Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Minami Takayama, Rei Sakuma, Kappei Yamaguchi, Keiko Toda Directed By: Hayao Miyazaki Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: DVD Format: Animated, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC Number of Items: 2 Region Code: 1 Release Date: April 15, 2003 Running Time: 103 minutes Studio: Walt Disney Video Theatrical Release Date: 1989
Product Description: Studio: Buena Vista Home Video Release Date: 04/15/2003 Run time: 105 minutes Rating: G
Amazon.com: In Hayao Miyazaki's magical Kiki's Delivery Service, a 13-year-old girl meets the world head on as she spends her first year soloing as an apprentice witch. Kiki (Kirsten Dunst) is still a little green and plenty headstrong, but also resourceful, imaginative, and determined. With her trusty wisp of a cat Jiji (a gently subdued Phil Hartman) by her side she's ready to take on the world, or at least the quaintly European seaside village she's chosen as her new home. Miyazaki's gentle rhythm and meandering narrative capture the easy pulse of real life (even if his subject is a girl flying high upon a broomstick) and charts the everyday struggles and growing pains of his plucky heroine with sensitivity and understanding. Beautifully detailed animation and the rich designs of the picture-postcard seaside town of red-tiled roofs and cobblestone streets only add to the sense of wonder. This charming animated fantasy is a wholesome, life-affirming picture that doesn't speak down to kids or up to adults. --Sean Axmaker
Warning: It's changed ^ This 2010 special edition radically changes the music and edits lines. It is probably more elegant and honors the original better, and it is nice to hear Hisashi's other compositions and the ambient noises. But it feels all wrong.
Since our family has always found this to be a perfect movie as is, and bought a replacement for the better sound when the other died from too much love, it really threw us off to expect lines from the same voices that didn't happen, when the music is already altered and changes the pacing. It changes the visceral experience and comfort we depended on.
I would have really appreciated an official warning. A small hint, or the word "streamlined" in the official description or on the sticker boasting remastered. When I buy something I know very well I don't usually read every personal review to check it. I know the old Jiji interpretation may have been too much for some people, but our family always enjoyed every bit of Phil Hartman in it. Let us know when you make such improvements - like when something says director's cut we know there will be alterations. Sure, sometimes they are better, but we sometimes we like our movies just as we expect them, flaws and all. Or put the older version on there too.
2010 DVD Release: A magnificent Studio Ghibli film with gorgeous animation and painted backgrounds and a heartwarming story. ^ In 1989, Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli began work on their fifth film (their fourth theatrical film) titled "Majo no Takkuybin" (translates to "Witch's Delivery Service" but known as "Kiki's Delivery Service") directed by Hayao Miyazaki and is an adaptation of a 1985 novel by Eiko Kadono. The film was a winner of the Animage Anime Grand Prix that same year and nearly a decade later, the film was the first Studio Ghibli film released by Disney (on VHS) back in 1998 and on DVD in 2003.
With the release of Miyazaki's latest film "Ponyo", Disney is re-releasing DVD's of the "Kiki's Delivery Service", "Castle in the Sky" and "My Neighbor Totoro" but this time in a special edition format in 2010 which includes more content.
VIDEO & AUDIO:
"Kiki's Delivery Service" is presented in widescreen (1:85:1) - enhanced for 16×9 televisions. Similar to "My Neighbor Totoro", Studio Ghibli continues its beautifully painted scenery with detail galore. With Miyazaki inspired with a variety of cities and mishmashing European and Japanese architecture, Studio Ghibli was able to create this beautiful city with so much detail when it comes to the bricks that make up a building. The plants and flowers that cover certain buildings. There is a lot of detail and for the animation, capturing that feeling of flight when Kiki rides her broom through the air. Absolutely well-done animation for a film back in 1989.
As for the audio, audio is presented in remastered English Dolby Digital Surround Sound and comes with English, Japanese and French language tracks. Dialogue is clear and understandable for each of the soundtracks. The sound of the wind and the leaves rustling can be heard quite clearly. I preferred to have my home theater receiver's audio set at stereo on all channels for a more immersive soundscape but for the most part, dialogue and Joe Hisaishi's beautiful musical score can be heard clearly through the front and center channels.
For those who watch the Japanese soundtrack will love the pairing of "Ranma 1/2 voice actress Minami Takayama (Kiki and Ursula) and Kappei Yamaguchi (Tombo), interesting enough that "Ranma 1/2 voice actress Noriko Hidaka was also the lead in Miyazaki's "My Neighbor Totoro". For the English dub, Kirsten Dunst did a very good job as the voice of Kiki and Phil Hartman as Jiji, one of his final acting roles before his death in 1998.
