Oy bad flash back of my last Disney film I viewed Return to Neverland, not only am I having bad flash backs but I still have to keep the good old Peptomismal around just from hearing the phrase faith love and pixie dust line, it’s either that or I shouldn’t have eaten that funky looking hamburger the other day. Anyway’s this movie doesn’t suck in fact Kiki’s Delivery Service is one of the best movies I have ever seen, and I am not kidding either. And to prove it I promise not to use the word suck for the rest of the review. Which I hear some people are complaining that suck sucks to the extreame dude.
Kiki’s Delivery service was released in 1989 in Japan by studio Ghibli and is directed by Hayo Myazaki one of the biggest names in animation. He inspires even Disney artist and if you like to play video games then there are even a few takeoff’s of his works. In Zelda for instance the village theme in OCT and a Link to the Past is a take off of the music in this movie (I have to give DVD.IGN.COM for pointing me in the direction of this one), Kiki’s mom is named Kokiri the same name has Link’s mom, and finally the witch maple in oracle of ages and seasons probably a spoof on Kiki. (all though Kiki never rides a ufo).
Any way’s last month Disney finally released Kiki’s Delivery Service on a two-disc set. And I of course went out and bought it. Now I did run into a problem with the cashier giving me a weird look, after all this movie looks like it should run for the 6 year old girl who still play with barbie doll crowd. Well since I am a 21 straight male I did what every other 21 year old straight male did when caught buying some that looks like it was for little girls, I lied my teeth off. I told him it was for my little sister and walked out of the store has fast has I could.
Movie.
It is customary for every witch that when they turn 13 that they have to leave for one year to begin training in the real world, and use there power to make a living like ordinary people. It’s Kiki’s turn to move out on your own so at midnight on a full moon she sets out with her sarcastic cat Jiji. Kiki find’s a nice little seaside town in which to settle down. Since Kiki only has 2 powers the ability to fly on her broomstick of course (this is after all one of the biggest things in the movie) and the ability to speak to Jiji. She decides to run a delivery service. She quickly meet friends including the bakers wife Osono who agrees to take her in, and the energetic Tombo who dreams of flying. But she also meets her own set of set backs. Including being broke, running into jerks, and getting sick. Things get so bad that she starts to loose her self-confidence along with her witches powers.
Now while in some ways this may look and sound like a Disney movie, it’s not. First off Kiki never breaks out into a song, not once do we see Kiki do an impersonation of the classic Halloween decoration of witch hugging a tree, and there is no villain. Heck Kiki doesn’t even have to worry about fed ex competing with her. The problems Kiki has to deal with are just day to day problems of being completely independent. This makes it a refreshing film to watch.
Now I do have to bring up something while searching then net for info on the dvd I ran into articles form the Concern woman of America (I have another name for them but it’s not polite), a right wing Christian group that Kiki Delivery Service is bad. It’s the type of stuff I see with Harry Potter, now I chuckle when I see it with Harry Potter has it does contain references to a few occult things but I think there blowing it way out of proportion. But when it comes to religious groups feeling threaten due to Kiki’s delivery service I literally bust a gut laughing. This is probably the most non-violent films out there that isn’t either teaching ABC, or trying to nauseate anybody over 5. Kiki’s “magic” is merely being able to do the stereo typical witch thing of flying a broom. And if your that concern about your kid watching a girl fly a broom, then don’t you dare let them out during the month of October, they might see a picture of a cartoon goblin in somebody’s window that will warp them for life. Needless to say the report is no longer on the web site.
Animation.
Well in terms of Disney style of animation the animation in the movie is a word that I promised not to say. The frame rate in general is horrible and the characters movements and several parts of the movie is choppy. But at the same time there is a lot of detail in the drawing and artwork. Myazaki draws and animates everything from individual leaves on trees, to people just walking up and down the street, to ships sailing on sea in the distances. And the city he created for Kiki to start up is so beautiful you want to live there. I’ve watch this movie so many times that I have memorized every line of the English dubb and I still see something that I didn’t notice the last time I watch it.
Voices.
The voices in the movie like all of Disney Ghibli dubbs is an all star cast. We have Kirsten Dunst doing the voice of Kiki, and she does a good job of voicing Kiki. Matthew Lawernce has the voice of Tombo. And I should also note this was the last role for the comedian Phil Heartman (noted for playing many role on The Simpsons) who plays the voice of Jiji. The voices in this are all fabulous and each one adds a lot of heart to their character. This isn’t like Princess Mononoke where a few of them sounded like they where in it for the pay check
DVD.
Now for the info on the 2 disc set of Kiki’s Delivery service. Now a lot of people say that Disney hates Ghibli films, and with the exception of a few bone heads in management and marketing I think that’s completely wrong. Disney did an excellent job of putting all 3 of the Ghibli DVD’s together.
