An excellent coming-of-age Ghibli film perfect for anyone of any age to check out.

Written by ggultra2764 on February 11, 2012 at 4:05 PM

Kiki’s Delivery Service is a movie exploring the coming-of-age trials faced by Kiki. Being on her own and approaching adolescence, the girl learns of personal responsibility, acceptance of others and independence as she adapts to her new life in the seaside city. The movie retains a light and innocent mood throughout its 105-minute run as those whom Kiki encounter are friendly and considerate to her and there are no antagonists to be found in this movie to hinder the growth of Kiki’s character. The only hurdle faced by Kiki throughout this movie is her struggle in adapting to her new life. Kiki behaves like any normal girl at age 13. There are things she wants. She feels awkward fitting in with the local kids. Her witch powers even provide symbolism to her inner doubts and no longer being dependent on her parents. This makes the movie relatable to older audiences who have undergone the awkwardness of growing up and fitting in with others. This development leads up to an exciting finale where Kiki’s growth is tested.

On the technical side, Kiki’s Delivery Service features plenty of nicely-detailed and expansive settings offering plenty of eye candy with the background. Character designs are a bit on the simple side with simple features on facial designs and not much in the way of detail with clothing and Jiji. But such designs do well at complementing the innocence of Kiki’s ordeals so this isn’t much of an issue. Animation was not wasted in this movie as there was enough fluid movement from characters shown walking in the city and from moving vehicles. The best example of animation came from Kiki’s broom-flying scenes where the sensation of flying at fast speeds, through different kinds of weather and in reaction to different environments was quite the sight to behold.

Overall, Kiki’s Delivery Service makes for an enjoyable film for all ages as the young and the old will be able to relate to Kiki’s struggles growing up away from home and enjoying the loveable characters that the young witch interacts with both at her home and the seaside city.