Anime: Karigurashi no Arrietty

Art & Animations

Wonderful! Amazing! Very detailed, has nice realistic aspects in places. Very beautiful scenery, background, space. Characters look really good. I would grade Art & Animation with grade 12 if I could! I definitely fell in love with the artwork/animation in this movie. I rarely encounter something like this.

Sound

Very beautiful songs, really good soundtrack. Sound effects are simply great.
Voice acting is very, very good. I liked it a lot.

Story

I like the concept of the story. It is somewhat simple, yet cool anyway. The "world" / environment is shown fabulously. The relationship between Arrietty and Shou and its development are something really pleasant, something touching and definitely worth watching. Two different views from different worlds that are so close but so far. Their situations, problems and aspirations... it is all wonderful to watch and "live it with them". Again, even though the story is kind of simplistic, it is really touching and feels important to me. It is really enjoyable.

The ending is more than fitting in my opinion.

Characters

Both Arriety and Shou are portrayed really nicely, with good personalities and unique views on the world. I like how they interacted and started to get to know each other. Arriety's parents are portrayed really well, as well as Shou's grandmother. Although, I kind of wish that Shou's grandmother and Arriety's parents had more impact on the story, and that they were portrayed more. It would have made the story a bit more complete.

Value

Another Ghibli's beautiful movie. Actually, I don't care who made the movie, all I will say is that this movie offers so much. Visuals and audio are stunning and couldn't possibly be better than they are. Big praise from me regarding that! The movie should be very enjoyable for children, but also for grown-ups who like heart-warming stories and a bit of fantasy. I will probably rewatch this movie more than 1 time, because it can simply let us enjoy the life more.

Enjoyment

I definitely, definitely enjoyed this beautiful piece of art! Visuals and audio are stunning. Characters are warm, pleasant and enjoyable. The plot is simple, but also something really nice that offers relaxation.

I definitely recommend this movie to everyone. I know that there will be those that are unable to enjoy this kind of movie, and I feel sad for them.

After 'Spirited Away', I've been constantly looking forward to the next Studio Ghibli movies in hopes that they would give me the same standard of enjoyment. And unfortunately every movie following Spirited Away has (in my opinion) been a huge disappointment. But... almost a decade later, along comes Arrietty and finally breaks the run of let-downs. Arrietty is rather good :)

Visuals
I'd go so far as to say that the Visuals in Arrietty are it's strongest aspect. So much effort has been put to get the subtle details correct that I often found myself marvelling at how well presented the world was from a little person's perspective. Tiny drops of water have a syrup-like viscousity, and the way small object like leaves, pins, and cubes of sugar are such large heavy objects to a little person really gives a good impression of how cumbersome these things can be which a normal person wouldn't even think twice about.

The overwhelming strength of the visuals lies in simply looking at the world from a tiny person's point of view. Everything is instantly familiar but used in a completely alternative fashion. Navigating a few meters often requires a lot of agility to clamber over objects and obstacles, and the simplest of journeys can become long treks and voyages.

The colour palette is suitably glorious, showing the rich green of the garden to the darker murkier tones of the crevices behind walls and bricks. The lighting compliments this perfectly, and does well to play on the overall intriguing and almost magical mood of the film.

The animation is a slight source of contention for me. It's never terrible, but it does have that traditional Studio Ghibli inconsistency. In the opening 10 minutes of the movie, we see a young boy exiting slowly out of a car, and there are few frames of animation used to do so, which in turn make the frame rate seem sub par. But then a few moments later, we see a tiny person scurrying swiftly through the grass carrying a leaf, and the fluidity of the animation increases to a breathtaking rate. It's a typical problem of having sped up action sequences which cover the lack of frames in animation, and unfortunately slower paced scenes which show the need for more.

Sound
The sound is brilliantly realised throughout the movie. Sound effects feel heavier when presented from a tiny person's point of view, and lighter from the normal. The voice acting is fine from all the characters (original Japanese language reviewed here), and nobody sounds silly or annoying. The music is also charming all the way through.

