Kiki’s Delivery Service

Megan Gretz
Conn-Area Catholic School
Grade 6
Kiki's Delivery Service
Kiki is a young witch who has recently turned thirteen years old. This marks an important period in her training; she must leave home for one year and live in a new town where she can practice her witch's skills.
After flying off on her broom with her cat, Jiji, Kiki finds a large town by the sea. She sets down thinking this will be a great place to start her new life, but the townsfolk aren't as warm and welcoming as the people in her hometown. This doesn't discourage Kiki, who sets of looking for a place to stay. Kiki wanders around town until she meets Osono, the owner of the local bakery. When Kiki helps Osono return a lost item to a customer, Osono suggests that she starts a delivery service and even offers Kiki a place to stay. Kiki thinks this is a great idea, as she enjoys flying on her broom.
Kiki begins delivering packages for Osono and other customers while working in the bakery on her off time. A local boy, Tombo, who has a passion for anything that flies, takes a liking to Kiki, and they eventually start a friendship. In fact, Kiki seems to touch the hearts of everyone she meets and soon begins to count her delivery customers as her friends.
As time goes on, the strains of running her own business and being away from home begin to take a toll on Kiki. On morning, she wakes to find that she has lost her witch's powers, which means that she can no longer fly or understand her best friend, Jiji. Kiki must discover what inspires her to get her powers back, and when a friend is in trouble, she does just that. By the end, Kiki has developed her self confidence and embraces the qualities that make her unique.
I think middle level students would enjoy this film. Kiki is around their own age and deals with problems that these students can relate to. There are many humorous moments that students would enjoy, as well.
A good activity to go along with this film could be a business plan designed by students for a business they would like to run. They could decide what goods or services they would offer and create a pricing chart. They could research information about local business and use this to help them create a business plan. Then, students could create a brochure describing what their business would be like.
Another learning activity for students would be to research famous women. In the film, most of the main characters are females who are strong, independent, and entrepreneurial. Students could research the lives of famous women such as Sandra Day O'Connor, Malala Yousafzai, Maria Tallchief, Grace Hopper, Mae C. Jemison, Indira Gandhi, or Frida Kahlo.

Movie Review: Kiki’s Delivery Service
Tisa Schuit, K-5 Reading, Winchester Thurston
Instructional Grades: K-6
Kiki and her best pal, Gigi the cat, leave home to begin her training as a witch. She finds work in a bakery and soon becomes a delivery person. Because Kiki is a witch, she uses her broom to deliver the goods. She is reliable, punctual and friendly and soon expands her delivery service beyond baked goods to include the various needs of the villagers. She finds herself being quite successful until one day she realizes she can no longer fly. The movie ends happily when Kiki finds her inspiration, regains her witch powers, and flies again.
The movie can be used to help teach character education. Many common themes that involve friendship are present and can be used to show first hand examples of the ins and outs of being friends. Elements such as jealously, insecurity self-doubt are present in this engaging, delightful movie. Other character traits found are perseverance, empathy, and loyalty.
In addition, disk II contains the storyboards for the movie. These are very cool and extremely interesting! The story boards are black and white pencil sketches. This could be useful in teaching the nuts and bolts of animation which is amazing in this movie. It really gives you and appreciation for animation and animated movie making.

Ciminy St.Clair
Gifted K-4
Norwin School District- Sheridan Terrace Elementary
A Movie Review- Kiki’s Delivery Service
Appropriate Grades K-4
Kiki was a young witch who journeyed into the ups and downs of real life. The movie explored the concept of self-confidence. The movie begins with a custom of 13 year old witches leaving home for one year to training journey. Her take off was as bumpy as her journey. Opening music is a good summary. The song discusses how she is on her own, going to make her own ways, not sure of here to land, and her heart will lead her home. Kiki is caught in a rain storm and comes upon a train to rest. She arrives in an island town. Her training journey is meant to find her “calling” in life. She finds a baby without its pacifier. She aids a bakery own on her broom to deliver the pacifier back to the client. The bakery owner offers Kiki a delivery job. During her first delivery, she loses the present on her way. Kiki’s only companion on the trip pretends to be the lost present while Kiki looks for the animal in the dark forest night. She come upon a cottage where she finds the lost animal and meets a new friend. Kiki continues to make deliveries. One delivery takes all day. She does not return until late due to the massive rains. From the rain, she gets sick. Her boss sends her to a boy’s house where she finds a mysterious boy. He takes her for a bike ride. They wreck and laugh about their crash. He meets his friends and Kiki returns home to sulk. All of a sudden, Kiki learns she has lost her powers. Her friend from the forest comes to visit. Kiki’s friend invites her to come back to her cabin where she finds a beautiful painting. Kiki is learning how to fly again. She learns she needs to find out what inspires her. She finds inspiration to fly when her boy friend gets trapped on a blimp. She saves the day by using her magical broom and learns what inspires her.
The second disk displays how the movie was made and the animation behind the movie.
I would recommend the book to teach younger children, grades K-4, how to believe in themselves and how life is an exploration. Another avenue this movie could be use for is bullying. I would also use the songs within the movie. The words and topics are inspiring and the students could write their own songs to learn about summarization. Finally, I would use the movie to teach about animation. The movie is produced by Walt Disney Home Entertainment and explains in detail the amount of work and detail animated movies take. The movie could be utilized grades 1-4 as a teaching tool.