The Secret World of Arrietty

Connor's Movie Review

Movie Title:    The Secret World of Arrietty

Released:   February 2012

Movie Rating:  G

Star Rating: ««««    

Movie Summary:

This movie focuses on borrowers, miniscule people who hide in the walls and floors of houses, who “borrow” small items from humans to make their living and survive in their tiny makeshift homes.  Arrietty is a brave, adventurous young girl, a borrower, who lives with her parents in their small house, located in the walls of a small garden home.  Arrietty is very thrilled when her father invites her to go with him on her first “borrowing” trip.  A curious Arrietty asks her parents what would happen if a human spotted a borrower.  They tell her that the human’s curiosity will lead them to be obsessed with trying to find the borrower and his home, forcing the borrower and his family to flee to another residence where they can live safely.

Living in the small garden home with the housekeeper, Hara, is an emotionally and physically ill young boy named Shawn, who is taken there by his aunt to temporarily live because his parents are too busy to care for him.  Arrietty’s first borrowing trip doesn’t go as planned when Shawn catches her attempting to borrow an item in his room.  Arrietty’s father thinks that they will have to move because Shawn has seen his daughter.   Arrietty doesn’t believe that this human boy is going to hurt her and her family, so she sets off to discover the big world, where she officially meets Shawn for the first time.  They begin to develop a strong friendship.  Shawn promises to hide and protect Arrietty from those who wish to harm her.  Meanwhile, Hara (who doesn’t know about borrowers and Arrietty’s friendship with Shawn), begins to suspect that something strange is going on.  When the housekeeper discovers Arrietty’s home and kidnaps her mother, the adventurous borrower and her new friend, Shawn, put everything at risk to rescue her mother. 

“The Secret World of Arrietty” is a very family-friendly movie, and I enjoyed it.  This is my very first anime (Japanese animation) movie, and I was very impressed.  The hand-drawn animation of the film was amazing and the colors were extremely vibrant.  The movie director and the crew obviously put a lot of work into this movie and they did well!  When watching the movie, I had a sense of amazement and awe as I experienced the borrower’s world, actually feeling like I was the borrower myself.  At times I thought that the movie was a tad slow and it could have been a bit more exciting, but overall, I had a very good time watching this movie.                                        

                    

This is no “Secret”….this movie is worth going to!

Enjoy the Movie!  Save Some Popcorn For Me!

The Movie Critic, Connor