Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Kiki's Delivery Service Blu-ray Movie Review

"We each need to find our own inspiration, Kiki. Sometimes it's not easy..."

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown November 20, 2014

Ghibli doesn't get much lighter than Kiki's Delivery Service, though that by no means makes it a lesser film. Quaint, disarming and utterly enchanting, it's a simple tale told simply, with delightful characters, lovely animation, and an unexpectedly charming blend of magic and reality that exercises incredible restraint. In any other filmmaker's hands, Kiki's year-long adventure abroad would have been bursting with dangerous spells, supernatural creatures, exploding cauldrons, witch duels, and a deadly race to save the world from something decidedly evil. In Miyazaki's hands, Kiki's journey is nothing of the sort. Hers is a classic coming-of-age story -- one that will be instantly familiar to most any young girl -- fraught with oh so normal teenage insecurities, anxiety, fears, feelings of rejection and other everyday struggles. Just because she can fly on a broom and strike up a conversation with a cat doesn't make talking to a boy any easier...

When an apprentice witch turns thirteen, she must leave her home and travel for a year in order to hone her craft. Although Kiki's (Minami Takayama, Kirsten Dunst) sole talent is broom-flying, she sets out for adventure with her cat Jiji (Rei Sakuma, Phil Hartman). They settle in a charming seaside town, where Kiki establishes her own delivery service with the help of a baker (Keiko Toda, Tress MacNeille) and her husband (Kōichi Yamadera, Brad Garrett). As Kiki learns to balance independence with responsibility, her kind heart wins her many new friends, including an artist named Ursula (Minami Takayama, Janeane Garofalo) and a boy named Tombo (Kappei Yamaguchi, Matthew Lawrence).

Kiki's travels take her to a town out of time, built atop rolling hills with a cozy blend of Swedish, American, German and Italian architecture. Miyazaki further blurs the lines of reality with a quasi-alternate reality timeline where WWI and WWII never occurred, the technology of the era isn't quite as it was, and cultural boundaries don't apply. The cast of largely sweet and hospitable characters she meets range from the welcoming to the fearful, though the fearful few amount to little more than gawking bystanders and nervous policemen who aren't sure how to take her arrival. (No one organizes a pitchfork mob to drive the new witch out of town.) From there it's quiet misadventure after quiet misadventure, with Kiki working to nurture her business, make a home for herself, do right by those who've helped her, fend off a flock of angry crows to retrieve a lost package, navigate the affections of an outgoing boy, fight a nasty cold, deal with a brief loss of her magic, and learn crucial lessons from three women at different stages in life (single independent, married mother-to-be, and elderly widow). There's only one real climactic event, but it's more a testing ground for Kiki's confidence in herself than anything monumental.

And while that definitely leaves the film feeling small, perhaps even inconsequential, it's the ease with which Miyazaki and his animators transform a rough sketch of a young witch in training into a fully realized teenage girl, with all the hopes, dreams and misgivings of a fledgling adolescent on the cusp of a grander adventure. The joy of discovery and the trials of maturation intensify her year away from home, while palpable relief and excitement bubble over as she grabs hold of her fate and future. The adults surrounding her provide support but never actually solve her problems, allowing Kiki the chance to make her own choices and forge her own path. Likewise, her friends and companions, though essential to her development, are merely along for the ride. This is Kiki's story, Kiki's coming of age, Kiki's decisions, consequences and accomplishments. Unlike Disney's princesses, Kiki isn't defined by a man, safely escorted to the end credits by a swashbuckling hero, or forced to find her salvation in love instead of herself. Miyazaki's female leads are made of tougher stuff than that, and Kiki, ordinary as she often seems, remains one of his most enduring and memorable.

