IMDb plot summary: 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.
Directed by Hayao Miyazaki. Starring Kirsten Dunst, Tress MacNeille, Phil Hartman, and Matthew Lawrence (in English dubbed version).
(Some spoilers ahead about a third act plot point.)
This one lands somewhere in the middle tier of Miyazaki films. It doesn't have quite the charm of My Neighbor Totoro or the wild imagination of Spirited Away, but it's still a sweet, entertaining kids' movie. Kiki is an easy character to like, and the wise-cracking sidekick that is her cat doesn't get annoying or overused like that arcehtype so often is in American animation.
I suppose my main complaint with this movie is that the story structure is a little odd. There's a sudden turn of events about 2/3 of the way through when Kiki finds she's losing her witch powers. While it seems like that's going to be a major emotional theme in the ending, it ends up getting resolved abruptly without really telling us *why* her powers come back out of nowhere. Did she just wish hard enough? Was it because she had to save someone's life? The movie doesn't really tell us, it just resolves suddenly (VERY suddenly -- like, the climax happens and the movie is immediately over, thriller-style). This left me feeling emotionally unresolved, especially after the sort of leisurely feel of the first hour.
It's not a bad movie, though. It's not Miyazaki's best, but I did find it sweet and enjoyed it.
3 stars.
Flickchart: #866 out of 2081, below Serendipity and above Lord of War.
Buy the DVD on Amazon.
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