ehalcomb: Kiki's Delivery Service || Anime Movie Review

This movie is just such a delight to watch. Whenever I try to explain to people my love for this movie I get choked up and I don't know why. Is it because of the wide range of great characters? Yes. Is it because of the beautiful soundtrack and atmosphere? Yes. What about the wonderful (as always) hand-drawn animation? Yes, all of these are reasons as to why I adore this movie but there seems to be something more to it. The story for example is very light-hearted yet down-to-earth as the main protagonist, Kiki, a young witch-in-training, and Jiji, her sassy cat, takes off from home in search of a new environment to live happily as a witch. When she finds the right kind of town she was looking for, she quickly realizes that hardly anybody in the town has even seen a witch, let alone trust one. This gets her into some trouble conflict with the residence and the police but she soon meets some friends in the characters of Tombo, a charismatic young boy who is intrigued by Kiki's 'witchiness', and Osono who takes in Kiki as an employee and provides for her. The interactions between all of these characters are what makes this movie for me. All of the characters get a perfect amount of time focused on them but don't overshadow the fun character of Kiki. Kiki, as previously stated, is a witch-in-training which gives the film an excuse to show the audience wonderfully beautiful sky-high environments and scenes that are remarkably memorable. These scenes aren't far and few between, either. Every time that Kiki has to make a new delivery, she ends up exploring a new part of the sky, getting an overhead view of the beach, or flying through the forest. It's just done so well that you actually feel like she's flying as her movements are given the perfect amount of weight while in the sky. The only real "problem" I had with this otherwise beautiful feature is the somewhat forced ending where Kiki has to save her friend Tombo from falling to his doom from an air balloon. It was interesting to see her try to ride a regular broom but it could have been a lot more subtle. Kiki's Delivery Service is not only a spectacular film but one of my favorite films of all time.

Kiki's Delivery Service is magnificent.