Review

Review Date: 19-February-12
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Juicy

The Secret World of Arrietty (U.S. version) (2012)

As soon as I left The Secret World of Arrietty my reviewer's mechanism kicked in. This is to be expected, of course, but in some cases analysis is not needed. I had reached the point of considering procreational versus emotional needs among races facing extinction when I realized that this is one of those cases. Like the title character, the movie is made on a small scale. Simplicity and beauty are its motivations and virtues.

Arrietty comes from Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation house of renowned filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, who has a screenwriting credit here but leaves the directing to Hiromasa Yonebayashi. It is adapted from the classic children's book The Borrowers about tiny people who live among full-sized humans and "borrow" items like pins and postage stamps whose absence will not attract notice. Arrietty (voiced by Bridgit Mendler for the American release) is a 14-year-old Borrower, the only child of a strong but silent father (Will Arnett) and fretful homemaking mother (Amy Poehler) who live without knowing how many of their kind are left. They reside beneath a country cottage where the human Shawn (David Henrie) comes to stay for his health. He is a lonely boy whose parents are too busy for him and whose weak heart may or may not withstand an impending operation. Although Borrowers' existence hinges on their staying hidden, since humans and other animals can easily hurt them, Shawn spots Arrietty the moment he arrives and thereafter pursues a friendship with her.

The story involves this unlikely yet mutually fulfilling friendship and the risk it brings to Arrietty's family. Its presentation is as important as its particulars. The rich Ghibli visuals are well suited to the setting: the flowers around the cottage among which Shawn seeks comfort, the Borrowers' cozy nest filled with familiar objects put to new uses, the elaborate dollhouse built years ago by another human hoping to befriend a Borrower. Sounds are offered to the audience as Arrietty hears them: the booming of a grandfather clock on her first borrowing excursion, the enveloping swish of a cat as it moves through grass. Danger lurks behind the sights and sounds but, as befits a show for young children, the villain of the piece is not truly bad. The cottage's housekeeper (Carol Burnett) is merely an adult more interested in her own narrow world than any secret or external one. The same might be said about Shawn's never-seen parents, who could also be considered villains if one insisted on being analytical.

Copyright © 2012 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.