![]() ![]() A pea being enough to feed the whole family, they should be able to do this unnoticed, but when Arrietty drops a sugar cube, she's discovered. Shawn (voiced by David Henrie) spots the diminutive Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) when she and her father (Will Arnett) are foraging for food. Miyazaki was only peripherally involved in Arrietty, but director Hiromasa Yonebayashi appears to be a devoted disciple, domesticating the master's teeming visual style somewhat but maintaining his emphasis on intricate graphics, strong independent female characters and stories rooted in real-world concerns.Īrrietty's story, taken from the first book in Mary Norton's children's series The Borrowers, centers on the tiny Clock family - 14-year-old Arrietty Clock and her parents - who live in the walls of a house where a boy with a heart condition is resting up for an operation. ![]() ![]() That's because Arrietty is the latest animated opus from Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation house co-founded by the great auteur Hayao Miyazaki, director of such international animated smashes as the eco-friendly Princess Mononoke, the values-oriented Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle, which preceded Pixar's Up with its manse-on-the-move storyline. Delicate, however, comes with the territory. Overall, it's another masterpiece by the Studio Ghibli.In a hyperactive kid-flick universe populated by kickboxing pandas, rampaging chipmunks and tap-dancing penguins, The Secret World of Arrietty - the tale of a girl who's barely 4 inches tall and possesses neither superpowers nor a toymaker's imprimatur - is almost startlingly delicate and calm.Ĭalm, let's note, despite the presence of a marauding house cat, a raven who'd love to make a quick snack of our heroine, and a housekeeper determined to root out the little people who live beneath her floorboards. He's not a major character, but he was unique enough that it would have been interesting to see him interacting more with Arriety and her family. Also, there's a borrower character that shows up halfway through who doesn't get a whole lot of screen time. I would have loved to have had more scenes to experience day to day life as a borrower, so the dangers of being one could be better emphasized. If i'm not mistaken, it's the shortest movie Ghibli has made (or at least one of the shortest), and because of that, I feel that there were moments that didn't seem as fully explored than others. Now why do I give this a 4 instead of a 5/5? The run time. It's really the best 2D animation i've ever seen.Īnd the music.wow. Colors pop, and the lighting gives the viewer the impression that you're standing there along side them. ![]() It makes me appreciate nature around me (though all Ghibli movies do that). Seeing things from a tiny perspective with the Ghibli art style is a real treat. You can feel the warmth and love that they have for each other. The movie does an amazing job of building their friendship within the movie's running time. She meets a full sized boy with a heart condition and helps him find happiness and to appreciate life while at the same time reconciling the fact that they live in two completely different worlds. Arriety is a strong, brave young girl who loves adventure in spite of being so tiny. It's loosely based off the book "The Borrowers", and honestly, I prefer the Ghibli version of the story over the original. They're visually gorgeous, the stories are engaging, and the characters are always filled with life. Even their worst movies could still be considered masterpieces. ![]()
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