Kiki's Delivery Service
Rating: G - General Audiences

The Plot: Kiki's Delivery Service, done soon after Totoro, uses a young witch, a flying broomstick, and a black cat to tell the story of a young girl's steps into independence. At thirteen, a witch must go out on her own and become a useful citizen of a community. Kiki chooses the seacoast town of Koriko, and with her flying broom, starts a delivery service. Her fraidy-cat Jiji and the nerd-boy on a bike serve to further the girl meets boy part of the story.

Kristen Durst, Janeame Garofalo, Phil Hartmen and Debby Reynolds are the voice actors but the movie can be viewed in Japanese with English subtitles.

Bonus Material: Once again, the Bonus part of the disk, which shows the entire movie in storyboards is exceptional. Because so many have made remarks about the location of the town of Koriko, there's a scene by scene match up of the locations with sketches taken from locations in Sweeden and Prague. Miyazaki mentions that he picked the age of 13 especially because that was the age where girls go through a "difficult period". He used the daughter of his producer, Toshio Suzuki as his inspiration, Miyazaki himself having only sons.

Fun Factor: Fun and pleasure at the creativity
Female Factor: In a Miyazaki film, girls are the heroes

Reviewed by: Editor - Mar/10