The Secret World of Arrietty

directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (2010)
screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki

Japanese anime can be so very good at the sentimental.  This one was kinda melancholy too.

Girls will really dig this.  The animation is straight up gorgeous, just what you'd expect from a Studio Ghibli production and it's drawn from good source materials since it's based on The Borrowers - a best selling series of children's books by Mary Norton.  I loved the books when I was a girl, and seeing this movie I can see why.  You've got a plucky girl going on adventures, and she's meeting up with a handsome boy who wants to save her. So you've got appropriate amounts of action and romance pitched to a preteen level. It's a very engaging story for kids, but it's especially gonna hit home and be empowering for the YA girls who are bound to identify with Arrietty.  Her secret world is secret not simply because the heart of a young girl is mysterious, yeah to that but more because she's really for real living a secret life.  She's a teeny tiny miniature person living with her family inside the walls of a regular person's house.  She's just like people though, just small and she's at the age where she's eager to get out from under her parent's thumb and meet up with the big wide world - a little corner of it anyhow.   It's fun, and there's magical little people, well they aren't really magical except that they exist, plus there's helpful animals and what all boycrazy girls will appreciate - in spite of obvious complications, sparks still fly between the boy and the girl.  Who cares that they come from different worlds and aren't even close to the same size?  They speak the language of love.  Aw... I ate this up when I was 11, and I still found it sweet as an grown up.

I have a greater appreciation for reality and tragedy now though.  I think if I'd watched this when I was a kid I'd have felt really disappointed at the ending.

There are 2 different English language dubs, one for American audiences and one for the UK.  The books were written by an English woman, so maybe that's why that happened.  Or maybe it's because the producers wanted the broadest possible audience and figured American people wouldn't want to listen to "foreign accents."  I heard the American version, and it was pleasant, but I can't help but wonder if the movie would have sounded better in the other dub.

Also, I liked hearing Carol Burnett in a small role as a housekeeper.  I could easily picture her animated character as the cleaning lady she did at the close of her variety TV show.

The cat was pretty great too.