Take a beloved children’s classic, one that has already received a near-universally acclaimed animated adaptation, and put it in the hands of a director exclusively known for supernatural horror. It is, at the very least, a bold approach to putting together a motion picture, and it is one taken by Japanese studio Kadokawa ten years ago when they hired Takashi Shimizu to helm their live-action feature Kiki’s Delivery Service.

Mention Kiki’s and the mind turns understandably to Hayao Miyazaki’s delightful 1989 animated film. It is the film that literally saved Miyazaki’s company, which struggled after the commercial failure of My Neighbor Totoro and Grave of the Fireflies in cinemas. What many Studio Ghibli fans might not realise, however, is that Miyazaki’s film was an adaptation of a hugely successful children’s novel: Witch’s Express Home Delivery, by Eiko Kadono. That book, which was published in 1985, was ultimately popular enough for Kadono to write eight sequels – the most recent in 2022.

Given the overwhelming prominence of Miyazaki’s animated adaptation on Japan’s pop culture landscape, it actually seemed quite a provocative move by Kadokawa Films to produce a new live-action film. It immediately suffered comparisons with the earlier movie, and given the extraordinary quality of that earlier work it was a foregone that the new film was going to lose. It is clear that Shimizu’s version failed to carve its own legacy: there was  no sequel, a very limited global release, and quite simply nobody talks about it today.

To a large extent that is a shame, because the live-action Kiki’s Delivery Service is a breezy, broadly entertaining children’s fantasy with a lot to recommend it. It is far from perfect, but it does deserve a better chance than a lot of online critics appeared to give it at the time.

Kiki’s Delivery Service follows the adventures of a 13 year-old witch-in-training named Kiki (Fuka Koshiba), who as part of her apprenticeship must spend a year on her own in a town with no other witches. She chooses to work as a delivery service, using her flying broomstick to travel quickly across a small chain of islands. While trying to settle in, she faces unexpected difficulties and local prejudice against witchcraft.

Shimizu really was an odd choice of director. He remains best known for kicking off the lucrative Ju-on/Grudge franchise, including directing both the original theatrical film and its American remake. He works with a considerably different tone and colour palette here. It is no surprise to find this is the most colourful and upbeat film he has ever directed. With all due respect his treatment of a family-focused adventure does not quite land – there is an awkward quality he never fully shakes off – but for a change in style and tone it remains a pretty impressive achievement. It is a shame Shimizu never emerged from the horror genre again. His more recent Village trilogy (2019-22) brought him renewed success, but it would be wonderful to see him flex these fantasy muscles again.

Fuka Koshiba makes a bright and likeable impact as Kiki, although she does seem a little too old to be playing the 13 year-old witch-in-training. It’s a broad performance in a film filled with similarly big, exaggerated ones, and in the context of the film it works remarkably well. This is her feature film debut, which makes her performance here even more impressive. Slightly less impressive is Ryohei Hirota as Tombo, a young mechanic with an aspiration to build his own aeroplane. He’s oddly surly and occasionally actively belligerent, but this does seem to be more a problem with the screenplay than the actor. There is a nice chemistry between the two characters by the end, but it is a long time coming and could have been pulled together a little earlier.

The storyline is an episodic affair, which matches its source material: Shimizu and Satoko Okudera’s screenplay draws from the first two of Kadono’s novels, leading to a slightly silly climax involving transporting a sick baby hippopotamus by broomstick. It hits some effective emotional beats, but I strongly suspect adult and teenage audiences will find the sequence too twee to accept. Other parts of the film are much more effective.

The story also strains the production budget a little too much. Scenes of Kiki flying on her broomstick are generally effective, but occasionally look a little fake and outdated. The computer-generated effects used to create the sick hippopotamus and Kiki’s talking cat Jiji are fairly awkward and unconvincing. It’s in the representation of Jiji that this live-action film will suffer the worst comparisons to Miyazaki’s anime. In that version the character was an absolute highlight in both the original and Walt Disney Pictures dubs. Here, voiced by anime performer Minako Kotobuki, Jiji is rather underwhelming. It also feels as if budget considerations sideline the character for much of the film.

There is a lot to criticise here, but it also cannot be denied that there is a bright, optimistic energy to Kiki’s Delivery Service. Koshiba pulls the film along with enthusiasm and warmth, and despite the flaws the character’s core appeal shines brightly. It is enjoyable all-ages entertainment and I cannot deny enjoying it a great deal; sometimes justifiably and sometimes against my better judgement. If one moves past Miyazaki’s shadow, and takes Shimizu’s version on its own merits, then Kiki’s Delivery Services is an uneven but joyful delight.