Did You Know?
The name of Osono's bakery, "Guchokipanya" is a Japanese pun made from the words "guchokipa" (Rock Paper Scissors) and "pan'ya" (bakery).
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When Kiki first arrives in the city, she is almost hit by a bus bearing the name "Studio Ghibli". This is the name of Hayao Miyazaki's animation studio. "Ghibli" is seen on the side of two other buses; once as she is being questioned by the officer.
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During the production phase, Hayao Miyazaki and his artists traveled to Sweden to research for the film. The photographs they took of Stockholm and Visby, formed the basis of the fictional city of Koriko. The city also contains elements of Lisbon, Paris, San Francisco, and Milan.
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The story takes place in an alternative 1950's Europe where WWI and WWII never happened. Hayao Miyazaki has been quoted saying that the fictional city of Kokiro has one side on the shores of the Mediterranean, and the other on the Baltic Sea.
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Ursula's painting is titled "The Ship Flying Over The Rainbow", and was painted by the students of a school for challenged children.
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The dialogue during a scene in which Kiki is given coffee, changes the beverage to hot chocolate in the Disney release. This was done because Disney thought it was inappropriate for children to drink coffee. The video subtitles also mention hot chocolate, although the Japanese "kohii" ("coffee") is clearly audible on the soundtrack.
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The four-engined biplane (more precisely, sesquiplane) that Kiki sees during the opening credits is a real aircraft, the Handley-Page HP42. Eight of these planes were commissioned during the 1930s; later they were converted to military use, and all were destroyed by 1941. But since this movie - according to director Hayao Miyazaki - takes place in a world where World War II never happened, it's plausible that the HP42 would still be in civilian service.
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The street name signs in the city have been copied from those used in Stockholm, down to using the names (or parts of names) of existing Stockholm streets and squares in at least two scenes, including "Klara Norra Ky" taken from Klara Norra Kyrkogata (Northern Klara Church Street).
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At first, Miyazaki was only a producer for the film. The first script was written by Nobuyuki Isshiki, and Sunao Katabuchi was scheduled to make his debut as a director. But Isshiki soon left the project, as Miyazaki wasn't satisfied with his script. Miyazaki then re-wrote the script, and eventually directed the film, with Katabuchi as an assistant director.
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Prior to Disney's US release on video in 1998, there was an earlier English dub produced in the early 1990s by Streamline Pictures for in-flight screenings on Japan Airlines flights. This dub also had Jiji voiced by a male voice actor. It was considered a very good dubbing job that was more faithful to the original Japanese version than Disney's dub. It also had brief theatrical screenings at film festivals around the United States before Disney bought the rights. It has not been released on any video format, except for the Japanese LD box-set of the Ghibli films as an alternate audio track.
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Disney's English subtitle translation for the Japanese track on the US DVD release are actually dub-titles. Interestingly, they are not from Disney's 1998 English version of the film but are from an earlier non-Disney English version from the early 1990's. Tokuma, the Japanese company that Disney negotiated the rights to the Ghibli films with, provided this dub translation to Disney for a subtitled release not aware that it was not an accurate translation. However, the dialogue from this earlier dub is much more faithful to the original Japanese version than Disney's dub is.
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The 1998 English language version is dedicated to the memory of Phil Hartman, who was murdered by his wife that same year.
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During the zeppelin accident, the radio broadcaster says "Oh! the humanity". Those are the same words said in the Hindenburg disaster live broadcast by USA radio reporter Herbert Morrison in 1937.
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Director Cameo
Hayao Miyazaki:
the director can be seen for a moment in the scene when the street-sweeper says "that's my broom she used". He's in the upper-right corner of the picture.
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Director Trademark
Hayao Miyazaki:
[flying]
Kiki can fly using a broomstick. The plot revolves around Kiki setting up a flying delivery service. An airship also features prominently in the last segment of the film.
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