But it’s also rich with friendship, adventure, family love and unexpected beauty. Through their whimsical meeting, these friends teach us that life can be difficult and filled with disappointment. We get to see its world through the eyes of two very different young friends: a sick and emotionally wounded young human boy and a coltish 4-inch-high borrower teen who wears a pin at her side like a sword. The resulting film is a gentle imagining packed with fun characters and washed with all the colors of the rainbow. The American-English version is directed by Gary Rydstrom.) (The original Japanese creation, titled Kari-gurashi no Arietti, was directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Studio Ghibli-the creative force behind colorful Japanese fare such as Ponyo and Spirited Away-has now fashioned its version of the tale, wrapping grass-level visuals in a beautifully soft and eye-pleasing animation and setting them in modern day Japan rather than Norton’s original Victorian England. The Secret World of Arrietty is based on a children’s book called The Borrowers, a popular title originally published in 1952 by British author Mary Norton. A lesser borrower would have panicked and run away.”Įven though the borrower family is forced to leave its home, Mom assures Arrietty, “We’ll make another wonderful home, the three of us together.” And when she laments being seen by a bean, Dad returns her praise. But her father warns, “Sometimes it’s best not to go looking for danger.”Īrrietty comes to realize just how skilled her borrowing father is and speaks in awe of his abilities. Arrietty’s comes in a different form: When she sees rats running on the basement floor, her first instinct is to attack them with her new stick sword. And he comes around to it, eventually telling her, “You taught me to be brave.” She tells him, “Sometimes you have to stand up and fight for the things that are important.” She’s right. This dark side of the boy’s personality, though, doesn’t sit well with Arrietty. On the other hand, illness has also left Shawn with a sense of hopelessness-for himself and his new friend. “I just wanted to find a way to protect you.” But if nothing else, his current weakness helps him understand the fragile world and existence of his tiny new friend. Shawn has an undefined “weak heart” condition and will soon have an operation that will hopefully cure his malady. But, still, this is a very bad thing!įather always said, “Once a borrower’s been seen, a human’s curiosity can’t be stopped.” So even though this bean seems nice and kind and gentle, Arrietty may have just opened the door to disaster. He actually whispered to her as if he knew of the borrowers all along. He didn’t act shocked at the sight of her. The same one who might have caught a glimpse of her in the garden when he first came to stay with his aunt. It was the sickly boy bean named Shawn who laid eyes on her. And she even discovered a stick pin lost along the baseboard-a sword by any other name! Truth be told, though, her first borrowing was something of a disaster. It was sort of a rite of passage since she’ll soon be 14. It was only recently that Arrietty’s father took her out on her first borrowing expedition. Nothing more! A discarded cracker here, an insignificant sugar cube there. And to that end, the tiny borrowers just take little things from the beans’ houses. As long as they walk behind the walls and beneath the floors so the beans don’t know they’re there, everything will work out fine. Of course, her dad always reminds her that she has to be careful and stay out of sight. A leaf is big enough to be an umbrella, a thimble can be a flower vase, and a bean’s kitchen, well, that’s a place of treasures and giant wonders as vast as any mountain range.Īrrietty is ready to explore it all. After all, when you’re a person about the size of a grasshopper, everything in the world of the “human beans” takes on a whole new scope. From Arrietty’s point of view, a “borrower’s” life is pretty spectacular.
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