The Secret World of Arrietty

It's no big secret that I am a fan of Studio Ghibli. For those who are still unfamiliar with Studio Ghibli, I would say that they are more or less the Japanese equivalent to Pixar. The movies are still hand drawn 2D, but their quality and popularity is on par. Their films are even distributed in the US by Disney, and while not all of them are bordering on perfect, several of them are. Not only that, but even the lesser Studio Ghibli movies still have some of the most vivid imagery that you will every see. Okay, so I could go on about Studio Ghibli for much longer than anyone would care to listen, so for now, we'll just leave it at that.

Last weekend was one of those times where the stars line up just right, and the universe just works like you hope it will. In this case, Studio Ghibli's new movie, The Secret World of Arrietty arrived in theaters the same week as my birthday. Naturally, we took the kids to go see it. The movie is based on the classic book The Borrowers, about tiny people living underneath the floorboards (the old cartoon show, The Littles, was loosely based on the borrowers as well).


Not surprisingly, we all loved it. The kids, ages 5 and 2, were enthralled the whole time, as were Mom and Dad. The art and animation was fantastic, the story was fun, and there was an ever present calm to the movie that was very refreshing. In many ways, The Secret World of Arrietty is the opposite of a lot of children's programming that we see here stateside; there weren't any flashy action scenes, no shiny dresses, no magic spells, no shouting or anything like that. Instead, what we get is perfectly captured childlike imagination and wonder. The scene where Arrietty watches her father repel down from the cupboard, and then scale the counter across the room feels watching an expert mountain climber scale El Capitan in Yosemite. It just felt adventurous.

The calm of the movie really influenced the kids while we watched, as they were perfectly contented and quiet during the entire duration. Also, we're big fans of children's shows with strong female characters, and this movie, like most of Ghibli's, definitely had that.

Recommended.