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Despite being over 20 years old, Kiki’s Delivery Service is still one of the most beloved films from legendary anime house Studio Ghibli. When news broke earlier this year of a live-action remake of the story of a young witch coming of age in the big city, fans were elated.

Since the first still shot of lead actress Fuuka Koshiba dressed as heroine Kiki was released last May, we’ve been waiting with bated breath for a trailer. When we heard one had finally been released, we pulled it up on YouTube with all the excitement of a kid tearing open a present on Christmas morning.

Of course, sometimes you’re a naughty kid and Santa brings you a lump of coal, which is just how disappointed we felt when we saw the special effects for the live-action Kiki.

Truth be told, only about a third of this teaser is new. The beginning portion has been floating around the Internet for a while, but we hadn’t shared it with our readers, since aside from some nice music and flyby footage, there really wasn’t anything particularly Kiki-like about it, aside from the superimposed text which reads:

The story of a girl, with hope and fear fluttering in her heart, leaving the town where she grew up, living in a new city, meeting new friends, and having new experiences, is finally told in live-action.

▼ Nice trees

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▼ More nice trees

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▼ The Japanese title, Majo no Takyubin

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It’s not until the 30-second mark that the latest trailer shows new footage, at which point it gives us exactly what we all came to see: the titular witch Kiki flying into frame to make a delivery!

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However, Kiki skidding back down to earth ends up as an unfortunately appropriate metaphor for our expectations for the film, as the effects on display look decidedly lackluster in motion.

It’s also a little underwhelming that while the animated Kiki works in a town so vibrant and visually appealing that several cities claim to have been the inspiration for Studio Ghibi’s designers, the live-action Kiki makes her delivery in the dirt athletic field of an ordinary Japanese middle school campus.

▼ The costume, at least, looks nice

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There’s also a camera jutting out of the bottom of the frame, but at the tail-end of the trailer, we see it’s being held by a young boy. We think it’s likely the camera is there intentionally to show the audience just how amazed the townspeople are about their flying delivery girl, although we haven’t completely ruled out the possibility that the film is being produced with child labor.

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The trailer’s opening text states that the images will be used in the final version of the movie, but thankfully, there’re still a couple of months left until the live-action Kiki’s March 1 release date. Hopefully that’s enough time for the for the effects artists to work their magic and give us something that looks a little slicker than what we’ve seen here.

▼ Kiki, being a broom-riding witch, is already suitable equipped for cleaning things up.

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Sources: YouTube (via Kotaku US)
Top image: Blogspot