The Secret World of Arriety

A Little Family, and a Little Magic

Hayao Miyazaki is one of those names everyone knows. Some may not remember it right off the bat, but if you mention his movies they will know exactly who you are talking about. Those films include Spirited Away, Kiki's Delivery Service, Lupin the Third: The Castle of Cagliostro, and most recently, The Secret World of Arriety. The last one is only technically a Miyazaki film, as he was one of the screenwriters and did not direct the film. However, it was still animated by Studio Ghibli, and most people will automatically call this a Miyazaki film.

The film itself, par for the course with Ghibli, looks beautiful. Even if you're not a fan of Japanese animation, you can find something good to say about how Ghibli animates their movies. They're always rich in the art style.

As for the story, it's simple enough. The film is an adaptation of The Borrowers, a story I haven't read but understand the general concept of. It's about Arriety (Bridgit Mendler), a teenager living with her parents, who are all about four inches tall. They live inside the house of a regular sized human family. To live, they have to "borrow" the things they need to survive, and things that the humans would not miss or even notice was gone. There is an argument that they are outright stealing, considering things like sugar will be missed even and (expensive looking) earrings for the use of climbing walls are not something they really need to take and will without a doubt be missed. Does it make the protagonist look bad? Not really, it's something that can be easily overlooked. That being said, even a young child may come to the conclusion the heroes are thieves, and recognition would have been a good idea.

The human boy living in the house has a heart condition, one he does not believe he'll survive from. This has clearly mellowed and aged the boy, and brings some nice dimensions to him. He's the one who ends up accidentally seeing the borrowers, and despite her father's protests, ends up spending time with him and grows a bond. This causes the borrower family to decide to move away, as they believe living in secret is the only way to survive. Which is another confusing plot choice. The family, with the exception of the maid voiced by Carol Burnett, means no ill-will to the borrowers and admit they would work together with them to survive. This kind of fault is done in other movies of this sort, and it never makes any logical sense. It would have been nice to subvert this, but instead the movie plays it straight.

But the strong part of this movie, like other Ghibli films, it the characters and their relationship with each other. As said, the human boy has a nice mellow and matured personality, as well as deep cynicism that plays out well enough. However, he also has his moments of being wide-eyed and carefree, making him feel like a real boy. Arriety is also a nice character, strong-willed and knows what she wants to accomplish, and will do her best to do it. As for the others, none of them are weak, but nobody in this film is extremely memorable. This does not mean they are bad characters, they just don't compare to other Ghibli creations just as Chihiro or Kiki. Arriety herself isn't as strong a character as those two, despite being three-dimensional an enjoyable to watch.

The film itself is good, but is not as good as some of the other Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli films. The films gets a 3 out of 5. If you're interested in watching it, or if you love Miyazaki or animated films in general, it's worth checking out, even if it is a little weaker than other Miyazaki films.