beauty is on the inside" ethos is presented in this film without being too obvious or preachy about it.

In a nutshell: I'd give this film 3.5 stars if I could, but on balance I'll give it 4 as the aesthetics are far superior to those of many other animated films, and although I didn't enjoy it as much as other Ghibli films I can see that others could get a lot from it. This initially appeared as only `average', but on reflection, maybe it is something that bit special.