Review: The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)

[Mark Leeper‏]

THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: By being less bizarre than SPIRITED AWAY and
having more of a human center to the film, THE SECRET
WORLD OF ARRIETTY is one of Studio Ghibli's best
efforts to date. Adapting Mary Norton's frequently
filmed novel THE BORROWERS, director Hiromasa Yonebayashi
gives us a world in which tiny people live in the walls
of houses, borrowing food and tools and hiding from the
big people. The story deals with trust and loneliness
as two people from very different backgrounds and
worlds learn to be friends and help each other. The
story seems deceptively simple, but there is a lot for
the viewer to think about. This is a very good film
for adults and for children. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4)
or 7/10

Arrietty (voiced by Bridgit Mendler in the US version and Saoirse
Ronan in the UK version) lives with her two parents in a large
country house. They do not own the home, but the people who do own
it do not know of their existence. Arrietty's family lives by
stealing--oops, make that "borrowing"--food and supplies from the
people who live in the house. And what is stolen is very rarely
missed because their borrowings are small. It helps that they are
each are about four inches high. The little people live in the
walls of the house like mice, making their domain in dark corners,
in the inside of walls, and in the empty spaces under floorboards.
And in the house the only big people are an older woman and her
housekeeper. The little people go on big adventures getting the
little bits of food they need to sustain their lives. Things take
a turn when the owner's grandnephew Shawn comes to stay with his
great aunt. Almost immediately his sharp young eyes pick up the
movement in the bushes around the house and soon he becomes very
aware Arrietty's presence. To the little borrowers this is a
disaster. As soon as humans have discovered the existence of
little people in the past they have come into conflict and the
Borrowers usually do not survive. Borrowers hate and distrust the
full-sized people, whom they call "Beans" from "human beings".
Arrietty's parents, Pod (Will Arnett/Mark Strong) and Homily (Amy
Poehler/Olivia Colman), do not want Arrietty ever to come near to
Shawn for fear of discovery. But Shawn is lonely and really needs
a friend and Arrietty thinks she can befriend and trust this big
person. The ending of the film pretty much has to be the way it
is, but it is uncharacteristically melancholic for a family film.

THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY is the most recent American release
from Studio Ghibli (pronounced "ji-bu-ri," incidentally; it is the
Italian name for a hot wind from the desert). The best-known name
associated with Studio Ghibli is Hayao Miyazaki, director of
NAUSICAA, LAPUTA, TOTORO, KIKI, PORCO, ON YOUR MARK, MONONOKE HIME,
SEN TO CHIHIRO NO KAMIKAKUSHI (a.k.a. SPIRITED AWAY), and HOWL'S
MOVING CASTLE. (Your titles may vary.) This film was directed by
first-time director Hiromasa Yonebayashi. The screenplay was
written by Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa based on the oft-filmed novel
THE BORROWERS by Mary Norton. In fact, I think that this is one of
Ghibli's best efforts, in large part because the characters are
more likable and better developed. The theme is of two lonely
people who should distrust each other, but who want to let their
friendship overcome their differences. That is a fairly powerful
theme and is probably better than Studio Ghibli's best previous
effort SPIRITED AWAY, whose message was just one of self-reliance.
That theme is certainly part of THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY, but
there is much more to this story. The visual imagery is less
bizarre than that of SPIRITED AWAY, but the story is better founded
in more believable characters and more human drama. And this
script is actually far better than Miyazaki's most recent, PONYO.

As I said, the visual imagery is not as fantastical as was that of
SPIRITED AWAY. A somewhat more realistic style was used (if
showing the world of tiny people living in walls can be called
"realistic"). The filmmakers have created some clever machinery
used by the borrowers to move around the house to find food. I am
skeptical that the borrowers could have built the comfortable world
they have with the tools they had. But we viewers happily suspend
our disbelief.

Some of what we see seems to be inspired by images from THE
INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. The drawing style seems different and a
bit more defined when showing interiors from a dollhouse that
becomes important in the plot. The filmmakers have partially
looked at the physics of being tiny and living in a tiny world.
When pouring tea, it forms into large globules held together by
surface tension before falling. On the other hand humans and
borrowers talk to each other in normal sounding voices, something
that would not be possible with very tiny larynxes. Climbing ropes
for borrowers should be much easier than it appears due to the
square-cube law. Also there are inaccuracies due to the dubbing.
The story clearly takes place in Japan, but they have 1-800 numbers
on the telephone.

I assume that the three major characters were voiced by familiar
actors, but I recognized the name of only Carol Burnett. I do not
know if I have ever seen Will Arnett act, though he has done voices
in several animated films.

I just recently saw DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK, another film with
a house with tiny people. But that film is made from the point of
view of big people. Rarely have we see this sort of story done in
which we really can see such a world from the tiny people's point
of view. The notable examples are THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN and
now this film, but it is a perspective that allows us to see our
world in a new way. I rate THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY a +2 on
the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.

Film Credits: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568921/>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_secret_world_of_arrietty/>


Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2012 Mark R. Leeper