The downside comes in the form of some original songs featured in the movie by Cécile Corbel. They make the movie feel really, really cheesy when the songs are played. She can apparently speak many different languages, but singing in english is what she does for the movie, and it just sounds aweful. The tone of the movie is worse for it in my opinion. This is a Japanese movie with Japanese voice acting, so why is there suddenly this english love song making it's way to our ears? If anything it should only be used for the Western dubs of the movie, but it's still cheesy even for that.

Story
The story is based on the classic "The Borrowers". A young boy with a heart condition movies into an old house in the countryside with his Aunt and housekeeper to rest and be in a peaceful environment. This house however, is inhabited by a 3-person family of Borrowers - tiny 6-inch tall people who 'borrow' items from humans in order to live peacefully behind the walls without being seen. As soon as the young boy (Sho) arrives at the house, he spots a young Borrower girl (Arrietty) briefly in the garden.

First of all - yes, they don't really "borrow" so much as actually "take" or "steal". I suppose the author of the original story thought it wouldn't be so great to refer to the protagonists as thieves, even though of course they are! But we forgive them anyway since their thievery is so negligible and they have a sweet disposition. Anyway...

The movie takes a suprising turn very early on. It starts by giving the impression it will follow the story of this young boy Sho, and how he interacts with the Borrowers. However after 10 minutes, we find that actually, we're going to follow the story of the young Borrower girl Arrietty, and how she goes about her daily life and her interactions with the humans. This is thankfully, one of the best decisions of the movie.

For every second that Arrietty is the main focus of the screen, the movie is highly absorbing. Every little detail surrounding what she does is interesting, and thought out very cleverly to make it believable even though it's fictional. The movie plays out over the course of just a few days, and is more or less just time to showcase the daily trials and tribulations of these tiny people whilst they do the most ordinary things in the most extraordinary ways. Stealing a sugarcube in the dead of night is a mini stealth adventure, and watching it slowly unfold is oddly, highly entertaining for a task that seems so simple on the surface.

In fact the parts of the movie that bored me the most was when we see things from the human's point of view. Watching them just takes some of the magical charm out of the movie. The second we weren't focused on Arrietty, I was constantly wanting her back on screen asap, so we could continue viewing (what is basically just a mundane house) from a tiny person's eyes.

The movie shares many positive aspects with My Neighbour Totoro. It has the same charm of watching someone do something essentially very simple, but yet keeping you thoroughly interested in their well-being and engrossed in their little world.

One of the downsides to the movie (for me) is the open-ended nature of the ending. I'd prefer more closure from a story personally, though it isn't actually terrible or anything. And, as silly as this sounds, I would have also preferred there not to be any danger element between Borrower-Human interaction. This part of the plot essentially makes you feel panicked in an otherwise quite calm, serene film. It wouldn't be an issue if the movie was built around tension and dynamic changes, but it's not. This movie is laid out to absorb the viewer in warmth and wonder - not excitement and thrills.

Characters
The lead character Arrietty is excellent in basically every way. She behaves in a manner which keeps her very likable and intriguing at the same time, and for this sort of environment, it was nice to see a lead female character in a Studio Ghibli movie who was a young teenager, rather than someone usually a bit younger. It gave her some subtley more complex emotions which came across very well in the movie. The rest of the tiny people featured in the movie as the supporting characters are also decent, but have a very background role in comparison. Arrietty's mother was slightly irritating, which in my opinion was something that even Studio Ghibli must've thought since she's been drawn with the tradtional look of a Studio Ghibi old witch.

The humans in the movie are more of an issue with me. The supporting characters (Sho's Aunt and the Housekeeper), technically fill their roles perfectly adequately, but are just not what we want to spend too much time dawdling on. The character of Sho however, I just really disliked altogether. He gives the impression that he's absolutely blatted on drugs, and can't convey any degree of emotion beyond a narrow spectrum of mild amusement. Even when he is making the effort to be courageous and/or energetic, he won't show any proper emotion or proof that he's a real person. To top it all, he says a few ridiculously EMO lines at various points in the movie, and it sounds corny and attrocious. Compared to the other characters in the movie, he's just a mess.

