A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.
The Clock family are four-inch-tall people who live anonymously in another family's residence, borrowing simple items to make their home. Life changes for the Clocks when their teenage daughter, Arrietty, is discovered.
During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
After helping a cat, a 17-year-old girl finds herself involuntarily engaged to a cat prince in a magical world where her only hope of freedom lies with a dapper cat statuette come to life.
Director:
Hiroyuki Morita
Stars:
Chizuru Ikewaki,
Yoshihiko Hakamada,
Aki Maeda
A 12-year-old girl is sent to the country for health reasons, where she meets an unlikely friend in the form of Marnie, a young girl with long, flowing blonde hair. As the friendship ... See full summary »
Directors:
James Simone,
Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Stars:
Sara Takatsuki,
Kasumi Arimura,
Nanako Matsushima
Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthralls all who encounter her, but ultimately she must confront her fate, the punishment for her crime.
Director:
Isao Takahata
Stars:
Chloë Grace Moretz,
James Caan,
Mary Steenburgen
This is the story of a young witch, named Kiki who is now 13 years old. But she is still a little green and plenty headstrong, but also resourceful, imaginative, and determined. With her trusty wisp of a talking cat named Jiji 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.Written by
Anthony Pereyra (hypersonic91@yahoo.com)
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. See more »
Goofs
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 - the first four-engined aircraft ever built - 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. See more »
Quotes
Kiki:
If I lose my magic, that means I've lost absolutely everything.
See more »
Crazy Credits
In the Disney english version:In Memory of Phil Hartman 1948-1998 See more »
Alternate Versions
The English dubbed version adds a lot of extraneous dialogue (particularly when the characters are off-camera) over several silent passages. In several cases, Jiji is given extra lines that transform his character into a wisecracking conscience, but in most instances the extra dialogue is redundant or unnecessarily expository ("Look, she's got a cat"), while in others it's used to promote 'Disney values' (Ursula says "It's OK, I know that guy" when they hitch a ride; Jiji tells Kiki not to disobey a policeman's instructions). See more »
I've been a fan of the original "Majo no takkyubin" for a long time, and I've been extremely pessimistic about American dubs of Japanese animation, which have ranged from barely tolerable to scrape-it-off-your-shoe terrible. When I heard Disney had bought distribution rights, I wondered whether a big-name animation studio would do right by this film.
Well, I've now seen the Disney version and I'm a little disappointed. Like most other American studios, Disney assumes that anything animated must be aimed solely at children under five. Much of the charm and subtlety of the original film is lost in this dubbed version, and in a few places the translation just plain doesn't make sense. Phil Hartman is funny as the smart-alecky Jiji, and despite his frequent ad-libs, the part comes off reasonably well. But if you've seen and liked the Disney version of this film, do yourself a favor and dig up the original Japanese (subtitled) version. You'll see what Hayao Miyazaki really wanted you to see.
37 of 57 people found this review helpful.
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I've been a fan of the original "Majo no takkyubin" for a long time, and I've been extremely pessimistic about American dubs of Japanese animation, which have ranged from barely tolerable to scrape-it-off-your-shoe terrible. When I heard Disney had bought distribution rights, I wondered whether a big-name animation studio would do right by this film.
Well, I've now seen the Disney version and I'm a little disappointed. Like most other American studios, Disney assumes that anything animated must be aimed solely at children under five. Much of the charm and subtlety of the original film is lost in this dubbed version, and in a few places the translation just plain doesn't make sense. Phil Hartman is funny as the smart-alecky Jiji, and despite his frequent ad-libs, the part comes off reasonably well. But if you've seen and liked the Disney version of this film, do yourself a favor and dig up the original Japanese (subtitled) version. You'll see what Hayao Miyazaki really wanted you to see.