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Movie Chile Review

The Secret World of Arrietty

By: Robert B. Ker
Published online: Friday, February 17, 2012
Appeared in: Pasateimpo

Capsule review

The latest picture from Japan’s Studio Ghibli is the studio’s most accessible family film not directed by Spirited Away’s Hayao Miyazaki (who co-wrote). Based on Mary Norton’s 1952 children’s book The Borrowers, it’s the tale of tiny people who live under the floorboards of a house and “borrow” items from the human residents. The gentle plot is thin, but the treasure of the film lies in how the animators shrink you down into this microcosmic world. The screen is full of vivid colors, and the brilliant sound effects make even the smallest noise impressive. Rated G. 94 minutes.

Full Review

The Secret World of Arrietty, family film, Regal Stadium 14, rated G, 3 chiles

In the 1990s, The Walt Disney Company struck a deal with Japan’s Studio Ghibli that allowed the House of Mouse to translate Ghibli films such as Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Ponyo for Western audiences and bring them to American theaters. As the animated features developed in America grew louder and more hyper in the 1990s and 2000s, the partnership allowed Disney to distribute the kinds of animated movies it used to create: quiet, contemplative fables told through painterly images and based around gentle characters whose defining traits include kindness and selflessness.

Many of these qualities reflect the sensibilities of Ghibli’s most prominent figure: co-founder and filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki. The creator of most of Ghibli’s iconic movies — including those mentioned above, Castle in the Sky, and My Neighbor Totoro, among others — has impressed his aesthetic on the company, and very little in the world of animation looks and feels like it.

The animation master is now 71. He has threatened retirement off and on for a decade, and he has not announced any forthcoming feature- length projects. Studio Ghibli has always been more than Miyazaki, with movies from directors such as Isao Takahata, Hiroyuki Morita, and Goro Miyazaki (Hayao’s son) as well. Now, however, the studio must step outside of its co-founder’s shadow and visualize a future without one of his movies every few years.

Miyazaki helps to ease the transition by co- writing The Secret World of Arrietty, which is Ghibli’s strongest and most accessible film that isn’t directed by him since 1989’s Grave of the Fireflies (it is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and Gary Rydstrom). The story is based on Mary Norton’s 1952 children’s book The Borrowers, about tiny people who live under the floorboards of a house and “borrow” items from the human residents (it has been adapted several times, most famously with a 1997 John Goodman movie).

We can see the Ghibli flourishes right away, as the story opens like Spirited Away did. A young boy named Shawn (voiced by David Henrie) is driven through the woods to his mother’s childhood home. As the car travels, we sense that we are delving deeper into a magical place. Those suspicions are confirmed when Shawn gets out of the car and spots a “borrower” named Arrietty (Saoirse Ronan) in the grass.

The action follows Arrietty as she and her father, Pod (Will Arnett), go on a daring mission to borrow a sugar cube from the kitchen. The scene is drawn out to satisfying length and is rich with suspense, with the direction and animation expertly conveying what a house might look like to someone who is 4 inches tall. The mission is very nearly a success, but the borrowers make their presence known to Shawn once more.

Over the course of the film, the relationship between Shawn and Arrietty grows and problems arise. The plot is thin, perhaps too thin for some parents, focusing primarily on the borrowers’ efforts not to be discovered and their backup plan in case they are. In the place of a strong narrative the filmmakers give us beautiful details. Scenes often begin with a second or two of unrelated action, such as a ladybug taking flight; these meditative moments draw you into this micro- cosmic world. The animators at Ghibli fill the frame with vivid colors and an impressive variety of objects, particularly in the home’s gardens. The sound effects brilliantly shrink you down to Arrietty’s size, where even the noises of leaves tearing and sugar cubes falling are amplified to extremes and a crow conveys pure terror. The character designs reflect Miyazaki’s warm style, and the insects and animals in the picture (particularly the cat) are delightful.

On the spectrum of Ghibli movies, The Secret World of Arrietty falls much closer to family films such as Ponyo or My Neighbor Totoro than it does to the darker and more complex offerings like Princess Mononoke and Howl’s Moving Castle. There is very little conflict; the villain here is a maid (Carol Burnett) who calls pest control to root out the borrowers, for reasons that are vague. The film doesn’t tackle difficult emotions, but it is still rife with melancholy. It’s clear early on that the borrowers will have to leave their home by the end of the story, but they go about it with a quiet optimism. Shawn is also laid up with a heart condition, and while there’s a chance he could die, it seems clear from the tone of the film that he won’t. These are wounded characters who draw strength from each other.

To discern the difference between the work of Studio Ghibli and the standard Hollywood family film, one only has to compare a poster for Arrietty with one for the 1997 adaptation of The Borrowers. The latter shows Goodman tied up with string, flanked by tiny people. His eyes are wide with zany surprise, like Wile E. Coyote before he falls from a cliff. The former is of Arrietty walking confidently with a spoon in her hand. Behind her, Shawn looks on. His eyes are also open wide, but with wonder. Many young children, when watching Arrietty, will have that same expression.