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The mother, Homily (Amy Poehler), is a somewhat comic, excitable figure, worrying constantly about her husband and daughter (at one point even briefly praying for them). A lesser Borrower would have panicked and run away.” It’s a rare father-daughter dynamic in a family film, and a welcome one. Later, though Arrietty has made a serious slip, Pod praises her: “I am very proud of you. The first night he takes Arrietty borrowing with him we see his skills through her shining eyes. That, and a sometimes over-insistent score, are about the extent of the film’s weaknesses.Īrrietty’s father Pod (Will Arnett), quite unlike the portly, bowler-wearing figure of the books, is a strong, silent action hero and jack-of-all-trades - MacGyver crossed with Pa from the Little House books, though without Pa’s humorous, playful side. Her supporting cast is colorful, but not as well-developed as in most of Miyazaki’s films. It must be acknowledged, though, that where Kiki inhabited a world full of engaging personalities, Arrietty is the most personable character in her film. With her hair pulled back in a tiny butterfly clip and a found pin at her side like a sword, she feels ready for anything - a soul sister to the titular heroine of Kiki’s Delivery Service. In a late scene, as Arrietty rides on Shawn’s shoulder, the camera cuts between the two frames of reference: We see Shawn (David Henrie) walking normally across the room with a tiny girl on his shoulder, and then we see Arrietty hurtling along like the young hero of The Iron Giant on the shoulder of his colossal friend.Īrrietty is a winsome protagonist: spirited, coltish, wide-eyed, eager to take up the family trade. But we also see the “Beans” (or human beings) and their world from the Borrowers’ point of view. Our first sight of Arrietty (voiced in the American dub by Bridgit Mendler) is through the eyes of the boy, who catches a fleeting glimpse of a tiny female figure vanishing in the grass. What is unique to Arrietty is that it shows us both perspectives: the human and the other. In this case, it is Shawn, who has come to his great-aunt’s house in the country to rest for his precarious health. Oh, and in both films a character suffers from a serious, potentially life-threatening condition, a situation that is obliquely rather than directly resolved in the end. The older generation pass on memories and lore regarding the mysterious creatures, but it’s generally the young who see them.

Both films begin with young protagonists (in Totoro there are two young sisters here, it’s a boy named Shawn) arriving at an unfamiliar house in the country and discovering the strange, elusive beings who live there.

In some ways, Arrietty echoes Miyazaki’s great classic My Neighbor Totoro.

The secret world of arrietty full movie free online series#

(As a child I read The Littles books, a younger-skewing American series by John Peterson that shared the premise of little people living in the secret spaces of big people’s homes.)įrom a brief perusal of Norton’s first Borrowers book, it seems The Secret World of Arrietty, um, borrows themes and plot points, including the names of the Borrower family - young Arrietty and her parents, level-headed Pod and nervous Homily - but charts its own plot in its own setting, present-day Japan rather than Victorian England. I have no prior history with the Borrowers, created in the 1950s by children’s author Mary Norton for a series of popular books and depicted in a number of small-screen adaptations and a well-received 1997 big-screen film. Her “secret world” is in the hidden spaces under floorboards and within walls, but the ordinary spaces of the house are no less magical. The Secret World of Arrietty looks closely at these things because its heroine Arrietty, a Borrower, is only about four inches tall.