Kiki's Delivery Service

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Kiki's Delivery Service
Directed byHayao Miyazaki
Written byHayao Miyazaki (original script)
Based on the book by Eiko Kadono
Produced byHayao Miyazaki
Toru Hara
StarringMinami Takayama
Rei Sakuma
Kappei Yamaguchi
Music byJoe Hisaishi
Distributed byToei Animation (Japan)
Buena Vista Home Entertainment (USA)
Release dates
July 29, 1989 (Japan)
May 23, 1998 (USA)
Running time
103 minutes
LanguageJapanese
Budget¥800,000,000 (estimated)
$6,927,244.46

Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便, Witch's Delivery Service) is an anime feature film, produced by Hayao Miyazaki in 1989.

The movie was based on Eiko Kadono's original story, Majo no Takkyubin (published by Fukuinkan Shoten).

This animation depicts the gulf that exists between independence and self-reliance in the hopes and spirit of common Japanese teenage girls.

Plot

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Kiki is a 13 year-old witch in training. By tradition, it is time for Kiki to leave her home to spend a year alone in a new town to establish herself as a full witch. Kiki sets herself on her mother's broom with her closest companion, Jiji, a loquacious black cat. She flies off to a new life, but unfortunately has not inherited her mother's skills as a healer, nor developed any other magic skills, with the exception of flying -- and she is notoriously unskilled even at that. At her departure from home, she has trouble controlling her newly-inherited broom, and ricochets from the trees in her front yard. Wind bells in the trees chime, and one of the neighbors wistfully comments that he will miss the sound of the bells.

Kiki settles in the beautiful (fictional) seaside island city of Korico, and after initially finding it difficult to adjust to the pace of life, starts a delivery service that takes advantage of her ability to fly. Kiki experiences several setbacks such as slow business, misplaced merchandise, rude customers and illness. She also has to deal with her loneliness, worries, and homesickness.

Having caught the eye of a local boy about her age, who has an interest in aviation and in Kiki herself, she at first rebuffs, then befriends him, and they begin to develop a normal boy-girl relationship.

As such relationships will do, this one becomes so important that it begins to affect her work, and in fact, she even loses her magic. Kiki learns about overcoming such obstacles with the help of a newfound friend, a young artist who gives some good advice about the kind of inspiration she needs to regain her magic.

Then comes a moment of deadly crisis, when the boy who is so important to her is accidentally lifted into the air in a dirigible accident. When she is his only hope of rescue, she finds the inspiration to regain her flying ability - thanks largely to her independence, self-reliance, and with encouragement and help from others.

Suddenly famous, she sends home a simple, modest letter to her parents, saying that she is becoming used to her new home, and that things are working out well for her.

The story continues through the end titles, as she flies a high-guard formation with her friend as he flies his human-powered aircraft in a flight sequence obviously inspired by the Gossamer Albatross. Later, she is on the street of her town and notices a little girl walking past, because the little girl has her hair and clothing styled like Kiki's and is even carrying a small broom.

Although the setting for the movie is never explicitly established, Studio Ghibli promotional material claims that it is based heavily on Stockholm, Sweden, and that parts of the architecture owe a debt to Ireland, Paris, San Francisco and Tokyo's Ginza district.

Aviators have commented that the flying-broom sequences are believable, consistent with the flying characteristics of an ultralight aircraft combined with a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and are an accurate portrayal of how such an "aircraft" would handle.

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Differences Between the English and Japanese Versions

Although the plot and much of the script was left intact, Disney's English dub of Kiki's Delivery Service contains some changes. Phil Hartman's nasal, sarcastic-sounding Jiji differed significantly from the cute performance of the original Japanese voice actress. There were also occasional additions and embellishments to the musical score overlaying some of the previously silent sequences. Most of the extra pieces of music (provided by Paul Chihara) ranged from soft piano music to a string-plucked reindition of Edvard Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King. In addition, the replacement of the original opening and ending theme songs. The new songs, "Soaring" and "I'm Gonna Fly" were written and performed by Sydney Forest.

All changes were approved by Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.

Trivia

  • "Kiki" is the nickname of actress Kirsten Dunst, who voiced the character in the 1998 English dub. The English dub was also Phil Hartman's last voice-acting performance before he was murdered.
  • This was the first release under the Disney/Studio Ghibli deal; the dub was recorded in 1997, and released directly to video on September 1, 1998. The video release proved popular, selling over a million copies. A few weeks later, Disney released a subtitled VHS of the movie, complete with the original Japanese soundtrack and subtitles. The region 1 DVD was released on April 15, 2003, alongside Spirited Away and Castle in the Sky.
  • The word takyuubin (宅急便, literally home-fast-mail) in the Japanese title is a trademark of Yamato Un'yu Kabushikigaisha (ヤマト運輸株式会社, Yamato Transport co.), though is used today as the synonym for takuhaibin (宅配便, literally home-delivery-mail). The company not only permited the use of the trademark, but also sponsored the film.
  • The crows featured in this movie seem to be collared crows (Corvus torquatus), which live in China.
  • In Spain Kiki was re-christened "Nicky", and the film re-titled "Nicky la aprendiz de bruja" (Nicky the Apprentice Witch), due to the fact that the word kiki is Spanish slang for sexual intercourse (as in the expression echar un kiki - to have a shag). The Latin American title "Kiki - repartos a domicilio" would obviously have given rise to a rather unfortunate double entendre and so the protagonist's name was changed.

Credits

Cast

The movie stars the following actors (listed in English version/Japanese version format):

Awards

Musical

In 1993, a musical version of the show was produced. Yukio Ninagawa (蜷川幸雄) wrote the script and Kensuke Yokouchi (横内謙介) directed the show. The role of Kiki was originated by Yuki Kudo (工藤夕貴) and the role of Tombo was originated by Akira Akasaka (赤坂晃). He was replaced by Katsyuki Mori (森且行) (of SMAP fame) within the year. There was a cast recording produced of the original cast and the show revived in 1995 and 1996. [1]


References

Template:Ja^ 魔女の宅急便. (2006, March 18). Wikipedia. Retrieved 18:56, April 9, 2006.

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