Movies - Kiki's Delivery Service

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	Movies - Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's Delivery Service (, Witch's Delivery Service ) is an anime feature film, produced by Hayao Miyazaki in 1989.

The movie was based on Eiko Kadono's original story, Majo no Takkyubin (Published by Fukuinkan Shoten).

This animation depicts the gulf that exists between independence and self-reliance in the hopes and spirit of common Japanese teenage girls.

Plot

Kiki is a 13 year-old witch in training. By tradition, it is time for Kiki to leave her home to spend a year alone in a new town to establish herself as a full witch. Kiki sets herself on her mother's broom with her closest companion, Jiji, a loquacious black cat. She flies off to a new life.

Kiki settles in the beautiful (fictional) seaside island city of Korico, and after initially finding it difficult to adjust to the pace of life, starts a delivery service that takes advantage of her ability to fly. Kiki experiences several setbacks such as slow business, misplaced merchandise, rude customers and illness. She also has to deal with her loneliness, worries, and homesickness.

One day, she even loses her magic. Eventually Kiki overcomes these obstacles with the help of her newfound friends, most notably a young artist who gives some good advice about the kind of inspiration she needs to regain her magic. In a moment of crisis, she finds that inspiration to regain her flying ability to rescue a boy she has befriended when he is involved in a dirigible accident - thanks largely to her independence, self-reliance, and with encouragement and help from others.

Although the setting for the movie is never explicitly established, Studio Ghibli promotional material claims that it is based heavily on Stockholm, Sweden, and that parts of the architecture owe a debt to Ireland, Paris, San Francisco and Tokyo's Ginza district.

Differences Between the English and Japanese Versions

Although the plot and much of the script was left intact, Disney's English dub of Kiki's Delivery Service contains some changes. Phil Hartman's nasal, sarcastic-sounding Jiji differed significantly from the cute performance of the original Japanese voice actress. There were also occasional additions and embellishments to the musical score overlaying some of the previously silent sequences. Most of the extra pieces of music (provided by Paul Chihara) ranged from soft piano music to a string-plucked reindition of Edvard Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King. In addition, the replacement of the original opening and ending theme songs. The new songs, "Soaring" and "I'm Gonna Fly" were written and performed by Sydney Forest.

All changes were approved by Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.

Trivia

"Kiki" is the nickname of actress Kirsten Dunst
, who voiced the character in the 1998 English dub. The English dub was also Phil Hartman's last voice acting performance before he was murdered.
This was the first release under the Disney/Studio Ghibli deal; the dub was recorded in 1997, and released directly to video on September 1 1998. The video release proved popular, selling over a million copies. A few weeks later, Disney released a subtitled VHS of the movie, complete with the original Japanese soundtrack and subtitles. The region 1 DVD was released on April 15 2003, alongside Spirited Away
and Castle in the Sky
.
The word takyuubin (宅急便, literally home-fast-mail) in the Japanese title is a trademark of Yamato Un'yu Kabushikigaisha (ヤマト運輸株式会社, Yamato Transport co.), though is used today as the synonym for takuhaibin (宅配便, literally home-delivery-mail). The company, not only permited the use of the trademark, but also sponsored the film.
The crows featured in this movie seem to be Collared Crows (Corvus torquatus), which live in China.

Credits

Cast

The movie stars the following actors (listed in English version/Japanese version format):

Kirsten Dunst
/Minami Takayama
: Kiki
Janeane Garofalo
/Minami Takayama
: Ursula
Phil Hartman
/Rei Sakuma
: Jiji
Matthew Lawrence
/Kappei Yamaguchi
: Tombo
Tress MacNeille
/Keiko Toda
: Osono
Debbie Reynolds
/Haruko Kato: Madame
Edie McClurg
/Hiroko Seki: Barsa
Kath Soucie
/Mieko Nobuzawa: Kiki's Mother (Kokiri)
Jeff Bennett
/Kouichi Miura: Kiki's Father (Okino)

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