Kiki's Delivery Service

From 1989 comes Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service, a sweet, largely uncomplicated film about a young witch who starts her own delivery service--why not? She can fly on a broomstick, which sure beats traffic.

In the scheme of Miyazaki's films that I've seen so far, Kiki's is for small children, as the conflict is minimal, though there is some peril at the end regarding a blimp on the loose. What strikes me as interesting about it is that Kiki does not need to hide her witchiness. She simply announces she is a witch, and everyone is fine with that. Western attitudes, perhaps affected by hundreds of years of fear of witchcraft (whatever that may mean) may have warped our view of them. Even in comic situations, like Bewitched or Bell, Book, and Candle, the witch has to keep her identity on the down low.

The English-language voice cast, as always, is star-studded, with Kirsten Dunst as Kiki, Phil Hartman as her wisecracking cat, Debbie Reynolds as a kind older lady, and Janeane Garofalo, an artist who lives in the woods and gives Kiki some life lessons about how to use her power, and how sometimes it comes and goes.

All in all, a nice film, a little dull for adult audiences.