Yep, it's a kids movie, but it's a passable way to get kids into watch animation that doesn't follow the regular formula from a studio lead by a giant rat. Don't get me wrong, I like Disney, but it's nice to have a movie where the characters don't break out into song every couple of minutes. The cute animal is actually more sarcastic than anything (with the late Phil Hartman doing Jiji's voice in the American version).

The story revolved around Kiki, a witch in training. As part of her training she has to go live on her own for a year. She's got to be a pretty poor with, since all she can do is fly on a broom, and unreliably at that. She moves to a new town, and starts up a delivery service, flying things around for people, and helping out. She befriends a boy named Tombo, who has a crush on her. After a bout with insecurity she loses her power, but gets them back after Tombo is hoisted into the air by a runaway blimp. It's up to Kiki to save the day.

Kiki was written by Hayao Miyazaki, famous for his many anime titles, including My Neighbor Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Laputa: Castle in the Sky, Nausica� of the Valley of Wind. My personal opinion is that it's actually one of his weaker efforts. Want to get your rugrat into anime? Try Totoro first. At least Kiki is easier to sit through than Sailor Moon.