Short Round: The Secret World of Arrietty (Kari-gurashi no Arietti) (2010) ***/*****
The Secret World of Arrietty is notable mostly for the involvement of Hayao Miyazaki in its production. Miyazaki is pretty much an animation legend. Unlike films like Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away, however, Arrietty doesn’t have the master on board as a director. Here he’s only working as a co-writer and producer. For most, that might be a negative, but for my tastes, it ended up being a positive. In the past I’ve found Miyazaki’s movies to be so dense with fantastic mythology that they become disorienting experiences that are difficult to be anchored to. Whether they’re set in the world of Japanese myth that I’m not familiar with, or even just a world of nonsense, Miyazaki’s works have struck me as being alienating and annoying. Arrietty, however, is an adaptation of a Mary Norton novel called ‘The Borrowers,’ and instead of introducing us to a weird world full of crazy characters, it takes place in a world that looks exactly like our own, except for the fact that it introduces the idea that there are tiny people living in the walls of our houses. I appreciated the relative normalcy.
And, despite the fact that this one is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi rather than Miyazaki himself, that doesn’t mean it’s any less technically impressive than Miyazaki’s highly regarded masterworks. The world of this film is rendered in such painstaking, intricate detail that it doesn’t seem possible the animation could be as smooth as it is; yet the images flow past us like a river, impressing at every turn. They’ve created an absorbing filmgoing experience from top to bottom. Even the sound design is noticeably great. When Arrietty picks up a stray needle off of the ground, it moves with a hefty, metallic chink that sonically resembles a sword, and instantly you’re transported to a world where you’re only a few inches tall. And when Arrietty is attacked by a bird and then saved by the sickly houseguest, Shawn, the sound goes from chaotic and disorienting to dropping out completely once she is safe in his hand. The experience puts you immediately at the edge of your seat, and then instantly comforts you. The makers of this movie know exactly how to play to your base instincts, and that’s an important skill when you’re making entertainment for children.
They’re not quite able to maintain the narrative momentum all the way to the end though. This one is very deliberately paced, and seeing as the sensory experience of being dropped into the world is so perfectly rendered, at first that’s welcome. Watching Arrietty can feel like a leisurely drive through a gorgeous countryside on a Sunday afternoon. But after a while the low stakes storytelling starts to become a bore. The only real conflict in the film comes from the fact that there’s a snoopy maid who seems intent on finding the little people’s hiding place, and you’re never really convinced that anything you’re watching is all that grave. By the third act it’s kind of hard to still be engrossed, despite how beautiful things are. And, for whatever it’s worth, the second run theater audience I saw this with walked out, to a person, before the end credits rolled.
