A brief description
The story of a 13-year-old apprentice witch named Kiki. As part of her training, she must go out into the world for a year on her own. An adventure story we could all relate to, but by an extraordinary person, a witch who can fly who is accompanied by her talking cat. Upon finding a town to live in, she must find a specialty to earn her keep. Her specialty, package delivery by air using her witches' broom.
My impression
Miyazaki once described this movie as a simple story about "a 13-year-old girl who goes into town." But this is what I love about Miyazaki, he has created an entertaining story without evil villains, robots, and gratuitous violence. A story about a 13-year-old girl growing up, by striking out on her own, and learning, with a little difficulty, about how to make friends. Oh, and yes of course, she's a witch with a talking cat who flies on a broom! It took me a little while to realize that the people in this town were used to seeing witches, although "a witch hasn't been seen in this town for a while." I kept expecting the Bewitched reaction from these townsfolk. Set in a fictional European city the attention to European architecture and city-layout was one of many elements that made this movie enchanting, especially during aerial scenes via witches broom. Miyazaki's fascination with aviation is reflected in this movie with the appearance of an airship, and human a powered airplane, a common element in his movies.
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