Arrietty by Hiromasa Yonebayashi , 2010 By

(Figure 1 is the movie poster.)

Arrietty is an interesting Japanese animation as the story is the same as the Borrowers (1997 by Peter Hewitt) with a different ending. The story is about a small family of people who live under the house and go into the house to borrow bits that no one will miss e.g. sugar, pins The film goes on and Arrietty gets seen and the family has to move, but drama hits the family and Arrietty has to work with the boy to save her family from the maid. Arrietty is a showcase for breathtaking but traditional hand drawn animation. As Pixar was consumed by Disney and became increasingly mainstream, Studio Ghibli continued to ignore trivial concerns like profit and loss, in favour of meaning and beauty. Their attentions are always solely concentrated on the art of what they are doing. They have no departments dedicated to marketing or merchandise.(Trim, 2011) The hand drawn animation is really amazing especially in the backgrounds, (as seen in figure 2). The use of colour and scale and lighting really gives the viewer the feeling of how you would see the world from that size.

(Figure 2 is screen shot from the film.)

Recently, Studio Ghibli seems to have turned to more non-Japanese inspiration for their particular and delightful brand of animated features Howls Moving Castle was based on books by British author Diana Wynne Jones and -Tales from Earthsea was of course drawn from the series by American author Ursula Le Guin. In both cases, Ghibli saw in these stories something that was still close to its heart, and Arrietty the Borrower (Karigurashi no Arrietty), based on the popular childrens series The Borrowers by British author Mary Norton, is arguably the most Ghibli of these.(Deni,2011) The film may be less Japanese inspired, but the way the film combines the anima drawing style and the English based story does work on a level thats not too extreme where its not completely English or Japanese but has little subtle references to both sides of the world. The film for me was an enjoyable film as it was a familiar story, but not just that, the film did have some interesting designs for devices for the small family so they can get about and explore the house. Over all I have given this film 4 stars, because the film cannot beat the original film The Borrowers (1997) by Peter Hewitt but it does come second.

Liam Trim, 2011: http://flickeringmyth.blogspot.com/2011/07/movie-review-arrietty-2010.html

Deni 2011: http://www.heroic-cinema.com/reviews/arrietty-2011/

Figure 1 is the movie poster: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=Arrietty+2010+reviews&um=1&hl=en&client=firefoxa&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:enGB:official&channel=np&biw=1343&bih=856&tbm=isch&tbnid=kmgtEPZlZaxiM:&imgrefurl=http://www.geek-grotto.com/2012/02/review-secret-world-ofarrietty.html&docid=8f5nQxX9opAg0M&imgurl=http://4.bp.blogspot.com/DN_lI7AIcTg/Tz3LOHdoWII/AAAAAAAAC6I/H53QXHqIPn8/s1600/The-Secret-World-ofArrietty2010.jpg&w=690&h=1022&ei=Ue9NT8y_NObX0QWknvXMAw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=400& sig=105725508048840872365&page=1&tbnh=154&tbnw=104&start=0&ndsp=22&ved=1t:4 29,r:2,s:0&tx=13&ty=74

(Figure 2 is screen shot from the film.)

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?q=Arrietty+2010+reviews&um=1&hl=en&client=firefoxa&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:enGB:official&channel=np&biw=1343&bih=856&tbm=isch&tbnid=8dnxsRNYLyY9FM:&imgrefu rl=http://www.avsforum.com/avsvb/showthread.php%3Fp%3D21696734&docid=zf20L88uDuq5FM&imgurl=http://media.cin emasquid.com/blu-ray/titles/arrietty/10702f85-8cd3-42f8-916e-e002f18a4898/screenshot640-01.jpg&w=640&h=360&ei=s_hNTinO4rW0QWt3eyfBQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=678&vpy=146&dur=2639&hovh=168&hovw=3 00&tx=229&ty=112&sig=105725508048840872365&page=2&tbnh=122&tbnw=217&start=2 2&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:19,s:22