There is also the aspect of just what bond exactly do Sho and Arrietty have. Do they see each other as potential siblings? Lovers? Being opposite genders makes it natural for the audience to try and label it as something specific and difficult. This wouldn't be so much of a problem if Sho was younger, or a more likeable character, as I feel the audience would be more prepared to understand that it's just going to be complicated and leave it at that. But Sho and Arrietty are young teens, and it's not realistic to expect an audience not to wonder (or think up bizaare images in their head). Personally, I would have avoided this issue by making Sho's character a girl and therefore just showing a traditional strong friendship.

Value
I'm actually still undecided whether I want to add this movie to my dvd collection. The other Ghibli movies I have are ones I really LOVE, and this one I feel isn't quite at that point. I will watch this again in the future at some point, and who knows, maybe by then I will have changed my mind.

Enjoyment
This truly did suprise me. I was expecting another disappointment but thankfully rather liked Arrietty. As mentioned before it has a similar feel to My Neighbour Totoro, which is never a bad thing. The charm of the movie lies in just observing this little world and how everything seems so 'magical' when it's actually grounded in reality. The care taken over the presentation of the movie is truly deserving of the highest praise, and poor song choices / emo boys aside, it's a movie full of warmth and rich with wonder. I don't like the lack of closure in the ending, and by no means do I like the momentary diversion in the plot where we have some tension between Borrowers/Humans, but it thankfully doesn't scar the positive heart of the movie.

The Borrower Arrietty is yet another mediocre Ghibli film, which was adored by thousands of people only because they were completely disappointed with their previous works, Tales From Earthsea and Ponyo in the Cliff. It is indeed not a complete travesty like those two, only because the supposed-retired super awesome director Hayao Miyazaki ran back to supervise most of whatever they were doing. Thank goodness he realized that making quality family movies is not something everybody can do. It takes talent and attention; something of which his successors (his own son included) have no idea of.

I happened to have seen the cartoon series from the 80’s when I was a kid, as well as the live action movie they made some years back, both of which were based on the same book. Well sorry to say this but those earlier versions were better because the older, the better… Err, I meant those had more plot. And seriously, of all the myriads of things they could have shown from the civilization of the little people, they only focused on a single family living in the middle of nowhere, while it has two big people (our kind that is) coming for a visit in the house they are living in for years. And that is pretty much all you get from the plot, as most of it is about the human boy Shou becoming a friend with Borrower girl Arrietty. By the time their background is established, the movie is almost over.

It’s not like there is nothing going on in the story but it sure as hell is not exciting. There is a battle scene of sorts with a crow, and some annoying cat running around, and some granny capturing some little people for awhile. All that mean nothing in the longrun since the most core themes of the movie are left hanging to dry. What about Shou’s illness? What about the Borrowers moving away to safety? What about that granny capturing them for unknown reasons? What about an entire new civilization in the brink of extinction being suddenly revealed to the world? What about their hostile relationships? None of those cool things happen and the most exciting part was seeing a frail sick boy trying to unstuck a crow from a window for over ten minutes.

In case you are wondering why would I expect all that from a family movie, just head back in the older Ghibli films to find out why. Hayao used to make world-shaking events, full of action and suspense, people dying by the millions, civilizations crumbling, and vengeful spirits or beasts huge as skyscrapers turning everything to rubble. And now you get a frail boy trying to save a tiny person from a dollhouse, guarded by a senile granny. That’s it… Maybe if the house was demolished, that crow had eaten some Borrower, the rats had bitten Shuu, Arrietty was falling in love with him, that other savage Borrower was feeling threatened and planned some sort of backstabbing, maybe if we would see the other Borrowers living away being invaded by ants or something, then the movie would be great. Those are lots of maybies and eventually all you get is less than a typical kid film. What I am trying to say here is that they could have done a thousand things with the premise and offered practically nothing.