Kiki's Delivery Service Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Kiki's Delivery Service makes its North American debut with a perfectly pleasant 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation faithful to Miyazaki's intentions and the integrity of the original animation. The palette is soft, airy and subdued, just as it's meant to be. While Disney has carefully cleaned up the film's source elements, it did so without the use of any egregious, texture-smearing noise reduction, artificial sharpening, or color and contrast boosting. Grain is intact, the animators' line art is naturally defined, background textures and brushstrokes are unblemished, and every last detail is on disarming display. There also isn't any significant macroblocking, banding, ringing or other issues of note, and only a small handful of blink-and-you'll-miss-em print nicks and scratches remain. (Eagle-eyed videophiles may spot tiny artifacts around the English words "Kiki's Delivery Service" on the wooden sign in the bakery's window, and, at the end of the film, notice that the words of Kiki's letter bleed into the black bar at the bottom of the 1.85:1 image. But both of these negligible anomalies trace back to language/text changes Disney made to the film for its release in U.S. theaters in 1997.) All told, Kiki's Delivery Service looks terrific.

Kiki's Delivery Service Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Disney presents Kiki's Delivery Service with two lossless audio options: English and Japanese DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0, and both are quite good. There's nothing particularly remarkable or revolutionary here -- each presents their language mix as it's designed, with no issues or mishaps to report -- yet nothing that would render either underwhelming. Voices are clear and intelligible at all times, and prioritization isn't problematic in the slightest (though minor differences can be found between the dub and Japanese-language tracks). Effects and Joe Hisaishi's score fare wonderfully as well, and more active broom-flying, retrieval and rescue sequences sound better than ever. Purists will be irritated to find Disney's English dubtitles have been included, rather than a more literal translation subtitle track, but otherwise there aren't any disappointments to be had.

Kiki's Delivery Service Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Original Japanese Storyboards (HD, 103 minutes): Watch the entire film, comprised entirely of original Japanese storyboards. The video presentation is full 16:9 widescreen (rather than Picture-in-Picture), and the audio presentation is Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English, English SDH and French subtitles.
• Creating Kiki's Delivery Service (HD, 2 minutes): Miyazaki reminisces about stepping in as the director of the film at the eleventh hour, keeping the time period and setting vague, and his absence from a research trip to Sweden with his animators.
• Kiki & Jiji (HD, 3 minutes): Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki discuss the genesis of the movie, Miyazaki's initial reaction to the idea, the inspiration behind Kiki's personality (Suzuki's thirteen-year old daughter), the design and evolution of Jiji, and more.
• Flying with Kiki & Beyond (HD, 3 minutes): The challenge of making broomstick flight look natural and believable, the decision to extend the story through the end credits, and Kiki's place as Ghibli's first big hit.
• Producer's Perspective: Collaborating with Miyazaki (HD, 2 minutes): Suzuki touches on his working relationship with Miyazaki, the many things the filmmaker brings to the table, and Miyazaki's humility.
• The Locations of Kiki (HD, 29 minutes): An excerpt from "The Scenery in Ghibli," a Japanese documentary detailing the real world locations that've served as inspiration for Miyazaki's fantasy worlds.
• Scoring Miyazaki (HD, 7 minutes): Composer Joe Hisaishi reflects on his music, themes and favorite pieces, not just for Kiki's Delivery Service, but My Neighbor Totoro, Castle in the Sky, Ponyo and others.
• Behind the Microphone (SD, 5 minutes): Kirsten Dunst, Janeane Garofalo, Matthew Lawrence and the late Phil Hartman talk about their characters and voicework in this DVD-era featurette.
• Introduction (SD, 1 minutes): A John Lasseter introduction, pulled from the original Disney DVD.
• Ursula's Painting (HD/SD, 3 minutes): The origin of Ursula's oil painting.
• Original Japanese Trailers & TV Spots (HD, 8 minutes)

Kiki's Delivery Service Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

For a film first released in 1989, Kiki's Delivery Service is a breath of fresh air. Unafraid to tell a simple story simply, it tip toes along without a care in the world, yet still manages to make a lasting impression. Disney's Blu-ray release is excellent too, with a faithful video presentation, solid English and Japanese lossless audio tracks, and a decent selection of special features. If you've yet to meet Kiki, prepare to be pleasantly surprised.