Distributor: Buena Vista Home Entertainment
Release Date: November 18, 2014
MSRP: $36.95
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Film: B+ / Video: A / Audio: A / Extras: B-

As with Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, The Wind Rises, his 1989 effort Kiki’s Delivery Service is obsessed with both the gift of flight and the nature of artistic creation. This time, though, the story is far less weighty (in spite of a more introspective and low-key third act), making for a generally airy and light experience. It’s ostensibly the coming-of-age story of a 13-year old girl who moves to the big city for a year of training as a witch, but is not so secretly concerned with the dangers of artist’s block. What stands out most of all (especially on a first-time viewing) is Miyazaki’s confident, matter-of-fact style of world-building. When Kiki, roughly 10 minutes into the picture, gets on her broom with her talking cat to go away for a year of training, there’s no detailed mythology or explanation of how witches live in this world. What’s more, Kiki’s training is self-taught; she has no witchy mentor, just a bright and enthusiastic spirit that dims near the end before its inevitable revival in the closing moments.

Arguably, Kiki’s Delivery Service is a mid-tier Miyazaki film, only because the top tier of his filmography is dominated by classics like Princess Mononoke and, much closer in spirit, My Neighbor Totoro. There’s slightly less emotion at the core of this film, since Kiki’s independence–encouraged by her parents, who are seen in the opening act and not again until the very end–drives her so determinedly. The best moments in this film are when Miyazaki bestows upon Kiki, and the audience, the thrill of being able to fly. It’s here when Miyazaki’s drive to tell the story is clear. What he’s able to accomplish through animation is truly marvelous; it’s almost a disappointment for us as much as it is for Kiki when her powers abate near the end of the film, because being on the ground so long makes the whole film restless. (The climax, where Kiki saves her friend Tembo from a disaster involving an out-of-control zeppelin, is a great return to form.)

Some elements of the 25-year old film work slightly better than others. The way the film veers into a melancholic turn near the end, when Kiki wonders if she’ll ever get her magic back (or be able to understand what her cat is saying again), is admirable but feels slightly rushed considering how quickly it resolves itself. The nature of creation, and what drives someone to pursue a creative end, also shows up in an expanded form in Miyazaki’s latest, and final, film, as The Wind Rises‘ Jiro Horikoshi attempts to balance his passion for airplanes with his passion for the woman he loves; the conflict there is so dominant that to avoid it would be to have blinders on. Here, it’s less fleshed out, so that the abruptness of the plot turn feels almost like a subplot that didn’t have enough time to flourish. But then, Kiki can fly again, after some guidance from an artist friend, and that’s all that matters. The more often this film is in the air, the more often it becomes a buoyant success.

A/V

Disney continues to do right by Hayao Miyazaki with its audio and video transfers of his films, with Kiki’s Delivery Service as the latest proof. The pastoral colors of Kiki’s home, all the way to the mix of European and Asian architecture in the big city where she trains as a witch, have been captured beautifully on the Blu-ray, with few hints of oversmoothing. (There is a palpable difference between how this movie looks on Blu-ray versus how The Wind Rises looks, likely due to the latter film having more digital elements present.) The audio transfer is equally stellar, making this movie feel new just over 25 years after its initial release.

Extras

As is usually the case with Disney’s catalog Blu-ray releases, there’s pretty much nothing in terms of supplements here. If you own the 2010 DVD, then all but one of the bonus features won’t be new to you. There’s a 3-minute video titled “Ursula’s Painting,” revealing that Miyazaki and his team were inspired by a group painting made by a handicapped school in Japan, but aside from the 45 seconds of introduction, the video itself is presented in standard-definition format. Thankfully, the original storyboards, paired with the soundtrack, are included on the Blu-ray and look quite impressive on their own. But there’s very little depth to the extras here.

Overall

One of the lighter and sweeter Studio Ghibli films, Kiki’s Delivery Service is charming enough (and becomes fairly dark in its third act) to avoid seeming too lightweight for consideration. Disney’s Blu-ray release sports a fine visual transfer of one of Studio Ghibli’s first features without appearing smoothed out, too.