1989, Ghibli Studios
Animation
Rating: G
Approx. 101 mins.
THE STORY:
Kiki is 13 and witch protocol dictates that she spend a year living and training independently. With her loyal cat, Jiji, she leaves her loving family, eager to see the world and enhance her skills, but finds it hard at first to adjust to life on her own in a new town.
Before long, she realizes that she has one very marketable skill that can make her of use to others: delivering things by broomstick. She makes friends and sets up a business. But in addition to being a diligent young witch, Kiki is a teenager. She starts to have feelings for Tombo, a boy her age who is obsessed with flying and trying to invent a machine to enable him to take to the skies. She feels inferior to the pretty, well-dressed and well-heeled local girls, and starts to doubt herself.
When Kiki feels insecure in herself she starts to lose her magical powers. Eventually, with the help of the friends she has made she finds the strength to overcome her challenges and succeed.
Before long, she realizes that she has one very marketable skill that can make her of use to others: delivering things by broomstick. She makes friends and sets up a business. But in addition to being a diligent young witch, Kiki is a teenager. She starts to have feelings for Tombo, a boy her age who is obsessed with flying and trying to invent a machine to enable him to take to the skies. She feels inferior to the pretty, well-dressed and well-heeled local girls, and starts to doubt herself.
When Kiki feels insecure in herself she starts to lose her magical powers. Eventually, with the help of the friends she has made she finds the strength to overcome her challenges and succeed.
QUESTIONABLE LANGUAGE:
- nothing significant
VIOLENCE:
- none
TEACHING POINTS:
- The importance of having faith in yourself and of not comparing yourself to others
THE UPSHOT:
Aesthetically, it's classically Miyazaki Hayao and tastefully gorgeous. It's also a nice change from the look of a lot of North American (Disney in particular) animation. The story is simple for kids to follow and moves at a pretty good pace.
We watched it dubbed, and not for a second did I forget that we were watching a dubbed movie. Kristen Dunst (Kiki) was shrill and-- although I never thought I would ever write this sentence-- Phil Hartman (Jiji) was more grating than great. At the risk of sounding pompous, I have watched this in the original Japanese, and it was a very different, much better experience. There is something to the idea of voices fitting into linguistic context.
In the end, however, this was the 6 year-old in the room's first brush with anime (in the mildest sense of the term), and she was impressed enough to want to see more Ghibli. A good jumping off point for exposure to more heterogeneous kids' film experiences.
We watched it dubbed, and not for a second did I forget that we were watching a dubbed movie. Kristen Dunst (Kiki) was shrill and-- although I never thought I would ever write this sentence-- Phil Hartman (Jiji) was more grating than great. At the risk of sounding pompous, I have watched this in the original Japanese, and it was a very different, much better experience. There is something to the idea of voices fitting into linguistic context.
In the end, however, this was the 6 year-old in the room's first brush with anime (in the mildest sense of the term), and she was impressed enough to want to see more Ghibli. A good jumping off point for exposure to more heterogeneous kids' film experiences.
3.5/5
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