"The Secret World of Arrietty" looks to shrink us down, both in size and in age, to a smaller, simpler world where little people inhabit the walls and an empty meadow holds all the promise and potential of imagination. It is nothing short of captivating and magical, and although both words are well overused when describing a Studio Ghibli movie, there is simply no other way to say it.
This world comes to the screen by way of English children's writer Mary Norton and her successful series, "The Borrowers." In this universe, mazes are constructed through walls, dollhouses and floorboards to allow miniature versions of people, called "borrowers," in and out of the "beings" world — the realm of normalsized humans. Borrowers live by a credo to take what they need and nothing more, with the one condition that a being can never notice what's been taken. Here, a single tealeaf will last for a week, a sugar cube a month and a tissue possibly forever. Water drops in slow beads like syrup, and when it rains, the borrowers are able to brush off each drop individually. At the same time, cats and other animals appear mountainous, and a brush with a creature as small as a rat can be fatal.
In this dangerous yet fascinating world, Pod (Will Arnett) has started to teach his daughter Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) how to navigate through the walls as well as the various climbing techniques required of any successful borrower. While hunting for a tissue, however, they are seen by a twelveyearold boy, Shawn (David Henrie), who is resting in the country before undergoing surgery on his failing heart. Arrietty and Shawn eventually become friends, but in keeping with the borrower code, Arrietty's parents decide they must move because they've been discovered. The old caretaker, Hara (Carol Burnett), long suspicious of the borrowers' existence, has other plans and tries to trap the borrowers to prove once and for all that she is not crazy.
Part of what makes the environment of "The Secret World of Arrietty" so compelling is the lack of any immediate antagonist or villain to push the plot along, allowing the magnificent visuals to shine through. Sure, the occasional crow or cat saunters along to chase the borrowers around the house, but these actions are more a compulsion than ill will. Similarly, Hara seeks them out not to destroy or hurt them, but rather because she cannot help herself.
Instead, the real conflict is found in the juxtaposition of Arrietty's magic wonderland with the truth of Shawn's cruel circumstances — that life is just not fair to some people. When the beings' recognition of the borrowers' world forces Arrietty's family to move, she must confront the unfortunate reality that it was a result of her own carelessness. Likewise, Shawn and those around him remain silently fixated on the fact that he will not survive in the coming weeks. His talk of death and the pointlessness of existence is sharp, especially coming from someone his age.
It is only when Shawn is willing to believe in the mystical around him that he can confidently look toward his future with all the imagination and wonder he deprived himself of as a child. Meanwhile, Hara's singlemindedness in tracking down the borrowers will never end until she is willing to quit hunting and just believe.
The real heart of the movie is found in Hayao Miyazaki's tradition and Hiromasa Yonebayashi's flourishing, modest direction. While Peter Hewitt and John Goodman's "The Borrowers" (1997) may have been impressive in the technical details, "The Secret World of Arrietty" manages to retain the mystique without sacrificing the tone for slapstick. There are no moments where Arrietty's femininity superficially stands in the way of her capability, nor does the movie trade quick jokes for a hollow laugh. Instead, this is an animated movie in the classic style of greatness: full of heart, sincerity and confidence in its message.
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