If you are in for the production values, you are going to like it of course; Ghibli don’t hold back in making everything look splendid. The Borrower microcosmos looks awesome and you are made to think that crossing a simple rabbit hole is an adventure on its own. Voice acting is good, BGM is good, stuff move around nicely instead of watching frozen caricatures with a flapping mouth. They still look rather generic in a Ghibli sense but whatever, they are fine. Superficially you get a wonderful looking setting and well established characters. The problem is they are not doing much with all that and remain on a completely simple level; simplistic character interactions and scratching of the threat humans are to Borrowers. Shou is the perfect good-hearted boy and Arrietty is the perfect risky girl that is ready to go against the rules in order to get what she wants. It was way too easy for them to get friends and cooperate against the dreaded dangers of… fetching sugar… or getting out of a doll house… or getting on a tiny boat and strolling down a calm river… GAH this is so boring! Where is the conflict, the development, the insecurity, the violent struggle with the status quo? They are so basic, they might as well don’t exist at all.

Down to it the movie is not that good. It will appeal to all ghiblitards just for the sake of being Ghibli and it will only be remembered as the film which doesn’t suck like the earlier ones. For those who want something far more cool and similar, I recommend the amazing Le Planet Sauvage.

Scores in a hurry
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Note: Rate me! This review is based on [Coalgirls] english subbing of the film and it may contain disagreeable opinions and spoilers. I aim to try and be assertive, objective and spoiler-free when it comes to my reviews but otherwise enjoy. Feedback is always appreciated.

PROLOGUE
"Arrietty the Borrower" or "The Borrower Arrietty" is a 2010 Japanese animated fantasy film produced by Studio Ghibli. It's based on a fantasy novel called "The Borrowers" by English author Mary Norton and directed by new Studio Ghibli animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who was the youngest person to direct a film for Ghibli. Ghibli founder Hayao Miyazaki supervised the production as a developing planner.

The main story is about a Boy name Shou who discovers soon about tiny people called the Borrowers once he moves into his Auntie's house. A 14 year old Borrower named Arrietty helps her father gather resources in order to support her family from danger, in this case, Shou's new home being humanity in general. However, at some point, Arriety and Shou meet together, breaking the rule that humans aren't allowed to know of the existance of Borrowers. As their relationship develops in presence, Humans have come to cause danger upon the borrowers lives. With the main conflict in place, Arriety and Shou work together to try and protect the Borrowers way of life.

My Thoughts
The Borrower Arrietty is a nice step in the right direction for Ghibli, considering their latest works after the great Spirited Away (My Favorite Ghibli movie) didn't quite have the same warming and joyful impact of quality impression like it's predecessors due to their stories feeling rushed and pretty forgettable in development such as Tales from Earthsea to Ponyo. Howls Moving Castle also was a bit guilty in this regard of impact but despite being good by Ghibli standards, it didn't really standout much like Spirited Away and previous classic works before either.

Back on topic, there is a reason why this film is a step in the right direction for Ghibli. As such, this is due to the very nice presentation and solid development of it's sum of general/familiar fantasy ideas for story, revolving around the relationship between humans and how they might view other unique beings if seen in existence, particularly the Borrowers in this case. Mind you that while I didn't read the original novel of which the film adapted by in ideas, I personally found the film to be well crafted despite it's simplicity in depth and familiarity being quite the joyful fantasy in a household to garden setting in atmosphere while touching, warming and enjoyable in characterization and progression of the story. The soundtrack in particular takes the cake in lifting the presentation, blending in well within moments of storytelling in the film as well as successfully adding immersion and emotional impact to make the film, all the more arousing and enjoyable. As a whole, the film is definitely worth watching solely for it's nice mix of high quality presentation from animation to soundtrack along with familiar fantasy storytelling done right of which makes it a must watch not only for Ghibli Fans, but for everyone else as well.

ANIMATION
The Highlights
It's no surprise that from a high end studio production, Ghibli manages to pull out very impressive and awestruck animation consistently in just about all of its films. The Borrower Arrietty here is no exception and with well drawn and realised, fluid and colorful scenery from its nature of the garden to the inner household and objects, its certainly very appealing to the eye. Character designs are relatively simple in physical appearance, colours and clothing, not to mention fluid in proportions and movement. None the less, the character design is also pretty standout amongst the high production values of the scenery in animation. There are also some nice variety of camera angles in 3rd to 1st person, given to help capture nicely the feel of storytelling and character moments in high detail of the animation. Given it's high quality of animation, there is also a sense of atmosphere and wander ranging from melacholic to touching in a way given to add much needed immersion towards the storytelling and character development. Overall, the animation is very much high caliber and standout in it's visuals, being well realised in detail and fluidity to make for a great impression and immersion amongst it's moments of storytelling and character development. It's very likeable and you might as well embrace it while the film lasts.

