ANI-MOVIES, *The Secret World Of Arrietty

As one of several adaptaions of The Borrowers book series by Mary Norton, this was the first new Studio Ghibli animated movie of the 2010s. The Sercret World Of Arrietty is a family fantasy film taking the concept of "little people" that has been a genre on its own since before the days of the Grimm Bros. Hiyao Miyazaki handled some material simlarty to this in Nausicaa with giant insects, but Arrietty is greatly scaled down and brings a large perspective on a relatively minimal scale. However, Miyazaki only did the screenplay on this project, where as it was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi who went on to greater success with his second movie, When Marnie Was There. It was Japan's biggest movie of 2010, and later got dubbed by Disney, which is now owned by 4Kids, as well as a seperate English dub done for the U.K. by Studio Canal featuring future Spider-Man, Tom Holland.

Sickly young man Sho has to spend some time at the country estate of his grand aunt while he prepares for an upcoming heart surgery. While he's there, Sho notices a tiny girl known as a Borrower, and tries to befriend her by leaving her a sugar cube. The girl called Arrietty has started carrying on the family tradition of being a Borrower, learning from her parents who she lives with underneath the house floors. Sho and Arrietty's friendship expands, but his knowledge of the Borrower's existernce leads to them having the small people leaving to find a new home. But Sho manages to help them escape the machinations of his aunt's nosy housekeeper. The American dub has some additional narration by Sho about how he never saw Arrietty again, but still hear's rumors of other nearby little people, its not known however if this is canon with the Japanese and British editions of the film.

Like most Ghibli movies, there is great detail given to the characters background and enviroment, especially how someone only a few inches high would view the world from a scale much smaller than humans. You can see how a premise like this might make for a great video game about micro-humans struggling to survive in a world with the threat of what would be them giants to them. The music is enchanting by French composer Cecil Corbel, and brings a distinct sense of whimsy to the production. The Secret World Of Arrietty is an amazing animation attraction for the entire family, and specifically enjoyable even for non-otaku!