Phil Hartman, who voiced Jiji (the cat), ad libbed a line at the end. This might not seem like much but in the Japanese version Jiji, having stopped talking about half way through the film, doesn't talk again; possibly this represents another way in which Kiki matures. It's a small point but seemed to go over the head(s) of the director(s) of the English dub. Either that or they didn't think it mattered.

Anyway, there is much in Miyazaki's and Takahata's films that is misinterpreted or misunderstood by audiences and critics outside Japan. For a long interpretation of some of the themes in Spirited Away, by a friend of mine, see this post i made to the Miyazaki Mailing List over a decade ago: http://www.imasy.or.jp/~fukumoto/n/nshow.cgi?50927