Artwork
I like the new artwork on the box to. Compare to the above mention 6 year old kid look the new box art looks just a bit more mature. It’s darker blue and has a big picture of Kiki on the right and Kiki flying her broom on the left, it’s very familiar to the art seen on Snow White and the seven dwarfs box.
Video
Kiki’s Delivery Service has an excellent video one of the best ones I’ve seen. The screen is clear with very little noise, which is a great way to see all the artwork in the movie. There are sometimes though for some reason though that the video goes down the toilet though and the screen gets dark and fuzzy. Most of these tough are during the opening and ending credits though, and it’s like 5 minutes of an almost 2 hour film so it’s nothing to really complain about.
Extra features.
For being a two disc set Disney has very few extra’s here. And while they could have added more seeing how this is an anime DVD there are still a lot more then one could expect. First we have an introduction by Jon Lasseter from Pixar and the man who headed the Spirited Away dubb. We have a 5 minute voice feature that was made several years ago and has interviews with Phil Heartman. And then we have 10 minutes of Japanese trailers for the film. There is also a sneak peak section like in all Disney DVD’s that plays before the movie, except this time only the first two play before the movie. The previews for Castle in the Sky and Spirited away. I think it’s great that Disney only played the two other Myazaki films before this one because I really don’t think crap like the Lizzie Mcquire movie should appear before a masterpiece like this.
On the 2nd disc there’s just the complete movie in storyboard’s you choose what language you want to hear the movie in and watch the movie through the storyboards. Not bad for animation buffs but everybody else should just skip it.
The Dubb vs the subb.
Now the real special feature on this is the Japanese language track. Now despite some reviews on Amazon of people who say they don’t have these on there, they do. But you have to use the remote control and go through the set up menu and turn them on there. I hope you like the animation of Kiki flying around because you’ll see it every time you want to do this. You also have to turn the subtitles on separately so don’t forget to do that either. Disney did this so that when you watch the Japanese Language version you get the Japanese version complete with original text. So you can listen to the 50’s Japanese rock song (and I do actually like the song even though I can’t understand a word there saying) along with seeing the Japanese text.
Now many people got upset by the dubb of this movie, while Disney hasn’t touched any of the video (with the exception of putting in English letters for things like Kiki’s letter home) on this movie. But they messed up the sound with added music and lines given to the characters. It’s important to realize Disney was trying to go with the 6 year old crowd with this one, just look at the art for the original VHS box. It has Kiki delivering muffins with a light blue background and the city beneath, it just screams out 6 year old. And since Disney felt that American kids weren’t going to sit there and watch while nothing but silence was going on so they added extra music and lines. The addition of the extra lines isn’t really that big of problems has Phil Heartmans jokes that he add libbed in there are pretty funny. I still laugh at the part where Kiki has to improvise him for the stuff cat, I like his line “you act stuff and I’ll go get the stupid doll”. The music isn’t bad either the music they added replaces stuff like birds singing and scenic sounds, and replaces them with music that matches that of Kiki’s mood. The difference is one track that we get an idea of what place where in, the other is we know what kind of mood Kiki’s in. There both good and I wouldn’t recommend one over the other. I recommend watching both of them once.
Marketing
Ok everybody agrees that Disney does a terrible job of marketing Ghbli’s film. So how do they rate on Kiki. Actually they didn’t do a bad job on Kiki they gave it a standard VHS release hype when it came out 5 years ago. I saw several commercials on it and I was able to easily find it at my local Wal-Mart. However it isn’t to hard to see that they made the original VHS copy for the 6 years and up crowd. The box work on the original art work screams kiddy so I didn’t bother picking it up in till after seeing it on the Disney channel one day. Has far has the DVD I wouldn’t have mind some hype no TV ad’s or nothing announcing it was on DVD, oh well.
Final Recommendation
Do I recommend this film? Now that’s a stupid question it’s like only one of my favorite animated movies of all time so the answers yes. If you haven’t gotten it when it was first released on VHS now is your time to get the DVD. If you don’t go out right now and get the DVD I’ll find some obsess Pothead fan put a curse on you. And if you’re a guy like me worried about strange looks while buying it you can always hide it in a Maxim magazine on your way out of the store..
Other Myazaki movies I have reviewed and are definitely worth a look at.
Childhood Drama DVD - Before Harry Potter ever went to Hogwarts, Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki spun a charming tale about a young witch-in-...More at Barnes and Noble
Rarely does a film touch so many hearts or reach such artistic heights as the highly acclaimed Kiki s Delivery Service, the magical adventure of an en...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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