One of Hayao Miyazai’s most beloved films, “Kiki’s Delivery service” is set to be released as a live action film in March of 2014.
The original animated version was released in Japan in 1989, and then dubbed and released in the US by Disney in 1997.
It is, simply put, the story of a young witch named Kiki who ventures away from home to spend a year away from home and find her vocation as witch with her best friend, a black cat named Jiji.
The Disney dubbed version features some well known actors including the late, great Phil Hartman as Jiji the cat, Kirsten Dunst as Kiki, and comedian Janeane Garofalo as Ursula a painter who befriends Kiki.
16 year old Fuka Koshiba won the role of Kiki. Kiki’s mother and father will be played by veterans Rie Miyazawa and Michitaka Tsutsui. Machiko Ono will play the bakery owner, and Ryohei Hirota as Tombo.
The first poster released also shows a shot of Jiji her cat and best friend.
We have yet to see anything more than a teaser trailer that just shows a view of flying over a forest ending with the still shot from the poster above, but there is a web site up at: http://www.majotaku.jp/
The film also has a twitter account at: https://twitter.com/majotakumovie