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Is it worth $10? Yes
I have to admit that when Hudak asked me to go to a screening of “The Secret World of Arrietty” (pronounced as though you are saying Hairy Yeti, but without the “h;") I was less than enthusiastic. I had seen a couple Studio Ghibli products before but they had been too fantastical and the anime style always turned me off. I was tired from working a late shift at my other job and fought to stay awake merely driving to the theatre. To say I was going into the screening with somewhat of a negative bias would not have been far off the mark.
So imagine my delight when “Arrietty” turned out to be what I call a "bias-breaker." That rare film that takes all your negative preconceptions going in and flips them around. For instance, Christian Bale’s performance in “The Fighter” would be a bias-breaker because I generally feel that perhaps a career on a Jersey-like show featuring outrageous hotheads with little talent would better suit him. But I digress. Simply put, “The Secret World of Arrietty” was phenomenal.
Everything from the story to the visual aesthetics did much to push back the sleepiness that pervaded my mind. Within the first couple of minutes, I was completely engaged, taking delight in the beautifully hand-drawn backgrounds and cleverness of the minuscule world that first-time director Hiromasa Yonebayashi brought to life.
The story goes that a group of miniature people, called alternately "Little People" or "Borrowers," live beneath the home of Aunt Hara (Carol Burnett), who has recently taken in her nephew, who is revealed to be dying of some sort of heart condition. Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler), a young Borrower being taught the ropes by her no-nonsense father (Will Arnett), is seen by Shawn (the boy, played by David Henrie) and suddenly the Borrowers family lifestyle is threatened. Shawn wishes to help and tries to befriend Arrietty several times before a vicious crow attack (the audience of young’uns thought this to be the most hilarious of scenes) forces them together.
Likely the potency of the relationship was lost on the children watching, but to the adults Shawn’s desperation to make a friend and prove himself to be useful to another when he can’t help himself was nearly heartbreaking. A couple times it seemed the movie would dip too deep into the melodramatic situation and become way too heavy-handed but it always managed to toe the line without crossing it. Instead there was a subtlety that was refreshing in a kid’s movie; in fact, Shawn’s fate remained a mystery to me even as the credits started rolling until I realized that one single line revealed the result of his illness.
My two complaints sort of work in contrast to the subtlety of the rest of the film. First, while the background animation, environments, and general appearance of the characters were beautifully animated – and in the glorious and sorely missed two-dimensional hand-drawn style no less – the expressions and movements of the characters are still in the style of anime, that is, movements are jerky, disjointed, and highly exaggerated. There was absolutely no doubt that Aunt Hara was the bad guy and crazy to boot simply by watching the way her face exploded into what could be a caricature of Jim Carrey from “The Mask” mixed with Dolores Umbridge. I did long for the fluidity of the Disney animation that I grew up with, but I also understand that anime is a very popular animation form throughout the world.
My second complaint would be the horrendous voice-acting of Arnett as Arrietty’s father. Though the father is clearly protective and hardened from the hard life of a Borrower, Arnett plays him as a stilted and one-toned drone. His performance stands in stark contrast to his real-life wife Amy Poehler’s outstanding turn as Arrietty’s mother. Arnett sounds bored throughout, which is a shame.
Creatively, the movie excelled. The everyday items that we humans take for granted become useful tools for the Borrower family. Fishing hooks become grabbling hooks, a pushpin becomes a sword, and most cleverly, a housefly wing becomes a “feather” quill. The quill was not seen in use once but simply sat in the background, untouched, serving no purpose but to make the world seem all the more real and complete.
The result is a breathtaking, thought-provoking film that doesn’t feel the need to rely on sight-gags or big name actors to draw people in, which means that, unfortunately, it will only reach a moderately limited audience. It was refreshing and masterfully done, and if the powers that be (i.e. those members of the Academy who handle nominations) regain their sense after this year’s debacle, “The Secret World of Arrietty” should be a lock for one of the animated film noms next year.
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