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.
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
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.
Upon being sent to live with relatives in the countryside, an emotionally distant preteen girl becomes obsessed with an abandoned mansion and infatuated with a girl who lives there - a girl who may or may not be real.
Directors:
James Simone,
Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Stars:
Sara Takatsuki,
Kasumi Arimura,
Nanako Matsushima
After her werewolf lover unexpectedly dies in an accident while hunting for food for their children, a young woman must find ways to raise the werewolf son and daughter that she had with him while keeping their trait hidden from society.
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)
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. See more »
Goofs
The Disney dub refers several times to the airship as a "dirigible", which is correct, but also as a "blimp", which it isn't; it is a zeppelin, a rigid airship with an internal skeleton that holds it in shape, not a blimp, which is basically a big helium-inflated balloon held in shape by the helium. See more »
Quotes
Jiji:
[looking at a mug with a black cat]
Kiki, look. It's me.
See more »
Crazy Credits
In the Disney english version:In Memory of Phil Hartman 1948-1998 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.
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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.