I have no clue why Hara works as such a despicable heel. …Hara, voiced by the one and only Carol Burnett. The only true standout performance comes from our villain… The Carol Burnett Show She never tugs her ear, but it’s definitely Carol Burnett at her scene-chewing best. Homily, Arrietty’s mother, needs a Vicodin (maybe Amy Poehler, who voiced her, does). Shawn is plain bordering on monotone, and Pod is gruff and only seems to talk grudingly. Arrietty (played by Bridgit Mendler) is serviceable, and while she also provides the singing on the closing song, her voice-work rarely stands out. So it’s dismaying that the voice acting here is just passable. Hell, Mark Hamill is doing voice work for The Castle in the Sky, and that’s 99% of the reason my butt will be in the theater for the August 27th dubbed showing. Matt Damon, Patrick Stewart, and Cate Blanchett have all lent their talents to Ghibli movies. Some (notably Mononoke-Hime) are even better in English, a rarity in Japanese/English dubbing. Studio Ghibli films are usually just as good in English as they are in Japanese. The version of The Secret World of Arrietty I watched was the US dub. If you saw Honey I Shrunk the Kids, you can expect to have that level of immersion into this gigantic world. The sense of a tiny family navigating a huge environment is awe inspiring. The backgrounds are lush paintings and the animation is fluid and detailed. Much like early Disney and Don Bluth productions, the attention to detail is apparent and impressive. If you’ve ever seen a Studio Ghibli animation, you probably have a good idea what to expect: artistic excellence. An Uncompromising Standard of Quality The Director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, certainly shares Miyazaki’s eye for jaw dropping vistas. Shawn and Arrietty must come together to save her family and help the Clocks relocate to a new home. Shawn tries to earn the Clock family’s trust, but his attempts at making contact raise the suspicions of Hara, the family maid. ![]() The two escape, leaving behind the rest of the night’s take. Surprise! It just so happens to be Shawn’s new bedroom. The two are discovered when they attempt to lift some tissue paper from a room that was formerly unoccupied. Shawn’s suspicions are confirmed the next night, when Arrietty’s father Pod takes her on her first “borrowing”. While not an out and out discovery, Shawn is now fascinated that his Aunt’s stories of little people secretly living in the house might in fact be true. While he is subdued, he’s also bright and inquisitive, and stumbles upon Arrietty almost immediately upon arriving. Shawn is a melancholy youth, seemingly resigned to a heart condition that has a high chance of being fatal. Into Arrietty’s life comes Shawn (Alternately: Sho), a sickly young boy convalescing at his Aunt’s countryside villa. But make no mistake: I would be stealing, not borrowing. If I took five dollars out of the pocket of a millionaire, he might not notice or have need of that five dollars. They scratch out a living borrowing the things that people won’t notice are gone. They are “borrowers”: four inch tall humanoids that live in the places people never look. The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)Īrrietty is the only daughter of the Clock family. I have no scientific rationale for why I loved this movie, but I did. How this film is so good, not only despite these issues, but sometimes because of them is just another example of Miyazaki magic. For all the fun, however, the film has some inconsistencies that wouldn’t allow my brain to ignore them. And you’ll want to throw your drink at the screen whenever the villain does her villainy. You “oooh” and “ahh” when wonder is called for. The film pulls the emotions out of you almost effortlessly. ![]() It’s Honey I Shrunk the Kids meets The Rescuers. I won’t bury the lede: this story is fun. Arrietty also boasts one of the most effective villains I’ve seen in a while. It is another one of Ghibli’s “childhood fantasy” films, with a delightful heroine doing awe-inspiring things. The movie shows all the polish and dedication to detail that is the hallmark of a Miyazaki film. Arrietty wasn’t directed by Hayao Miyazaki, but he did write the screenplay. The Secret World of Arrietty is a Japanese take on the English children’s novel The Borrowers. In advance of the month long celebration of Studio Ghibli films in theaters this August, I decided to take a gander at an earlier film that I had missed back in 2010. Which is strange, because the tale just didn’t add up in my mind. VOD Review: The Secret World of Arrietty The Studio Ghibli interpretation of Mary Norton’s The Borrowers is a delightful movie that played my emotions like a violin.
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