It’s still one of the better-kept secrets of family entertainment that the most imaginatively daring and influential animation house in the world isn’t Pixar, but Japan’s Studio Ghibli, best known for co-founder and animation virtuoso Hayao Miyazaki. Miyazaki is revered in animation circles, but Ghibli films haven’t yet become the phenomenon in the States that they are in Japan and around the globe.
The Secret World of Arrietty, now in theaters, could change that. The material is already familiar: It’s based on The Borrowers, Mary Norton’s beloved series of children’s novels about tiny people living in the secret spaces of human beings’ homes (previously seen in a number of large and small-screen adaptations). Arrietty is also Ghibli at its gentlest, most accessible, and immediately appealing, without the narrative weirdness or more challenging content of some of its other films.
Miyazaki wrote the screenplay for Arrietty, which is helmed by animator and first-time director Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Arrietty bears many traits that typically distinguish Ghibli films from average Hollywood family fare. The protagonist is a spunky, appealing heroine with likable parents. There’s an antagonist who causes considerable grief, but she isn’t really evil, and there’s no out-and-out villain. Conflicts and problems are dealt with in low-key, matter-of-fact ways that leave plenty of room for the ordinary rhythms of life.
Loosely following its source material, the film tells the story of a young Borrower girl, Arrietty (voiced in the American dub by Bridgit Mendler), whose parents, Pod and Homily (Will Arnett and Amy Poehler), have raised her to avoid “Beans” (human beings) at all costs. But Arrietty somehow forms a tentative friendship with a human boy named Shawn.
Shawn has come to stay at the country house of his great-aunt for rest prior to surgery for a life-threatening condition. The calmness with which he explains his predicament to Arrietty, and his acceptance of the inevitability of death, are qualities strikingly unlike American animated fare.
In a Hollywood cartoon, Pod’s insistence on moving the family after Arrietty is spotted by humans would lead to fatherdaughter conflict and an anti-prejudice theme. Arrietty would argue that humans aren’t all bad. Pod would get angry and punish her after learning that she had been talking to the boy. In the end, the boy would save the day, causing Pod at last to see the light. Arrietty takes the path less traveled, with more humanity and less formula.
Most distinctively Ghibli is the painterly beauty of both the human and Borrower worlds, rendered with extraordinary persuasiveness and authority. Every plant and flower is a real species; architecture and objects are authentic in every detail. It is simply a joy to watch, to look, to inhabit this world. Hollywood computer animation becomes ever more sophisticated and detailed, but even in 3-D, all the processing power in the world can’t touch the artistry of Ghibli’s lavish handiwork.
For more ultra-gentle Ghibli, check out My Neighbor Totoro, Kiki’s Delivery Service, and Ponyo. For slightly more adventurous fare, see Castle in the Sky and Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Finally, among Miyazaki’s most acclaimed films are two of his most mature: Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke. See my essay “The Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki” at DecentFilms.com for more info.
On Home Video
BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER’S JOURNEY (2011)
A heartwarming documentary about the man behind the popular Sesame Street character, Being Elmo recounts Kevin Clash’s childhood passion for puppets, early career, and breakout success with the furry red monster. Key to the doc’s appeal is its emphasis on Clash’s work with the next generation of puppeteers and his willingness to give back. (Tweens and up)
THE IRON LADY (2011)
Meryl Streep offers a generous, empathic interpretation of the public and private lives of Margaret Thatcher, easily moving between her self-assured career in Parliament and her later decline. For once, nonlinear storytelling helps, touchingly expressing the fluidity of past and present for people with Alzheimer’s — and the endurance of a great love beyond the grave. (Teens and up)
SHAUN THE SHEEP: SHEAR MADNESS (2012)
Aardman Animation’s Wallace & Gromit spinoff series Shaun the Sheep is family entertainment perfection: simple and splashy enough for the youngest viewers, but sophisticated and witty enough for grown-ups. The latest collection of episodes includes escapades with a hot-air balloon, a road line-painting machine, and visitors from outer space. (Kids and up)
WE BOUGHT A ZOO (2011)
Matt Damon is a fl awed but unusually appealing movie dad in Cameron Crowe’s loosely fact-based tale about a widower with two children who impulsively moves his family to a country house that happens to have a struggling zoo attached. How hard could it be? It’s a recipe for family-film formula, but Crowe ekes more heart than typical Hollywood fare, though marred by some gratuitous language, particularly an unnecessarily crude word from the young daughter. (Tweens and up)