Arrietty is 14 and about to go on her first “borrowing”: accompanying her father as they go spelunking through the house they live under “borrowing” items such as sugar and tissue. Arrietty and her parents are Borrowers, who are little tiny people who live right underneath the noses of “beans” — the humans who live in the world above.
Shawn is a sickly teenaged human boy who needs to rest up before his big heart operation, and he comes to stay in the house Arietty and her family live under — and the second he arrives he notices tiny Arietty. And the cardinal rule of the Borrowers, of course is “Don’t get noticed.”
The Secret World of Arrietty comes from Studio Ghibli, which has produced Totoro (still the best…in fact, I could go watch this right now), Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo… The movie was written and produced by Hayao Miyazaki and directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (as I said to Darin, I knew it couldn’t be Miyazaki directing, because the story was too focused and coherent), and it’s really quite good: there’s a lot of tension about what’s going to happen, and there are a lot of very exciting scenes. Trust me, knowing there could be giant rats around any corner waiting to pounce: very, very exciting. The movie’s gorgeous in the typical Ghibli style.
Both kids said they enjoyed it, and Darin and I were both entertained. It was Arrietty or The Lorax and we were both deeply thrilled when the kids chose Arrietty.
Edited to add: Mike in the comments points out that the movie is based on the Borrowers book series by Mary Norton.
You forgot to mention the movie’s based on “The Borrrowers,” a beloved series of children’s books. In fact, the names of all the characters are all the same. Interesting that Ghibli would adapt a Western series, though I, too, enjoyed it immensely.
I’d love to see it with the British VO cast (Saoirse Ronin, Mark Strong and Olivia Coleman), rather than the more shrill American voices.
(and I agree about Totoro — I might have to rewatch it this afternoon).
Oh, you’re right, I did forget that — I’ve never read the books, so I didn’t think of them (and I have no idea how this movie relates to them — is it an adaptation of a particular one?).
As Darin put it, all of Ghibli’s movies take place in Japamerieurope, a fabulous place where we’d all like to visit.
I, too, would like to visit Japamerieurope
By sheer coincidence, last night I had watched Nausicaa. Comparing it to recent releases made me wonder how much influence Disney has on Ghibli.