“Kiki’s Delivery Service” is a wonderful little film from Hayao Miyazaki (“My Neighbour Totoro”, “Howl’s Moving Castle”). It certainly isn’t a particularly ambitious animated picture but it has a great deal of personality and a lot of heart.

Kiki is a witch and has just turned 13 so she leaves home with her talking pet cat to begin her witch training. She enters a busy city and ends up working in a bakery as well as starting a delivery service on the side. It’s a pleasant experience that feels genuinely refreshing as it doesn’t feature a villain or anything like that; this is just a charming little film about a witch girl and it’s great.

I was very fond of Kiki and you feel genuinely sad for her when she loses her powers. I’ve think the young girls in all of Miyazaki’s movies are very easy to like. The talking cat is rather amusing but it cannot compete with the Cat Bus from “My Neighbour Totoro”. The other characters in the film are all pretty decent but the focus of the film really is on Kiki as it’s her personal journey to becoming a witch with her own delivering business.

I’m sure young girls will love “Kiki’s Delivery Service” as much as many of the Disney films such as “Sleeping Beauty”, “The Little Mermaid” and “Alice In Wonderland” because this truly is a delightful experience. If, like me, you’re not a young girl, I think you will still be sucked in by the gentle nature and good fun of this film. We need more films, both animated and live-action, like “Kiki’s Delivery Service”. While this film is truly impressive, what is more impressive is that Miyazaki has done multiple films that no only equal this one but surpass it such as “Spirited Away” and “Princess Mononoke”.