![]() ![]() ![]() Her name is Arrietty (voiced by Bridgit Mendler) and like all young Miyazaki adventurers, she’s a teenager wise beyond her years. The intrigue in Secret World comes from witnessing a brave member of the youngest generation reject the conventional thinking of her elders. ![]() These are undoubtedly rules with a dark history, indicators of past disasters, created to ensure survival. Sustaining themselves by “borrowing” necessary goods from humans, these tiny lodgers have designed a strict set of rules to govern their interaction with taller species: Only borrow what you need, what will not be missed, and avoid detection at all costs. The newest Studio Ghibli vision – directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, conceptualized by Miyazaki (who wrote the screenplay) and translated into English by both Disney and an array of prominent western actors – is The Secret World of Arrietty, a heartwarming adaptation of the beloved Borrowers novels by Mary Norton, which bring to life a hidden world of tiny creatures who take refuge in the walls and nooks of people’s homes. There are exceptions of course (chiefly the works of Pixar) but unlike the majority of American animated films, which set out with punch lines and merchandising in mind, Ghibli’s visions skew more ambitious - stories of self-discovery, of souls at crossroads. Studio Ghibli visions tend to be quieter and far more evocative than their American counterparts. For decades now, Hayao Miyazaki and his collaborators have taken traditional coming-of-age fables and elevated them into magical meditations on topics as vast as the sacredness of the environment, the mystical charms of animals, the paramount importance of family and the ugly temptations of greed. I liked it a lot (better than Howl's Moving Castle and Tales from Earthsea, if not quite as much as Ponyo), and I'll be happily seeing it again at the theater when it comes out in the U.S.Follow soar through an animated universe fashioned by Studio Ghibli is to be enchanted. Arrietty left me with good feelings and avoided being heavy-handed with messages as some Ghibli movies can tend to do. This isn't an action-packed movie with a grand climax or anything like that, but I found it satisfying and pleasantly watchable. Arrietty herself, the daughter of the family of tiny people, continues the tradition of fantastic female characters that comes from Studio Ghibli. As for the story, it's simple and effective, and deals with nothing more than the human occupants of a home, including a young boy with a heart condition, and the family of borrowers that also lives there unknown. But the simple beauty of everything and seeing the lovingly-drawn detail in everyday items from the view of smaller eyes makes this one of the more memorable Ghibli movies from a visual standpoint, in my opinion. Instead of the fantastical lands of most Ghibli films like Spirited Away or Howl's Moving Castle, The Secret World of Arrietty is set in an ordinary home. It's visually as beautiful as you'd expect from Ghibli, with even simple backgrounds looking as lovely as a painting. The Secret World of Arrietty is the story of a family of "borrowers" a tiny race of people who live within the homes of ordinary humans and who are supposed to stay hidden from them at all times. A "smaller-scale" Ghibli movie than what we're used to, but a good one. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |