‘Kiki’s Delivery Service’ Is a Rebuke to the Miyazaki AI Trend

One of my favorite movies as a kid — and my entrypoint to Studio Ghibli and the wistful worlds of Hayao Miyazaki — was Kiki’s Delivery Service. Even amongst a collection of nearly every Disney animated title, it was Kiki’s VHS clamshell that received some of the highest use. The Buena Vista trailers that played before were committed to memory: straight-to-video Jungle Book and Lion King sequels, an otherwise nonexistent movie called Summer of the…