It may look like any other UK cinema release trying to cash into nostalgia but this rerelease of the 1989 Studio Ghibli classic Kiki’s Delivery Service is a very important one in my eyes. This will be the first ever time this film has it’s UK release handled by Gkids who have been dealing with the American studio ghibli releases for the last few years and will be handled locally by Anime Limited who are owned by the same parent company Toho. This will mark the first time that a company that is an anime specialist will be dealing with a UK Ghibli releases. Why is this important? Well I must take you back to when a younger version of myself was first getting into anime.

The year is 2003. A younger version of myself, a young film school student, I would religiously watch Film 2003 with Jonathan Ross. At the time he was likely one of the biggest stars on UK TV . Film 2003 was this cool little movie review show on BBC one at lunch time on a Saturday Jonathan would take a look at all the new releases of that week and give his review. It was always fun to see him demolish a movie and would be quite savage sometimes. This was 2003 and well there was a lot rubbish out back then. Sometimes I would even think to myself why does he host this show he seem to hate most of the movie they put on front of him?

I remember the week Spirited Away got reviewed by Jonathan. I had only just got into anime and this was my first ever exposure to Studio Ghibli. There was an extended piece on Spirited Away that week hyping up the movie. This wasn’t unusual for the show as I had seen other big movies get this treatment only for Jonathan to just rip the movie apart. However, this piece was different when it came to the review and Jonathan started his review he was like a child who had tried ice cream for the first time praising every element of the movie. He was so excited, calling it the best movie he ever seen it was like: This is why I do this job to find movies like this. He told his viewers go and see this masterpiece and straight to my local cinema.

My local cinema in 2003

Only one issue : this is 2003 and anime back then was either only for children or some scaremongering article in a tabloid. Only 51 cinemas across the UK took the movie on and my local cinema wasn’t one of them. They would only take more main stream movies and sadly anime was a no go. Fine, I go to the cinema next town over the different chain but same as above no movie there, I didn’t have much money then or the confidence to take pubic transport to London to find a cinema showing Spirited Away so sadly it passed me by. But don’t worry I thought it would come on TV at some point — I was right. Sky Movies pick up the rights. One issue they show it once and at the same time as a Arsenal vs Newcastle game. In a world before Sky plus and a house where football is king there was no way I was seeing Spirited Away on Sky Movies. I do remember getting to see 10 minute of Spirited Away when I quickly turned over in the halftime break but yet again this movie and the world of Ghibli passed me by. It took a year or two when the BBC announced that be showing it as part of their Christmas line up. At last I got to see Miyazaki’s magnus opus! To finally step into the Studio Ghibli after all those years of waiting I was finally there and hoped everything Jonathan Ross had said was true.

This movie was truly next level I wanted to see more.

Sadly, local availability didn’t change straight away. I remember having to go into London to see Ponyo. I saw Up on Poppy Hill at an anime film festival at the BFI and having to trek back up to London for Arrietty. Around this time, Film4 would get the right to a lot of Studio Ghibli back catalogue and unlike Sky Movies gave them way more airtime, meaning I got to see some of the other movie I missed. Rebecca first got introduced to Studio Ghibli films around 2008 through one of Film 4’s Studio Ghibli seasons. These seasons didn’t just have the well known Ghibli classics (including Kiki’s Delivery Service) but some of the films that weren’t as well known like the Castle of Cagliostro.

By the time When Marnie Was There was hitting UK cinemas, more cinemas was showing Ghibli movie but alas my local cinema was not one of them, now I have swapped a long train trip for a way shorter bus trip but always felt sad that the work of studio ghibli was so hard to access for UK fans as I truly believe cinema is where you should experience ghibli It felt like nothing would ever change that ghibli at uk cinema would be hard access for general cinema goers?

Cut to the modern day and a new age for studio ghibli fans here in the UK is the 4k Remaster of the 1989 classic Kiki’s Delivery service now been handled by GKIDS and Anime Limited for the first time.

Directed by Oscar winning director Hayao Miyazaki and based on the 1985 book, Kiki’s Delivery Service by Eiko Kadono, the movie tells the story of a thirteen year witch called Kiki who is getting ready to leave home to find her own town. See takes off with her black cat Jiji she soon finds a lovely town called Koriko. Lucky for Kiki, no witches has been seen in Koriko for years meaning that she can settle in. She soon is taken on by the local bakery owner Osono and her her husband, Fukuo as long as she helps out in the bakery.

