Kiki's Delivery Service

Kiki's Delivery Service
Details
Country	United States
Language	English
Recording studio	Screenmusic Studios
Channels	Syndication SBS Disney Channel (Southeast Asia) Disney Channel (United States) Toon Disney Film4 ABC SBS World Movies
Services	Netflix Max
Release	May 23, 1998 (Seattle International Film Festival) September 1, 1998 (VHS) November 10, 2003 (VHS)

Kiki's Delivery Service is one of two English dubs of 魔女の宅急便. This dub was recorded in 1997 and it premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 23, 1998 followed by a release on VHS on September 1 of that year.

Cast

Character		Actor
	Kiki	Kirsten Dunst
	Jiji	Phil Hartman
	Osono	Tress MacNeille
	Koppori Tombo	Matthew Lawrence
	Fukuo	John Hostetter
Dirigible Captain
	Ursula	Janeane Garofalo
	Kokiri	Kath Soucie
	Okino	Jeff Bennett
Street Sweeper
	Madam	Debbie Reynolds
	Barsa Bertha	Edie McClurg
	Miss Dora	Fay Dewitt
	Senior Witch	Debi Derryberry
	Madame’s Granddaughter	Sherry Lynn
	Ket	Pamela Adlon
	Maki	Julia Fletcher
	Ket's Mother
	Ket's Father	John DeMita
	Radio announcer	Corey Burton
	Policeman	Matthew Kermit Miller
Receptionist
Ursula's Crows		Scott Menville
Singer		June Angela
Additional voices		June Angela
Eddie Frierson
Susan Hickman
Sherry Lynn

Technical staff
Director		Jack Fletcher
Translators		Jack Fletcher
John Semper
ADR engineers		Ernie Sheesley
James Twomey
ADR consultant		Miyoko Miura
ADR editor		Ernie Sheesley
Music arrangement		Paul Chihara
Music editor Sound effects editor		Bill Komar
Production assistants		Chris Brady
David Beron
Laurie Bean
Lydia Quidilla
Mark Caballero
Recording and sound engineers		Dean Zupancic
Terry Porter
Sound effects editor		Bill Komar
Distributors		Madman Entertainment
Optimum Releasing
GKIDS Shout! Factory (2017)
Licensed by		Buena Vista Home Entertainment / Disney GKIDS (2017)
StudioCanal
Post Production Facility		The Bakery Recording Studios
Buena Vista Sound Studios
Screenmusic Studios

Music

Due to possible licensing issues between Disney and Capitol-EMI, the US branch of the EMI group regarding the use of two songs performed by Yumi Arai, both the opening and ending songs were changed in the original VHS and 2003 DVD releases. The original songs were restored in the 2010 DVD release alongside several minor changes, including the film's full score being restored. These songs would also be used for most of the international versions, that were produced for Disney/BVHE.

Song		Singer(s)
Soaring		Sydney Forest
I'm Gonna Fly		Sydney Forest

Notes

• This dub is the final role of comedian Phil Hartman before being murdered on May 28, 1998. The dub premiered only 5 days before his death; later releases are dedicated to his memory.
• The depiction of the cat, Jiji, changed significantly in this dub. In Japanese culture, cats are usually depicted with feminine voices, whereas in American culture their voices are more gender-specific.
  • A number of Hartman's lines exist where Jiji simply says nothing in the original. Jiji's personality is notably different between the two versions, showing a more cynical and sarcastic attitude in this dub as opposed to cautious and conscientious in the original Japanese. Later releases by Disney remove these ad-libs so as to be closer to the original Japanese version.
    • In the later version, however, a couple of Kiki's dialogue sounds distorted, as if she were speaking into a fan. This was likely due to the vocals being artificially ripped from the original 1998 version to be added to the original BGM, as the master to the dub couldn't have been available.
• In the original Japanese script, Kiki loses her ability to communicate with Jiji permanently, but this dub adds a line that implies that she is once again able to understand him at the end of the film. Miyazaki has said that Jiji is the immature side of Kiki, and this implies that Kiki, by the end of the original Japanese version, has matured beyond talking to her cat.
• More minor changes in this dub to appeal to the different teenage habits of the day include Kiki drinking hot chocolate instead of coffee and referring to "cute boys" instead of to "the disco".
• This dub's script is largely borrowed from the Quality Sound Studios dub, with many changes of its own. Most releases however use said dub's script for the subtitles.
• An English-language subtitled version of the film over the original Japanese version was released on VHS in the United States and Canada by Buena Vista Home Entertainment on September 29, 1998.
• This dub was the first Studio Ghibli film released under the partnership between The Walt Disney Company and Studio Ghibli.
  • To date, this is also the oldest dub still officially in use, following Princess Mononoke.
• For reasons unknown, the original 1998 version is used on Netflix outside of the United States and Japan, rather than the 2010 edit.

Gallery

VHS/TV

Dubbing credits

VHS/TV

DVD/Blu-ray

This slide only appears on the 2003 DVD, and is absent from the VHS and following DVD releases.

Netflix

References

v - e - d Dubs Albanian • Arabic • Cantonese (EDKO Film • Intercontinental Video Ltd) • Catalan • Czech • Danish • Dutch (VHS • Wim Pel Productions) • English (Quality Sound Studios • Studiopolis) • Finnish • French • German • Hakka • Hindi • Hungarian • Indonesian (Disney Channel • Netflix) • Italian (Cast Doppiaggio S.r.l. • Technicolor SPA) • Korean • Kurdish • Malay (Disney Channel • SDI Media Group) • Mandarin (China • Taiwan) • Norwegian • Persian • Polish • Brazilian Portuguese (Double Sound • Vox Mundi, Discovery Kids • Vox Mundi, Netflix) • European Portuguese • Russian (Reanimedia • Sonotek) • Latin American Spanish (DAT Doblaje Audio Traducción • Estudio Tokio • New Art Dub) • European Spanish (Aurum • BVHE) • Swedish • Thai (Charasakorn Dubbing Team • Disney Channel) • Turkish • Uyghur • Vietnamese Voice-overs Armenian • Belarusian • Bulgarian • Estonian • Georgian • Lithuanian • Polish • Russian (Gavrilov • Glanz • Kinomania • one-voiced • Serbin) • Ukrainian • Uzbek • Vietnamese Songs Opening song • Ending song