Hey there! It’s time for another Rising Sun, and this time you’re in for a real treat!

I had finished up class at JCCC a while ago and decided to check out a Studio Ghibli movie from their library. After some deliberation, I decided on Kiki’s Delivery Service, which I have a bit of a personal history with. I’d simply say the movie was typical Ghibli fare and end it there, but that wouldn’t make a good review, so let’s get to it.

Kiki’s Delivery Service is the story of a energetic young girl named Kiki (Kirsten Dunst), who is studying to become a witch. As custom demands, she leaves home to practice her craft and live on her own for a year, with only a single bag, a radio, and her feline companion Jiji. (the late Phil Hartman) When she arrives at a beautiful seaside city, she borrows a room from the pregnant baker Osono (Tress MacNeille) and starts a delivery service.

The narrative is rather simple, I’ll say that, but there’s more than enough charm to carry it all the way through. Despite being a family movie, it explores what it’s like to move out for the first time and to adjust to unfamiliar surroundings using fantastically written silent scenes and light symbolism. The characters change radically over time as well, as is shown with Kiki’s relationship with local boy (and flight fanatic) Tombo. (Janeane Garofalo) It hits a crescendo at the film’s climax, and on a side note, a lot of Jiji’s dialogue is hilarious. (What do you expect from Phil Hartman?)

This is a Hayao Miyazaki film, so gorgeous aesthetics is a given. The city Kiki lives in is a pleasure to look at, the characters are beautifully animated, and the score composed by Ghibli regular Joe Hisashi supplements the animation quite well, even if it’s not memorable. The dub produced by Disney is well cast, and the actors all perform their parts with a memorable and distinct energy. However, a couple lines were removed from this reissue of the original 1999 dub release. The removals were to be a little closer to the original Japanese release, but it killed the humor in this scene. (I bolded the omitted line)

Jiji: You gotta be kidding!

Kiki: You can just pretend to be the doll while I find the real one.

Jiji: Why don’t you pretend to be stuffed and I’ll go get the stupid doll!

It’s nothing that ruins the dub for me, but when you’re revisiting one of the first anime films you ever saw, and find that a memorable line was taken out, you might have a small problem there.

Getting past a few dub changes, if you’re looking for a anime film you can watch with little siblings, but don’t want to watch Pokemon, I happily recommend Kiki’s Delivery Service, available on DVD and Blu-Ray courtesy of Disney.