Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1989
	Director: Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, Porco Rosso)
	Actors (voices): Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma, Kappei Yamaguchi
	Country: J
	Genre: Animation, Adventure, Fantasy.
	Conditions of visioning: 27.02.2014, Blu-ray, Home cinema
Synopsis: As she turns 13, Kiki follows the old tradition of leaving her family in search for a town where she can settle and practice her sorceress skills for a year.
Review: Animated movies by the Ghibli studio are always nice as it allows you to watch cartoons made for adults, i.e. animation is used only as a medium to communicate feelings that you could have done with a live-action movie, but it brings an additional layer of fantasy. In Kiki I was particularly impressed by the work the animators did on the shadows and on the continuous animation of many small elements on screen, The movie is as a matter of fact very well executed, and the Blu-ray edition is worthy. Not much happens during the movie, there are not the usual conflicts and evolution and rewards that you would have in a Western animated film. The structure is quite different from that, and you just actually follow Kiki as she grows up and learns about life. Sometimes it feels like the movie is only an excuse for Miyazaki to display flying objects (the dirigeable is quite nice). I was a bit surprised that the city in which Kiki settles is inspired by European ones, but the influence is not constant: a piece of Sweden, some Italy, a written language close to German. This is not very self-consistent, but acceptable in a Fantasy world. Probably not the best Ghibli movie, but very nice anyway.
Rating: 7 /10