The Secret World of Arrietty

2012 "Do not be seen by humans. That's been the law of children of the underfloor."
7.6| 1h34m| G| en| More Info
Released: 17 February 2012 Released
Producted By: Wild Bunch
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://disney.go.com/official-sites/arrietty/index
Info

14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clock family live in peaceful anonymity as they make their own home from items "borrowed" from the house's human inhabitants. However, life changes for the Clocks when a human boy discovers Arrietty.

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Director

Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Production Companies

Wild Bunch

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The Secret World of Arrietty Audience Reviews

ada the leading man is my tpye
Infamousta brilliant actors, brilliant editing
Neive Bellamy Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.
Lucia Ayala It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.
alhaddad-66169 Very good movie Happy this movie to much I happy this movie Every moment see
sol- Studio Ghibli place their own unique spin on Mary Norton's 'The Borrowers' in this animated big screen adaptation. Norton's tale of tiny human beings who live beneath the floorboards and "borrow" various items (explaining how little things always seem to disappear forever) may be quite well known, however, the Ghibli team still manage to achieve a sense of awe and wonderment with the way their minute female protagonist copes in the gigantic world around her wherein bugs are as large as pets (and make good bouncy balls!) and sugar cubes are as large as backpacks. There is also a lot to like in the non-romantic friendship and camaraderie that develops between Arrietty and a seriously ill boy she finds living in her house. What does not quite work so well is the way the film turns the boy's caregiver/housekeeper into an evil antagonist. There is almost something darkly comical with the way she tries to hire pest exterminators to get rid of the borrowers, but we never quite discover why she despises them so much - - and then she changes her mind and decides that she would rather capture them and store them in jars instead (again, it is not clear why). Shaky as the antagonist's motives may be, they admittedly lead to some exciting moments, as Arrietty and the boy have to elude her, as well as funny moments, as she keeps failing to convince the boy's grandmother that borrowers really do exist. The film also looks great as per Ghibli par, with the interiors of the borrowers' house a particular wonder, especially with buttons and odd bits and ends used for wall decorations.
Jackson Booth-Millard I had previously seen two live action versions of The Borrowers, the John Goodman / Jim Broadbent film version and the Christopher Eccleston / Stephen Fry television movie version, but this was a Japanese cartoon version I was looking forward to, from Studio Ghibli (Grave of the Fireflies, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away). Basically young boy Shô (Tom Holland) is neglected by his parents, he is sent to spend summer at his mother's childhood home, with his maternal great aunt Sadako (Phyllida Law, widow of The Magic Roundabout creator Eric Thompson) and her housemaid Haru (Miss Marple's Geraldine McEwan). Shô suffers a heart condition and is awaiting a surgery operation, he is depressed in the absence of his mother, but notices gets of glimpse of small person in the garden, he is fascinated to find her and any other tiny people in the house. There indeed little people, on the underground of Sadako's house is where the Clock family live: fourteen-year-old Arrietty (Saoirse Ronan), her father Pod (Mark Strong) and her mother Homily (Olivia Colman). They are Borrowers, tiny people that collect and borrow simple things, e.g. batteries, cubes of sugar, they need in the house from the humans, and Arrietty is joining her father for the first time. On this trip however Arrietty drops a sugar cube, but Shô, who spotted her again during the night, leaves the cube near a window in the basement, and eventually he and the young Borrower interact, but she tells him that Borrowers are never to be seen by humans. Following Pod getting injured, they get some help from Borrower boy Spiller (Luke Allen-Gale), Arrietty's parents decide to move to another place as they have been discovered by inhabitants of the house, and things get worse when the small family are being menaced by Haru who wants to catch them. In the end, after Haru fails to keep the Borrowers captive and convince a pest control company that they exist, the Clocks are forced to leave, Shô gives Arrietty a sugar cube and tells her she has the courage to fight for survival, Arrietty gives her his hair clip as a token, she and the family drift away down river in a floating teapot. This is a good version of the story many people know, the English cast dubbing the characters are chosen well, the animation as always is splendid, and it is a nice simple story with an emotional draw with clashing between the world of the little people and the "human beans", it is overall an enjoyable animated fantasy adventure. Good!
Neil Welch 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.