The Lows
As much as the animation is well produced, I did feel that at times the colors in scenery detail did look a little off in blending being too vibrant at times and as such it becomes a bit unnatural for my liking. Otherwise, it isn't too noticeable by any means as everything else in detail is nicely done and well realised to make up for the rather adrupt colors of the animation.

SOUND
The Highlights
Ghibli's previous works, like it or not, all have had a quality soundtrack composed, particularly being successful in adding immersion and feeling towards the storytelling and character development. Of course, you may wonder yourself if the soundtrack is composed just as well for The Borrower Arriety, as veterans like Joe Hisaishi in previous works aren't behind it. As the soundtrack is composed on request of Ghibli by Cecile Corbel, I can safely say that the new composers have done a great job with the soundtrack being the most impressive component of immersion in the film as well as adding impact towards the whole story. The instrumental tunes in particularly are the most impressive, having a nice range and melody composed to suit each moment of the story and character development. Most of the tunes are instrumental and each one gives off a nice sense of immersion and feeling of atmosphere, being quite soothing and memorable with tunes ranging from melacholic to joyful, helping to add that distinctive emotional feel towards given moments of the story. Sound effects are also nicely done, given that they sound right within reality and the setting of the story from the nature scenery of the gardens, weather effects, indoor household environments along with interaction of objects and character movement. Lastly, voice acting is solid and well done in terms of conveying character personalities and emotion. Overall, the soundtrack of the film is truly excellent, adding immersion and feeling towards moments of the story particularly in its memorable variety of joyful, soothing and melacholic tunes to go along with the high quality resemblance of sound effects in scenery.

The Lows
While the voice acting may be solid, there are minor occasions where it does lack a little on emotional impact at times, being a bit dull in interaction. Also, your mileage may vary in terms of how much you like the whole soundtrack. Otherwise, it is nonetheless well composed in all facets in adding impact towards the film.

STORY
The Highlights
The story here is quite the simple tale of brief friendship and human relationship towards other fantasy beings in the case of tiny people, the Borrowers. Both beings, of which the Borrowers find conflict while Humans find curiosity and fanfic in one another. It starts off easy by introducing the characters within it's native setting and occasion for developing the story from where we see Shou, the main protagonist being human along with his family to the borrowers, Arrietty and her family. Each of them are given quite the simple background, issues and personality in character as the story progresses. Later on, the story then builds up in subject of its theme of friendship and fantasy relationship between humans ourselves and beings (The Borrowers) from there despite it is quite brief as a whole. As such, Shou and Arrietty happen to communicate indirectly between each other at a certain point throughout their way of living until they eventually meet and have to work together against human conflict in a situation that is soon presented towards the borrowers. Judging from the story, it may be simple given it's scope of friendship, fantasy relationship subject but in terms of the storytelling, it is told, paced and presented well in each moment of support and conflict of which adds to the subject of the story, even if only brief for a film. The moments themselves are vibrant and quite subtle givings of adventure, drama and interaction between certain characters, particularly between Arrietty and her family along with the driving relationship that goes at hand with Shou. As an addition, these moments help to showcase, and develop the story well in subject and journey being executed in a mature, believable and touching manner to the most part. The ending itself is rather bittersweet but heartwarming thanks to the well-told journey and presents itself as a nice interpretation of closure and rememberance amongst the story. Overall, the story is a nicely told, simple and warming tale of brief fantasy adventure, friendship and relationship between humanity and fictional beings: the Borrowers in which case being conveyed and focused on subject and journey in the relationship between Arrietty and Shou. As such, it's the execution in what makes the story stand out amongst its simplicity of ideas and given depth, being a good adaptation of ideas based on an original novel. Even if you haven't read the novel or know about it, what you see in the film is most likeable and suiting to say the least of the direction of the story.

