Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's Delivery Service (魔女の宅急便, Majo no Takkyūbin?, translated "Witch's Delivery Service") is a 1989 Japanese animated fantasy film produced, written, and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was the fourth theatrically released Studio Ghibli film.

The film won the Animage Anime Grand Prix prize in 1989. Kiki's Delivery Service is loosely based on Eiko Kadono's novel of the same name, which is the first in a series published by Fukuinkan Shoten in 1985.

According to Miyazaki, the movie touches on the gulf that exists between independence and reliance in Japanese teenage girls. Going far beyond coming of age themes, the work deals with the nature of creativity and talent, and the central difficulty every person faces in becoming themselves, whether through luck, hard work or confidence: the inner film explores the same questions as the later Whisper of the Heart.

It was the first Studio Ghibli movie released under the Disney/Studio Ghibli partnership; Disney recorded an English dub in 1997, which premiered theatrically in the United States at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 23, 1998. It was released on home video in the U.S. on September 1, 1998.