After Shawn's arrival, Arrietty's father decides that she should go with him into the human household as he looks for supplies the family can borrow. The tiny people call themselves "Borrowers," and just like in Norton's book, the family must sneak into human houses to find anything they need, from crumbs of sugar to tissue paper. Arrietty is one of the Clocks, a family of four-inch tall people who live within the walls of the country house. Almost immediately after arriving, Shawn spots the film's protagonist: Arrietty. The film opens by showing Shawn, a young, normal sized human boy, moving to a country house in Japan to rest due to health reasons. The film is based on one of English author Mary Norton's children's novels, which is titled "The Borrowers." The original story tells the tale of a family of tiny people due to their size, the only way for the tiny people to survive in a world that's so much bigger than them is to borrow small amounts of supplies from humans.
Originally titled "Kari-gurashi no Arietti," the film was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and lists Hayao Miyazaki as a screenplay writer as well. It simply is."The Secret World of Arrietty" is a Japanese film produced and released by Studio Ghibli, available for viewing in in both the English and Japanese language. It doesn't need thunderous gimmicks or musical cues - or characters so outlandish that they're ready-made for collectibles bought at fast-food restaurants - to be a wonderful movie. The artwork is gorgeous and meticulous, the story beautiful. Viewers used to the whiz bang, frenetic pace of other animated features may find The Secret World of Arrietty slow-moving and lacking in special effects, but that's its strength. Our kids can handle complicated material, as long as it's handled intelligently and with compassion. And yet the story unfurls with no heavy-handedness, just a realism that doesn't condescend to its young audience. In Ghibli movies, children and teens are allowed to be sad, despondent, worried, afraid, and burdened - it's not a sugar-coated world. But even more substantial is how the movie straightforwardly presents the plight of a boy who's often left alone and is lonely, and of a girl who doesn't get to interact with others like herself. On the surface is the wonder of a teen discovering a miniature counterpart who lives in a world much like his own, only within the walls and under the floorboards of his house. The beauty of Studio Ghibli movies is that they have such depth and heart, and this film is a perfect example. There is a fairly slow part in the middle that would make a good bathroom break, but if your child is old enough to grasp the ramifications of all that is going on in the film, it is actually a fairly gripping tale with some scenes of suspense.
The film is really targeted at children who are able to fully grasp the bittersweet nature of that type of dramatic situation. The main relationship in the film reminded me a lot of the "impossible" friendship between ET and Elliott (ET), and Wilbur and Charlotte (Charlotte's Web). The preschool set, however, is not the target audience for this film. There are some moments in which characters appear to be in life-threatening peril, and my son would not have handled those scenes very well at all.
The film is very gentle and contains very little that will bother any child who has made it through "Toy Story." I ended up deciding the film was not appropriate for my very sensitive 4 year old. This one roughly follows the story of "The Borrowers." The film does an amazing job of illustrating the way a house looks to a 5 inch person. I loved "The Littles" as a child and am thrilled to see a high quality animated film made that captures the spirit of that genre of story.
I am a huge fan of the "little people" genre.
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