Kiki's Delivery Service Film Analysis: Creativity in the Modern Age

Kiki's Delivery Service is for many the first taste of the Fantastical worlds that are imagined by Hayao Miyazaki it's no wonder Kiki's Delivery Service is an instant classic with its strong female protagonist beautiful environments and a slew of interesting characters hickey's delivery service is such an enticing film not only for the reasons already mentioned but also due to the message inherent in the story although struggling to regain the ability to fly on a broomstick isn't something we can relate to the underlying issues she deals with is relatable today I'm going to dissect creativity and how Kiki's Delivery Service contributes to the conversation before we start I want to point out that there have been great analysis videos examining creative burnout in Kiki's Delivery Service and I highly recommend checking them out well I think those are fantastic interpretations I want to look at creativity in a slightly different light in the age of the internet you don't have to look far to find creative people whether you're scrolling on Tick Tock or perusing on Instagram creativity isn't hard to find however what does it mean to be creative in this day and age we can find a plethora of examples of creative individuals from artists to musicians to entrepreneurs but why are they considered creative let's take a look at one set of criteria for creativity from the Third Edition of a handbook of Personality according to this text an idea can be considered creative once it has at least two things first the idea must be original when originality is discussed that's not to say that the idea must be completely unique as most ideas probably wouldn't be able to live up to this Criterion however when contrasted with other existing ideas the new idea must be relatively novel second that idea must display the ability to solve a solution to a significant problem or achieve an important goal when trying to bring this abstract concept down to earth creativity researchers have conceptualized the phenomenon of creativity in three distinct ways first creativity can be understood as a mental process which results in the creation of unique and adaptive ideas second creativity may be seen as a trait of a product this product could be a discovery invention poem painting composition or something of this nature lastly creativity is also thought of as a personality trait characterizing an individual this view of creativity depicts the concept as something that you either have or you don't have now that we've seen how researchers and scientists think about creativity let's take a look at how this is depicted in Kiki's Delivery Service here's a quick recap of the major plot points in the film in case you forgot Kiki is an aspiring young witch and sets off to find a new town where she can develop her magic and find her niche she ends up starting a delivery service based out of a bakery here she is able to hone her ability to fly and run a successful business eventually she loses her ability to fly along with her ability to communicate with her black cat Gigi with the help of a painter and the desire to save her friend tombow Kiki regains her ability to fly the major conflict in the movie surrounds the departure of Kiki's magic Kiki has two distinct abilities that we can consider magic that she isn't able to access during this conflict in the film first is her ability to fly and second is her ability to communicate with Gigi after falling ill from delivering a package in the rain Kiki goes to deliver a package to Tombo and chooses to walk instead of flying tombow unveils a flying machine that he's created and takes Kiki for a ride after they're able to get airborne the Flying Machine quickly fails in their scent tumbling down a hill tombow asked Kiki if her magic is what allowed them to fly and she's unsure and says anything is possible though we don't get a clear answer I think at this point in the film her powers are starting to dwindle down shortly before the delivery to Tombo keiki was able to talk with Gigi but he goes off with another cat and upon his return she's unable to understand him while Kiki is unsure if she used her magic to help tombow's invention fly I think we can assume that she was partly responsible for getting it off the ground so what's the deal with Kiki's Powers why isn't she able to talk with Gigi and fly anymore we could assume that she isn't able to fly because she doesn't enjoy flying anymore she tells tombow flying used to be fun until I started doing it for a living however this doesn't explain why she can't communicate with Gigi well I think Kiki's powers are tied to her creativity and her intentions when it comes to creativity the film is pretty straightforward with its portrayal of magic as a creative Endeavor this is personified by an artist that Kiki meets when trying to retrieve a stuffed animal that was dropped in the woods Kiki meets Ursula Kiki seeks advice from Ursula when she revisits her cabin later in the film after she's unable to use her magic anymore Ursula tells Kiki that painting and Magic seems similar and empathizes with keiki telling her she has creative ruts as well when Kiki asks Ursula how she gets her creative mojo back Ursula tells Kiki that she may be working too hard at trying to fly I think that Ursula is completely right but perhaps not in the way that she means to be throughout the film Kiki attempts to hone her skills and creativity through her delivery service looking at our previous definition of creativity Kiki meets both criteria originality as she is presumably the only person that can deliver packages via broomstick and she solves a problem she needs to get packages from point A to point B in the fastest possible way however in