Arrietty

From the makers of beloved anime movies such as Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle comes this equally imaginative tale based on the classic British children’s story The Borrowers. Although this may be familiar territory to western audiences, Studio Ghibli work their magic yet again to produce a gently arresting film that feels fresh and new.

The titular heroine Arrietty is a borrower living in the grounds of a humble, quaint Japanese home. Like all borrowers, she stands a mere three inches high and adventures out into the appropriately big and scary world of the ‘human beans’, scavenging (or ‘borrowing’) food and resources – a single cube of sugar can last Arrietty’s family a whole month, whilst a needle becomes a sword in her miniature hands. However, trouble begins to brew when the borrowers are discovered by their unwitting human housemates and Arrietty is torn between her developing friendship with a sickly boy and her loyalty to her family.

In an age of often pointless 3D and loud, brash computer visuals, Arrietty’s traditionally animated tones and hues offer a refreshing tonic. Painterly images of wild, overgrown gardens become dangerous jungles of vivid greens, purples and reds in the eyes of the fearless Arrietty, whilst the domestic setting of a kitchen must be scaled and conquered with fishhook grapples in the dead of night. As with most films from this studio there is no clear villain or cartoonish threat to the lives of our heroine and her family; instead a subtle tale about the very nature of existence is allowed to play out with sufficient breathing space and texture.

If you’re a fan of Studio Ghibli then this is obviously a must-see, but if you’ve never ventured into the beautifully drawn worlds of the Japanese animators, then Arrietty would be the perfect starting place.

Luke Woellhaf