Every Studio Ghibli Movie Ranked From Worst To Best

Yet another film punctuated by Miyazaki's fascination with flight, Kiki's Delivery Service is based on a children's novel by Eiko Kadono, and as such boasts a narrative simplicity and purity that has made it universally appealing to audiences of all ages. Sure. it's lightweight next to some of the director's more fantastical epics, but to dismiss it on weight alone would be to do it a disservice.

Again, the message of finding your own way is central, as Kiki learns self-reliance and self-awareness while casting off her childish past. It's a picture of an ideal growing period that most of the rest of the studio's work seems to suggest will only lead to malcontent without preservation.

Of course, it's a more low key affair than My Neighbour Totoro, which preceded it, but there are few messages as strong or as grand as a young girl learning to believe in herself. It's the sort of thing that should become mandatory viewing for all children these days, even if it is less significant and less showy than his other works (it goes without saying that it's still beautiful, of course).