utilizing her magic and creativity according to this definition with her delivery service her creativity has become a commodity in doing so Kiki has engaged in what can be considered creative materialism this term is lifted from chogum trunkpa in his book cutting through spiritual materialism trunk put defines spiritual materialism as the process of trying to develop spirituality gone astray when we deceive ourselves into thinking we're developing spiritually when instead we are strengthening our egocentricity through spiritual techniques slightly different I would say that creative materialism is the commodification of creative Endeavors in order to strengthen either our egos or our wallets Kiki's magic and creative Endeavors become a product and lose their inherent value instead of her magic and creativity being valuable because they inherently are their value lies in her ability to sell them as products although it appears that her magic starts to dwindle after her recovery from being sick I think the Catalyst did The Disappearance of Kiki's magic is her delivery that she made in the rain Kiki is tasked with getting a pie from an older woman to her granddaughter's house upon receipt the granddaughter is disappointed with Kiki and the delivery iki looks visibly upset and the worth of her magic is tied to her deliveries due to her commodification of her flying after this delivery Kiki gets sick and then we hear from Gigi for the last time and her ability to fly seems to almost be non-existent Ursula the artist gives Kiki a pep talk and when we look at Ursula as a creative we can see why she's able to create effortlessly Ursula lives in a cabin in the middle of the woods removed from the town perhaps she sells paintings to have money but that's not explicit in the film and if that were the case this isn't her primary objective with her art Ursula appears to paint because that's just what she does she's a painter and the worth of her art and creativity aren't tied to the art itself and its ability to sell it's valuable because it's creative she tells Kiki that when she was younger and unable to paint she hadn't figured out what or why she wanted to paint however upon this discovery she was able to create again after Kiki's talk with Ursula she makes a delivery but we don't see any sign of her magic it's not until tombow is in trouble and Kiki's desire to rescue him allows her to fly again at this point in the film Kiki has relinquished her flying as merely a product and a means to make money her creative materialism starts to dissipate in flying ceases to be just a way to inflate her ego as a witch or to be sold as a product her magic is used in the service of others and not merely for herself there appears to be a maturation in development to her magic throughout the movie this is apparent in not only her flying but also her communication with Gigi Kiki tells Ursula that she used to be able to fly without even thinking about it flying with second nature to Kiki and was instinctual Kiki's magic and her creativity were akin to how a child is creative children have a Natural Curiosity and Imagination the world is new to them and they're constantly using their imagination and creativity whether it's asking why creating imaginary friends or coming up with interesting and new ideas for how to use the tools they find in the world children have a natural instinct for creativity this is manifested in Kiki through our ability to communicate with Gigi according to Eric Neumann in his book Amor and psyche the psychic development of the feminine helpful animals are often symbols of the instinctual world in Kiki's case her creativity is childlike and instinctual as she is able to talk with and get help from her cat Gigi Kiki then moves into the stage of creativity that is all too common for creatives in the digital world the stage of creative commodities much like a tick-tocker who values their creativity in terms of followers or the musician who is deemed good because they are able to sell their music to the masses Kiki has fallen prey to this stage of creative materialism this is the stage where genuine creativity is unavailable to Kiki and she can no longer fly nor talk to Gigi she's lost her instinctual roots and can't seem to figure out how to return to the previous stage it's not until Kiki develops to a more mature stage of creativity which is creativity not in the service of the self but in the service of others and creativity for creativity's sake that she can access her powers being able to create for others without needing to sell the product advances Kiki into a new stage of creativity she is broken out of the realm of childlike instincts and progressed through the creative materialism that characterized her delivery service her magic and creativity is inherently valuable and is able to enrich not only herself but also the people she holds dear Kiki's Delivery Service gives us an interesting commentary on how to manifest creativity although the definition used by researchers includes the need to solve a significant problem or achieve an important goal Kiki doesn't need the Criterion and it appears to pull her into a limiting space for her creativity Kiki doesn't need to be creative in order to gain anything and she can be creative for creativity's sake the value of her creativity doesn't come from selling her flying it's valuable all on its own so the next time your social media post doesn't go viral your art isn't bought by millions or your creation isn't recognized by others don't forget Kiki and the importance of creating for the sake of creativity

Channel: CrispyAirplane

Views: 2,844

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Id: CInpfhhobTw

Length: 11min 33sec (693 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 04 2023