Kiki’s Delivery Service: Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki's Kiki's Delivery Service is a film that I earnestly wish every little girl could see. Here is a film about growing up and the need that every young woman feels to get out on her own, start her own life, and carve out a place for herself in the world. It alternatively funny and tragic, exciting and paced. It grapples with such devastating problems as depression, the inevitable loss that everyone feels when they finally start to grow up and have to say goodbye to the world (and friends) of their childhood, and personal independence. There are times when Kiki is lost and doesn't know what to do, occasionally spurning the attentions of genuinely well-intentioned peers for seemingly arbitrary reasons. But therein lies the beauty and truth of Kiki's Delivery Service: growing up doesn't make much sense in the first place. My only problem with the film is that the ending sequence with Kiki saving her friend from falling from the blimp seemed like a cheap cop-out ending intended to solve all of her complex problems in one fell swoop (pun maybe intended). Little girls won't be given a similar magical opportunity to hand-wave all of their emotional problem away. So why should Kiki? And yes, I know...I know...the ending is symbolic and argues that love and the friendship of others is the key to finding one's way in life. But did we really need a gigantic action scene to drive that point home? Oh well...at the very least it didn't hurt the film.

8/10