Cast _* Interesting Facts _* Production Details _* Main Source for this Page: Nausicaa.Net

Original Title: Majo no Takkyuubin

Directed by: Hayao Miyazaki
Written by: Eiko Kadono & Hayao Miyazaki, Jack Fletcher (U.S. version)
Music by: Joe Hisaishi, Sydney Forest (U.S.)

Production Period: April 1, 1988 - July 17, 1989
Released on: July 29, 1989 (Japan theatrical release); September 1, 1998 (U.S. video premiere)
Running Time: 103 minutes

Budget: ¥800 million (initial plan)
Box-Office: 2,640,619 admissions and ¥2.17 billion in film rental
 

CAST
 
 

Kiki... Kirsten Dunst (Interview With A Vampire)
Ursula... Janeane Garofalo (The Truth About Cats and Dogs)
Jiji... Phil Hartman (Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons)
Tombo... Matthew Lawrence (Mrs. Doubtfire, brother of Joey Lawrence)
Madame (nice old lady)... Debbie Reynolds (Singing In The Rain)
 
 

INTERESTING FACTS

  In the Japanese version, Minami Takayama did the voice of Kiki. Amazingly, she also did the voice of Ursula. Ursula is a grown-up Kiki, who now knows her way and is a bit more sure of herself. Takayama Minami also did the voice of Kousaka Sensei, the health room teacher at Shizuku's school in "Mimi".

  The English version of Kiki's Delivery Service was dedicated to Phil Hartman (1948-1998) who died tragically shortly after wrapping up his voice-over work.  On May 28, 1998, he was shot to death while asleep in his bed by his wife, Brynn. She then killed herself shortly after the police arrived at their Encino home.

In the scene in Kiki's bedroom where she says good-bye to her father, there is a small toy house in her bookshelf. Mei and Chibi-totoro are painted into the windows. Also, there is a stuffed animal that looks somewhat like Totoro on her bed. In the scene where Kiki was almost hit by a bus when she first came to Koriko, "Studio Ghibli" is written on the side of the bus. The "Ghibli bus" also passes behind Kiki while she is questioned by a policeman. In the scene at the end where the street-sweeper is pointing at the TV and saying "that's my broom she used", Miyazaki is in the upper-right corner of the picture looking on.

  The denouement scenes of the film play out with the credits rolling ending with Kiki's parents reading a letter from her after the credits finish.

  In the English translation by Disney, there is a line added at the end of the film that suggests that Jiji might be able to speak to Kiki again after losing that ability in the film.

Kiki's town, Koriko, is "a mishmash of various locales, like Napoli, Lisbon, Stockholm, Paris, and even San Francisco. Therefore, one side is like the shores of the Mediterranean sea, but another side seems to border on the Baltic sea." Miyazaki and his main staff visited Visby on the Swedish island of Gotland, and they also visited Stockholm. They shot 80 rolls of film in Stockholm and Visby, gathering location images as inspiration for the scenes in Koriko. For the most part, Koriko is composed of images of Stockholm. A side street in Stockholm's old city, Gamla Stan, is one model.  Sweden was the first foreign country Miyazaki ever visited. It was for the Pippi Longstockings project, back in the 1970s. The trip didn't achieve its purpose (getting permission from the author of "Pippi"), but Visby apparently left a strong impression  on him, so he later used its images in Kiki.

  In the Japanese version, the opening song, "Rouge no Dengon (Message in Rouge)" and the ending song, "Yasashisa ni Tsutsumareta Nara (If I've Been Enveloped by Tenderness)" are actually old songs from the 70s, written and sung by Yumi Matsutoya. Yuming, as she is usually called, has been one of the most popular female singer/songwriters in Japan.  In the Disney dub, the opening song "Soaring" and the ending song "I'm Gonna Fly" are written and performed by Sydney Forest.
 
 

PRODUCTION DETAILS

Miyazaki was not supposed to direct Kiki. At first, Miyazaki was going to just produce the movie, since it was supposed to be a project for Ghibli's younger staff members. However, Miyazaki didn't like the script a young scriptwriter wrote, so he wrote it himself (at first, he thought about using a pen-name, "Oaza Takesato", which can be read "O Ghibli") . Then, the young director got intimidated, so Miyazaki ended up directing it himself.

The film is based on a children's book, "Majo no Takkyuubin", by Eiko Kadano. Ms. Kadono was not particularly happy with the changes Miyazaki made. The book is episodic, consisting of small stories about people and incidents Kiki encounters while delivering things. Nothing really bad or dramatic happens to Kiki. She never loses her powers, and there is no blimp accident in the book. Miyazaki made these changes since he needed a story that would hold up a film, and he wanted to tell a story about the process of growing up. Miyazaki writes, "As movies always create a more realistic feeling, Kiki will suffer stronger setbacks and loneliness than in the original." Only after overcoming such setbacks and loneliness could she grow up."  It is said that Ms. Kadono was so unhappy with these changes that the project was almost scrapped at the screenplay stage. Miyazaki and Suzuki, the producer of Ghibli, went to Ms. Kadono's house, then invited her to the studio, and finally persuaded her to give her consent to the movie.

You might notice that there are bells put on the trees near Kiki's home: it was the only wish of Ms. Kadono, that these bells be rung when Kiki leaves her hometown.  In the book, it was explained that Kiki's mom put bells on the top of every tall tree in town. The reason for this was that Kiki would sometimes get lost in thought and start to lose altitude without noticing. The bells went up after she had a head-on collision with a telephone pole, totalling her broom and bruising herself.

The film's original title, Majo no takkyubin, literally means "Witch's Delivery Service". "Takkyuubin" is actually a word created by Yamato Unyu (Yamato Transport, Co., Ltd.) when they started their new service, door-to-door home delivery. Yamato uses black cats (a mother cat carrying a kitten in her mouth) as its trademark, and has a catch phrase, "Black Cat Yamato's Takkyuubin". Yamato sponsored the movie, though there was a controversy inside the company at first. Ms. Kadono, the author of the original book, used the word "Takkyuubin", without permission from Yamato, and they were unhappy about it. However, people loved the movie, and it helped Yamato's company image, so everybody was happy in the end.