My most frustrating movie of the week, not because of the movie itself, but because I was exhausted on the day I tried to watch it, and fell asleep 30 minutes in both times. It took me three tries to get all the way through. That’s nothing against the movie itself, it’s just showing that I should probably make better sleeping habits so that I don’t fall asleep in the middle of one of my last Miyazaki movies twice. The movie itself was good, not one of my favorite Ghibli movies at all, but very charming. It’s a nice, cute slice of a young witch’s life. Kiki is an interesting, well drawn and complex character. She’s a preteen girl that legitimately acts like a preteen girl, which you don’t see in films often. Her actions are confusing at times, but they make so much sense. The story is more character driven than most other things in Miyazaki’s oeuvre. Which is really saying something, because all of his stories are character studies. But here, the character’s goals are less clear, I mean, in Spirited Away Chihiro wants her parents back, in Howl’s Moving Castle Sophie wants to be young again, in Kiki’s Delivery Service we just kind of watch Kiki live her life. Not everything I love in Miyazaki’s films has to do with his stories, but I think it does contribute, because I was less interested in this one. It still had all the other pieces, but there were a few things missing that kept this from being one of Miyazaki’s greats. It’s just a cute, fun family film that happens to be very good.