Kiki's Delivery Service (1989)

Possibly still my favourite Ghibli release to date, this gorgeous feature follows 13-year-old Kiki as she moves to a seaside town with her talking cat, Jiji, to spend a year alone, in accordance with her village's tradition for witches in training. After learning to control her broomstick, Kiki sets up a flying courier service and soon becomes a fixture in the community, and what really appeals about the film is that it's simply a genuinely happy and uplifting movie without any sort of real peril. This certainly isn't always the case with Ghibli as we know, but in the context of Kiki's Delivery Service you're invited to sit back and enjoy the sumptuous visuals whilst being in the company of truly lovely people. My 2 year old enjoyed it immensely (apart from not being able to read the subtitles-obviously I wasn't going to dub it) and the visual representation of what, to me, looked like an old European town is absolutely stunning. A real treat, and although there was never any need for a sequel whatsoever, sometimes you feel like another film in the company of these people wouldn't go amiss. A real treat. 8.2/10