Stars: 3 1/2
Rated: G
Studio: Studio Ghibli, Walt Disney Studios
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Staring: Bridgit Mendler, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett
http://disney.go.com/arrietty/
As a movie addict and a single daddy I am always looking for great family oriented films with out massive amounts of gore and sexual innuendos that I can take my children to see. I decided to take a chance on Arrietty because I owed my daughter one and because I used to secretly love the Borrowers when I was a wee youngin. (That and because if I took them to see Underworld 4 it would certainly make me a bad parent.) After convincing my son that a film about small people was a better choice then one about rescuing wales from drowning in the Arctic; we bought our tickets, picked out our choice of candies and found our seats. My son had already decided that he was going to fall asleep and for once my girl was excited to see a movie so I was happy in spite of my sons lack of enthusiasm. My gamble was rewarded and from the opening scenes right through to the ending credits I was completely and utterly enchanted. As anyone who has seen one of Yonebayshi's films can attest, his stories are always very intriguing and captivating taking worlds of fantasy and drawing the viewer into his vissions and making the extrodinary seem very much common place and believable. The art is breathtaking and filled with color in both the artistic sense and the figurative sense. Unlike many modern films, this story manages to take on such hard topics as facing death with a simplicity of heart that will endear not only children but their parents as well. Missing the now common place hidden adult humor of the Dreamworks films Arrietty is a true family film like those that Walt Disney himself produced way back in the golden days of the mid-nineteen hundreds; and, a film that I feel Walt would have been proud to add to his ever growing world of clean family entertainment. My only beef with this film is the slow almost drawn out delivery of the dialogue that is common place in this style of Japanese anime, and some younger children may find it hard to sit still during long periods of dialogue and character development. Other then this stylistic setback the film is engaging and heart warming and apropriate for all ages.
The film follows a young Borrower named Arrietty and her family as they struggle with the possibility that they may be the last of their kind and the constant threat they face of being discovered by the "Beings", which is the name that borrowers have for the big people whose world they inhabit secretly. As Arrietty prepares for her first ever borrowing, a new being moves into the large house unsettling the fragile balance that has kept the borrowers safe from the prying eyes of the beings for generations. The new being is the nephew of the old women who owns the house and he has been sent there because he has a heart condition and needs to be kept in a calm environment before his upcoming surgery. In actuality, the boy’s parents are having trouble dealing with the reality that their son may die and have sent him away because they have lost themselves in their work in order to cope. As one can already guess, Arrietty and the young boy eventually meet and become friends in spite of Arrietty's parent’s disapproval. They both share thier fears of life and facing the future and the possibility that one may die and the other may eventually be alone with such sincerity and simplicity that anyone from any age group can relate to their collective struggles. All in all, The Secret World of Arrietty is a heart warming wonderful film that I would recommend to any parent. And on a final note, my son who thought for sure he was going to fall asleep was captivated from the very first scene till the end; much to his sister delight and his chagrin. If you have a chance, go see this film you will not be disappointed.
Content: This film is rated "G" and has a few scenes of moderate danger which may frighten very young children.
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