This lead to Kiki to open a delivery service named “Witch Delivery Service”. Soon Kiki gets her first job : to deliver a black cat plush to the neighbor’s nephew Ket. Things go as well as you would expect and now poor Jiji has to fill in for the plush, When Kiki fixes her mistake many shenanigans later and with a bit of help from Ursula, a local artist who helps Kiki and saves poor Jiji from the chaotic young boy. We see Kiki become a fixture of the town. A local boy called Tombo, who seems really keen on Kiki and her ability to fly. At first Kiki isn’t fond of Tombo but slowly starts warming to him over time. All is going well with the delivery service — she even gets an invite her to the aviation club after getting caught up with a delivery job and getting stuck in a rain storm. Kiki doesn’t make it to the aviation club because she fell ill. This leads Kiki into depression and she could longer uses her broomstick to fly or understand Jiji. This mean she can no longer make deliveries. She goes to visit Ursula in her wood cabin who gave her some great advice to help find herself again. When Kiki returns to town, the town is excited as an airship is visiting but after a huge gust of wind, the airship is blown away with poor Tombo holding on for dear life. Now is up to Kiki to find her courage to fly again and save Tombo.

Kiki’s Delivery Service is a great coming of age story but audience of all ages can get something from the movie. The portrayal of depression is well handled and the movie does a great job addressing it to younger movie goers without talking down to them. This is easily one of Studio Ghibli’s best movies and one of the best looking cel animated movies. Both the character work and the background looks like each frame is a painting you could frame in an art museum. Kiki’s Delivery Service never drags and each scene fells like it is the right length and is one of them rare cases that there is a Goldilocks effect — the movie is just right adding or taking away would make Kiki’s Delivery Service worse.

The English dub is top level as expected with an all star cast. A young Kirsten Dunst does an amazing job as the lead Kiki but the real treat is to hear the legendary Phil Hartman who Plays Jiji the cat in his one and only anime role. You may remember Phil Hartman as classic Simpsons characters such as super star Troy McClure, the ambulance chasing lawyer Lionel Hutz and smooth talking monorail salesman Lyle Lanley. Phil was taken from us way too soon and this was one of his last ever roles with the movie having been dedicated to him. He is the perfect fit for Jiji and is great to here in put in one last great performance. Fans will also be happy to hear this is the later version of the dub that put back in the original music and removed the added dialogue that was never needed. This is a great way to get younger viewers and people who may not be into subtitled versions watching but will be able to get the true Kiki’s Delivery Service experience.

This is the one part of the review I wish I could do a better job on. This version of Kiki’s Delivery Service is the 4k remaster. I sadly did not get to experience this on the big screen so I cant give full details but I did get to see the Princess Mononoke 4k remaster last year and it was a huge step up from the home experience. A cinema preview for press would of been great so I can get a full scale of the remaster, but every cloud does have a silver lining as I was able to play the 4k remaster up against the previously released version. The 4k remaster does have a lot more detail in the backgrounds and way better colours that brought more life back into every frame. This is good because there have been remasters which have removed details. This remaster is going to look amazing on the big screen and is a great way to experience Hayao Miyazaki’s true version.

So why is this 4k release of Kiki’s Delivery Service very important for UK cinema? This will be one of the first time that the classic Studio Ghibli movie will be available in a record number of UK cinemas and its all thanks to both GKIDS and Anime Limited working their hardest to get it into as many cinemas as possible. Even my local cinema that would not take Spirited Away will be showing a Studio Ghibli movie at last! A lot of the marketing has been aiming at families and this is great to think a new generation will be experiencing Studio Ghibli for the first time. Film students will be able to fully study the work of Miyazaki and general moviegoers will finally have way more easier access to these amazing movies. This is why this release of Kiki’s Delivery Service is very important for easy access to Studio Ghibli in UK cinemas at last.

Oh yes, Jonathan Ross if you are somehow reading I just want to say thank you for showing me (and many others) the wonderful world of Studio Ghibli.

Kiki’s delivery Service 4k remaster hits UK cinemas on the 28th of august. You can find out where your nearest cinema showing Kiki Delivery Service from GKIDS website : https://www.gkids.co.uk/tickets/

I would like to thanks Fetch publicity for sending over an early copy of Kiki Delivery Service for review and Rebecca Harrison for helping me edit this review.