The Lows
While the story may be told well, don't expect it to have the grand scale as other Ghibli works due to the ideas and subject material of the story shown being relatively simpler in presentation compared to past works such as Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke having more to offer. Also, the story is considerably a bit short due to the lack of interactive events for added conflict to build upon the scale of the story. The ending too might be a little unsatisfying in closure as it seems a bit rushed in leaving a lasting impression and perhaps more emphasis at that point could have built up a bigger impression upon the film, just before it ended. As a whole, the negatives are pretty much overshadowed by the nice storytelling and while it may be more simple and lacking in a more meaningful impression in scope, it is nonetheless enjoyable and up to ghibli standards to the most part like their previous works.

CHARACTER[/u]
The Highlights
The characters are certainly likeable if a little familiar despite mostly being there to serve the story. Shou and Arrietty, being the central duo of importance to the story happens to gain the most emphasis and their relationship being the driving point of the story. As such, being the protagonists, they are developed well in moments of brief support and conflict as the story progresses and unfolds. The moments themselves are simple, light hearted but nicely done. Moments themselves are full of interaction, drama and brief adventure that happen to help develop the characters in the ways of mature, realistic personalities in terms of roles, thoughts and strengths and how they deal with the situations at hand. It's also nice to see that characters don't feel quite stereotypical as they act and behave quite logically within their role in moments of support and conflict, adding to be mostly believable characters to convey the story at hand. As for other characters from Arrietty's family to Shou's aunty etc... they are mostly there to serve for story purposes and character development towards the protagonists. Still, they too are quite likeable during the course of the story. Considering the short amount of screen time for them to have any sort of their own development, they do have their own little quirky and mature behaviors of which makes them understandable and important amongst the protagonists as well as serving each a role of support and/or conflict amongst driving the story. Overall, the characters are likeable and well developed briefly toward the main story at hand, especially amongst Shou and Arriety with their relationship and personalities being the focus of conveying the scope of the story.

The Lows
Despite the characters being well developed, the flaws do come from the fact that they don't really evolve much and change in personality towards the end. Not to mention, they are just there to serve story purposes and with their backgrounds being quite simple, familiar and brief for story development, they aren't exactly standout or overly memorable characters. Also, the central relationship and personalities of Arrietty and Shou does feel a bit rushed towards the end for story. As such, this flaw comes at the lack of interactive events of conflict for the story and as a result, their final closure does feel a bit superficial in development. Overall, these flaws aren't overly bad as the film to the most part does a good job in introducing and unfolding the characters in background and roles over the course of the story, leaving you with a likeable and good impression of them towards the end.

VALUE, ENJOYMENT AND FINAL THOUGHTS
Despite the story not being as grand in presentation ideas of past Ghibli classics and characters not evolving much amongst their familiar but well told personalities, the Borrower Arriety is a nice comeback to quality standards for Studio Ghibli. Having been spoilt and in decline upon for rushed and lack of depth in previous works such as Ponyo and Tales from Earthsea, it seems as if Ghibli took criticism and then created a more fundamental film which is a result of this film. It is a must see for everyone and Ghibli fans considering the high production values of animation, sound and back to form storytelling of brief friendship and adventure reminescing that nice touching feeling of momentum of their classic previous works like Spirited Away. The film is certainly good enough for a rewatch, particularly to catch how nicely told the story is in scope and feeling of its fantasy modern nursery setting and characters even if brief and short. Not to mention it's highly enjoyable as there are nice moments of fantasy, wander and vivid atmosphere to be had time and time in its setting of adventure and interaction given the likeable characters and relationship of Arriety and Shou being the main interest and progression of the story in the film. As a whole, the film is highly recommended and a comeback to fame for Ghibli. It's definitely worth a look to everyone for its vivid and nice presentation along with its brief fantasy friendship and bits of adventure in storytelling. One of which is easy to get lost into given the nice effort gone back into making a great quality film and living up to Ghibli's groundbreaking standards of their past works since Spirited Away. All the best for Ghibli in high anticipation of their next work.