Subtitles are in English and French.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
"Kiki's Delivery Service" comes with the following special features on a second DVD disc. Included are:
* An Introduction by John Lasseter - Intro by PIXAR's John Lasseter (note: This intro. is on disc one). * Original Japanese Storyboards - Watch the entire film but this time with the video showcasing the original storyboards. * Creating Kiki's Delivery Service - (2:26) Hayao Miyazaki talks about the creation of "Kiki's Delivery Service" and how he ended up being the director and the cities that inspired the creation of the village. * Kiki & Jiji - (3:28)Producer Toshio Suzuki talks about Miyazaki before the making of "Kiki's Delivery Service" while Miyazaki talked about his inspiration for the character of Kiki. * Flying with Kiki & Beyond - (2:50) Miyazaki talks about the challenges of creating the animation for the flying sequences and trying to make the scenes look natural. * Producer's Perspective: Collaborating with Miyazaki - (1:48) Studio Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki talks about working with Miyazaki. * The Locations of Kiki - (28:34) An excerpt from a Japanese documentary on the scenery of "Kiki's Delivery Service" * Scoring Miyazaki - (7:17) A featurette about Joe Hisaishi's scoring Miyazaki films and more. * Original Japanese Trailers - The original Japanese theatrical trailers for "Kiki's Delivery Service". * Behind the Microphone - (5:00) Featuring the English dub voice talents talking about their role, their appreciation for Miyazaki and his films. Also, behind-the-scenes of the talent recording their voices. * Ponyo - Creating Ponyo - (3:56) Hayao Miyazaki talks about the creation of "Ponyo" and wanting to create a film for young children. * My Neighbor Totoro: Creating My Neighbor Totoro - (2:57) Hayao Miyazaki discussing the creation of ""My Neighbor Totoro". * Castle in the Sky: Character Sketches - (2:37) Miyazaki talks about the characters of "Castle in the Sky" and discussing how his audiences are loyal to his films over time. * Enter the Lands - Visit the land featuring various small animated Studio Ghibli characters (from all films). Click on a character from that film (note: only "Ponyo", "My Neighbor Totoro", "Kiki's Delivery Service" and "Castle in the Sky" are available) to get a Q&A or a small video info. of that film and its characters.
EXTRAS:
Also, included is a postcard featuring Kiki flying high in the air (similar to the image used for the cover).
JUDGMENT CALL:
Similar to "My Neighbor Totoro", I first watched "Kiki's Delivery Service" back in 1993 during a Japanese animation club screening at a local mall. Granted, the film was in Japanese but during that time, many people would gather and watch a lot of animation in Japanese but for Miyazaki films, they were absolutely magical and just beautiful to look at. I can easily remember not knowing too much of what was being said but you can easily understand the storyline.
Here we are over 15-years-later when I first watched the film and even now, I still find "Kiki's Delivery Service" to be a very magical and beautiful film. The coming of age storyline of Kiki trying to get her life as a witch started in a bigger city and dealing with life challenges and personal insecurities is the main theme of this film and a theme that everyone can relate to.
Although, the film is not exact to Eiko Kadono's original novel and at one point she was very unhappy with the direction of how the film was going, fortunately Hayao Miyazaki and producer Toshio Suzuki was able to convince her of why he included these personal obstacles in the film (it's important to note that the novel was written episodically and the film covers just a few episodes).
I am aware of the DVD's reception back in 1998 when Disney originally dubbed the film. Bare in mind that anime fans were not as easily encouraging towards English dubbing of their favorite Japanese animation during that that time period, compared to today. There are slight differences in dialogue between the Japanese and its English counterpart in that Jiji in the Japanese version featured a female voice actress and also with certain dialogue which Studio Ghibli and Hayao Miyazaki did approve.
Overall, "Kiki's Delivery Service" is a Studio Ghibli classic that is such a lovely and magical tale. Featuring gorgeous animation and painted backgrounds, the storyline is heartwarming and captivating. If you are wanting to catch up on Hayao Miyazaki films, definitely give "Kiki's Delivery Service" a try. It's definitely recommended!
awesome movie!! but... ^ I love this movie ever since i was a kid, no complaints at all except for the dvd it self. it came in the mail and the cover was crease.. bummer i have like terrible o.c.d. about that and there were some stain spots on it too. but i dint let that bother me, one thing that did bother me was towards the end of the dvd it became a little scratchy, and i did notice a few glitches that were not fixed... but i still love it... hope it last me years
"Kiki" is 5-Stars, this Disney release is only 3. ^ First of all, I just want to make sure everyone understands that "Kiki's Delivery Service" is a 5 star movie. The problem that I have is with this dub. In fact, the whole reason why I'm writing this review is because I was looking to see if Disney redubbed it for this new 2009/2010 edition, (which they did not of course), and I couldn't take reading any more of the "the dub is fantastic!" reviews. Make no mistake, it's not horrible, but it's far from fantastic.
For starters, Disney is IMPORTING this movie. They want to show America Hayao Miyazaki's movies, which is a great thing for us over here in the US. Why then do they feel like they deserve to edit the movie as if it's their own? It's not, it's Miyazaki's.
They didn't bring Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon over here for instance and then put some Fatboy Slim music in it. They left it as is, and just subtitled it, which is the correct and respectful way to do it. If they wanted to redub the music in English, I can see that, but they didn't. They completely tossed out a song that is far more fun and enjoyable than the painfully generic K-mart-pop that's inserted in its place. The original Japanese intro music, (which is still on the disc if you switch language tracks thankfully) is a fun 50's-era bopping tune, as the movie has a 50's era look and feel to it. But Disney put in some boring contemporary soft rock that would make Barry Manilow proud. I've played both audio tracks for my 2 and a half year old several times and I say to him "Do you want Kiki English or Kiki Japanese?" and he always replays back "Kiki jampanee."
Secondly, Kirsten Dunst does a fine job as Kiki, and Matthew Lawrence is a good fit as Tombo, but it is truly Phil Hartman who steals the stage, in a bad way. I LOVE Phil Hartman, I think he was one of the funniest guys of his time, but he was the wrong pick for Jiji #1, and is way to sarcastic and abrasive #2. Jiji is Kiki's companion and friend, not some b!tchy side-kick, which is what he's been reduced to in the Disney film.
What I would suggest to everyone is to really SEE, FEEL, and HEAR the film the way it was intended to be. Turn on the subtitles and switch the language track to Japanese. The film is easily a 5-Star Kiki when watched that way. It's a shame that Disney can't just leave well enough alone and just dub and release the movie faithfully. Not everything needs an "All-Star CAST!!!"
Adorable ^ We love Spirited Away so we ordered Kiki...both incredible stories that my 3yr old and my 13yr old sit together and watch over and over!!!
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