Kiki's Delivery Service

This year was pretty much terrible for a wide variety of reasons. And with the world seemingly sliding further into a mire of intolerance, apathy and violence, it was nothing short of therapeutic to watch a movie where people actually get along with one another. Where mutual respect and helping each other out leads to an improvement in people's lives. So uplifting in its sincere niceness that it was hard not to get kinda emotio- erm, I mean, I kinda liked it I guess whatever pfff.

What a pleasant surprise. It’s refreshing to see a world so full of warmth and kindness. They’re so carefree in this universe people aren’t pissed off they were shafted at birth and not able to fly. The most evil thing a person does in this movie is talk shit about their grandma’s cooking. I watched this in original Japanese with subtitles because I’m not a heathen but then noticed on IMDb Phil Hartman voiced JiJi so I went back and fast forwarded through to the Jiji scenes and meow.

Studio Ghibli's top director is responsible for this breathtakingly animated (as usual) children's movie, although by western standards it's way too intelligent to be for kids. Sure it's very lighthearted but if you have any emotion in you whatsoever, you will be swept away by Kiki's typically meager little witch girl troubles, which are so well rendered. And being the maniacal cat lover that I am, Jiji instantly became my all-time favorite animated cat.

A rich tale about independence, in which the director frames the new life of this lonely but strong teen witch as a superhero story -- she comes to a new town, helps people by delivering their stuff, starts to lose her powers and, eventually, saves the boy that loves her. Miyazaki is the master of looking extraordinary acts in common people. His heroes are poor, anonymous workers, working class people. They have their lives changed by changing other people's lives.

Miyazaki is good at making everyday experiences beautiful, and, unlike the vast majority of filmmakers, knows how the little frustrations of a newly-minted teenager work.