The Secret World of Arrietty (2012)

Simply A Masterpiece

Awesome Movie

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The Secret World of Arrietty is an anime movie directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi and dubbed by Walt Disney. A sickly teenage boy by the name of Shawn is sent to his mother's childhood home to be taken care of by his grandmother before he undergoes heart surgery. While staying, he encounters a tiny teenage girl named Arrietty while she is scavenging through the house. She is a member of a race of tiny humans known as the borrowers who aim not to be discovered by humans as they live in hiding, which Shawn is destined to keep Arrietty and her family from being discovered by the home's maid.Now this film is not directed by the legendary Hayao Miyazaki, he only planned and wrote the screenplay to the movie and even if he didn't direct the movie it's still pretty solid. What you will notice early on is that the movie has very limited dialogue, which help sets a calm tone. It feels quite refreshing to see that as it gives the audience quite a bit time to relax with the main characters, and that's exactly what the movie does. Whether it's Arrietty exploring the home or Shawn having to deal with his lifelong sickness, the movie ends up being an overall relaxing experience. Even the more intense moments still feel somewhat relaxing.Like the other Ghibli films, the movie is beautifully and smoothly animated. The backgrounds look like they came out of a painting, moreso than the other Ghibli movies I've seen. Either way, the movie gives us both the perspectives of the humans and the borrowers. When we see the perspective of the borrowers, the backgrounds are usually to scale to them and usually don't appear to be large in scale compared to the borrowers. This makes the adventures throughout the house feel very engaging as a result. There were a couple of times where the backgrounds did confuse me, but it wasn't a huge problem.The movie's main theme is being brave and gaining courage to face your fears. I found the execution to be well done, but I think it could've been done a little bit better. I think it mainly has to do with the short running time. I won't go into much detail regarding this since it does dive into spoiler territory.Overall, the movie's simple, well animated, engaging, heartfelt and relaxing. This movie is well worth your time regardless of whether you're a Ghibli fan or not.9/10

The Disney take over if Gihbli is very visible in this sweet movie, which however lacks the magic of the original Gihbli movie's. The story vaguely based on the movie "the borrowers", a rather plain movie from 1997. Again this shows the lacking of the creativity of earlier Gihbli movies which combined the typical Japanese ghost world and/or magic atmosphere. This movie is a rather western type of story, clearly aiming to a larger public.The story of the borrowers is moved to Japan and an extra layer added by the sick boy, which however is not a real addition to the movie. The secret world of Arriety is more calm then the original, that is for sure, there is more time to work out the connection between Shaun and Arriety, but it remains basic.It is not a bad movie to watch, it is quite fun. But when you see Gihbli being brought down by Disney, it saddens the heart

When I first heard of this movie I was very skeptical about it. I thought: "Is this worth it or is it just some boring lame cartoon?" Well... I must say that I LOVED IT! Even from the start I liked the characters and from there it got better and better. It's definitely a good film for kids and just about anybody who enjoys a cute anime with sweet atmosphere and very awesome visuals. The scenery is just beautiful and colorful.I must say, though, that it is better to watch the movie in original Japanese audio. Not because the English version is bad of something but you can really "feel" the film with it's "natural" language. That's my opinion. At the end I loved everything about it. Still... I would have like to see past the ending of it, because it made me want more of the story. There is great material in this movie and it would have made a fine series of episodes if given the chance. I watched it, I loved it, I would watch it again and love it again. It was worth my time and I think that if you like any good anime, this is the stuff for you.

14-year old Arietty is a Borrower: small people who live in the secret spaces of houses and "borrow" things necessary to survive, which the huge humans will never miss. Cautioned by her father to never be seen by humans, Arietty encounters Sho, a boy with a heart condition, who wants to be friends.This animated film from Studio Ghibli takes the very English kids' books by Mary Norton (previously given live-action life in a BBC series and a Hollywood movie) and transplants it to Japan as well as giving it a unique Studio Ghibli visual sensibility.It is delightfully done. Visually lush, with action bridging normal and miniature scales, a gorgeous score of celtic flavoured waltzes, and first rate voice casting in the UK edition, it is genuinely involving and, finally, bittersweet in how it resolves.I loved it.