Review of The Secret World of Arrietty

If you can believe it, while I did watch a Ghibli movie when I was younger (My parents said I saw My Neighbor Totoro but I don't have many memories of it), I didn't start watching Ghibli's filmography until I was in...maybe late high school or college. I remember asking my dad to take me to see Ponyo in theaters when it first came out in the US, and not long after that, me and one of my friends went to see The Secret World of Arrietty. I had already seen it before I saw it in the theater, but in Japanese, and both timesI remember liking it, to the point where I bought the DVD that Disney put out afterward. But on a whim, I decided to rewatch the movie and see if it still holds up, especially now that I've seen more Ghibli movies since then. I'm glad to see that Arrietty knocked it out of the park here. If you're a fan of slow-paced family movies that aren't filled with overwrought sentimentality and avoid a lot of the usual trappings and cliches, Arrietty is definitely a must-watch.

Based on the 1952 book by British author Mary Norton, a family of ten centimeter tall humans called Borrowers live quietly under the eaves of a house in a forest. This particular family—the father Pod, the mother Homily, and their 14-year-old daughter Arrietty, live peacefully and happily, making a home for themselves by taking things that the regular humans won't miss, like dropped items or miscellaneous things like sugar cubes, dropped pins, or tissues. But they have to be careful, as they can't afford to be seen by the larger people, afraid of the dangers they pose. However, on Arrietty's first attempt at a real borrowing, she's seen by Sho, a young boy who moved into his grandmother's house in preparation for his upcoming heart operation. Sho wants to befriend Arrietty, but she and her family decide they have to move, afraid of what will happen if unscrupulous people see them. But circumstances force Sho and Arrietty to work together, and Arrietty learns that maybe the human race isn't so bad.

I mean...what can I say about Ghibli's animation that hasn't been said already? Character motion is smooth, the colors are vibrant, there's meticulous detail put into just about everything, and I really don't think I can add anything new that others haven't said already. That being said, if there's one thing Arrietty as a movie absolutely succeeds in, its its sense of scale. The creators really succeeded in showing how everything feels absolutely huge compared to Arrietty and her family. When big things are around her, they really look BIG, and its especially prevalent when regular humans are animated around her. Plus, the movie also makes great use of its setting as well. Arrietty and her family live in a brick pile underneath a house near a forest, and it goes way out of its way to show what the Borrowers manage to create out of everything they take. Since Arrietty is the main viewpoint character rather than Sho, making this more of a "fantasy creature meets boy" rather than the other way around, which is the more typical setup for these kinds of movies, we see how she and her family live and how they go about their day. Arrietty is a lush movie that just sparkles with life wherever it goes.

The soundtrack is also nothing to sneeze at either, especially since Joe Hisaishi isn't involved with it for once. In a rather bold move, Ghibli decided to hire a Frenchwoman by the name of Cecile Corbel to not only sing the opening and ending songs, but to basically make the entire score for it. Even back in 2010, it was fairly rare for Japanese movies to hire people outside the country to compose music for movies, though that's been steadily changing, what with people like Evan Call and Kevin Penkin being recruited to make music for anime as of recently. I think this was a good decision on Ghibli's part, as the entire soundtrack has this really neat, subdued, somewhat Celtic and Irish sound to it, what with its heavy usage of harps, acoustic guitars, Irish flutes, bagpipes, and other instruments. It really makes it feel otherworldly, even though the movie takes place in the modern day, and it's just so refreshing to listen to. The vocal songs are great too, and considering the OST won best original soundtrack at the Japan Gold Disc Awards and sold more than 200,000 copies upon its debut, that's how you know for sure the soundtrack rules.

The characters are pretty good too, save for one. While they don't exactly get much in the way of development, as this is a slice-of-life movie tinged with light fantasy, their acting is excellent on both the Japanese and English sides, and the animation really brings them to life and conveys their feelings and emotions through their expressions and body language. The only character I really had issue with was Haru the housekeeper. She just felt like she was just shoved into the movie for the sake of having a villain and introducing a conflict that honestly didn't really need to be there. Arrietty as a movie already had a good source of conflict via the subtle tensions between coexisting species. I mean, Haru is a pretty subdued villain all things considered, and she's better executed than other villains similar to her, but the artificiality of her presence and the conflict she brings just felt a little forced. Then again, something like this was in the original book as well, and Haru and the overall conflict is significantly toned down compared to the novel. But it's been a long time since I've read the original book, so I can't comment on how the movie executed it compared to the source. Speaking of toning things down, I admit that I hated Homily in the book. I thought she was way too neurotic and hated that she seemed to freak out over everything, even over things not worth making a fuss about. She literally calls Arrietty wicked and claims she's the devil's spawn because the latter made an innocuous comment in the book. I'm so glad the movie toned down Homily's personality and made her more subdued, making her fears and nervousness feel much more realistic and understandable.

Furthermore, Arrietty does have themes of environmentalism throughout its narrative, but it never feels preachy or condescending, focusing on the subtle tensions between the coexisting species. It doesn't point any fingers, but lets everything resolve itself naturally. I personally had no problem with the movie's deliberately slow pacing, as I'm always a fan of anything that actually allows its characters and world to breathe, let the audience soak things in, and appreciate atmosphere, but this isn't a movie for anyone looking for Michael Bay style action movies. Others wanting something more exciting may take issue with this, but I don't see the pacing as a problem. So yeah, The Secret World of Arrietty is definitely one of Ghibli's better movies and a great movie to watch if you want something more peaceful and subdued rather than the more fast paced, instantly gratifying fare the movie industry has been churning out today.