The Borrower Arrietty (impressions)
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The Hollywood Reporter
4 November 2010
By Deborah Young
There are fairies in the garden in Studio Ghibli’s latest classy anime targeted at kids.
Venue - Rome Film Festival (Out of Competition)
ROME - Though its Studio Ghibli pedigree doesn’t lie and this finely crafted anime film exudes the charming otherworldliness of Japanese master Hayao Miyazaki, who co-scripted “Arrietty” remains essentially a film for children. Hiromasa Yonebayashi, a top Ghibli animator who did some of the breathtaking work on Miyazaki’s “Ponyo By the Sea,” makes a very dignified directing debut here, ably drawing viewers into the friendship between a human boy and a girl the size of Tom Thumb. The fresh and simple story will win its share of young fans, though it lacks the disturbing adult elements might have attracted older audiences. Based on Mary Norton’s famed fantasy novels The Borrowers set in 1950’s England, the story was adapted by Miyazaki and Isao Takahata and put on a shelf for some 40 years before being dusted off for production. The Borrowers, aka the Little People, are a vanishing race of fairy-like creatures who live under the kitchen floor of a house in the country. The 14-year-old Arrietty, who is hardly bigger than a teacup, lives with her father Pod and mother Homily and helps them survive by borrowing/stealing odd bits of food from the elderly spinster upstairs.
One day Sho, a little boy soon to have a heart operation, comes to the idyllic house to rest. His loneliness and sadness vanish when he accidentally catches a glimpse of Arrietty in the garden. He promises to protect her, but actually sets off a chain of events that force the Borrowers family to embark on a dangerous move to a new home. Nonetheless, the contact between Sho and Arrietty, fleeting as it is, touches the heartstrings with gentle yearning.
Yonebayashi directs with a sure but delicate hand, creating a delightful world devoid of traditional magic, but magical nonetheless. It is no surprise that the kind and selfless Sho (voiced by Ryunosuke Kamiki) falls for lovely, courageous Arietty (Mirai Shida), who unlike her parents is unafraid of humans and cats. Both make fine role models for younger viewers.
Though strangely devoid of humor, the film has an enormous amount of visual charm. Animators went wild designing a miniscule but homey underground universe, and the scene when Arrietty’s father takes the girl through the woodwork on her first “borrowing” mission upstairs is pure adventure.
Nowhere is there a sense of real danger to the Borrowers. Even Sho’s potentially fatal heart condition is underplayed. Though this will keep the nightmares away from the little people in the audience, it robs the film of tension.
The English subtitles on the print screened at the Rome Film Festival were marred by a recurrent mistranslation of “human beings” as “human beans,” lending the film its only (and inadvertent) comic touch.
Production company: Studio Ghibli Cast: Mirai Shida, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Shinobu Otake, Keiko Takeshita, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Tomokazu Miura, Kirin Kiki Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi Screenwriters: Hayao Miyazaki, Keiko Niwa Based on a novel by Mary Norton Producer: Toshio Suzuki Executive producer: Koji Hoshino Production designers: Yoji Takeshige, Noboru Yoshida Music: Cecile Corbel Animation supervisor: Megumi Kagawa, Akihiko Yamashita Editor: Rie Matsubara Sales Agent: Wild Bunch No rating, 94 minutes
Japan Times
The following are representative quotes only
16 July 2010
Ghibli borrows - steals? - a classic tale
By Mark Schilling
Studio Ghibli is often assumed to be the animation house that Hayao Miyazaki built, but Miyazaki has directed only nine of its 17 features to date. Four were made by studio cofounder Isao Takahata and four by four different directors. These latter four, however, are all immediately identifiable as Studio Ghibli products, from their spunky teenage protagonists to their pictorial realism in everything from the play of shadows through the trees to the raising of sticky windows.
The latest, "Kari-gurashi no Arietty (The Borrowers)," features direction by veteran Ghibli animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi and a script by Miyazaki himself. It is a simply told, beautifully animated delight that, like the best Ghibli films, speaks straight to the heart and imagination of the child in all of us.
Like the 2008 "Gedo Senki (Tales from Earthsea)," which was directed by Miyazaki's son Goro from a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, "Arietty" is based on a classic of British children's fantasy literature: Mary Norton's 1952 novel "The Borrowers." But whereas "Gedo Senki," as well as much of Miyazaki's own oeuvre, is full-bore fantasy, with magical powers, mythical beasts and all the rest, "Arietty" unfolds in a present-day Japan in which no one but birds can fly. True, its 14-year-old title heroine (voiced by Mirai Shida), together with her mother Homily (Shinobu Otake) and father Pod (Tomokazu Miura), stand only 10 cm tall, but these "tiny people" are ordinary in every other respect.
Living under the floorboards of a house in the Tokyo suburbs inhabited by the elderly Sadoko (Keiko Takeshita) and her wizened housekeeper Haru (Kirin Kiki), they "borrow" everything they need to live from their human hosts, in amounts so small they are barely noticed.
Pod is a sturdy, stoic, resourceful sort who carries out his nighttime "borrowing" missions like a veteran mountain climber, methodically scaling the heights of the kitchen with a fishing hook and string. He is also handy with tools, making everything the family needs for its survival and comfort, though the worry-wart Homily is constantly fretting about the threats all around them — the most dangerous being discovery by their human hosts.
The slender but athletic Arietty is more her father's child than her mother's, fearlessly exploring the house and its lush garden while fending off Sadoko's fat cat, a pesky crow and a variety of insects. Then she is spotted by Sho (Ryunosuke Kamiki), Sadoko's sensitive, sickly 12-year-old nephew, who is resting up for a heart operation at a Tokyo hospital.
Instead of retreating into the shadows, however, she is drawn to this human, who sympathizes with her situation and understands her isolation. Their unusual friendship, however, leads to potentially disastrous consequences. With the loss of their little paradise looming, Pod begins to talk about moving to parts unknown.
Miyazaki reportedly selected Yonebayashi to direct "Arietty" for his animation skills. There are few of the flights of animated fancy, from the dazzling to the bizarre, that Miyazaki has made his trademark; instead, Yonebayashi and his team (with Miyazaki supervising) have created a world that is both gorgeously detailed and thrillingly realized from the perspective of its miniature protagonists.
As Arietty climbs vines to the roof, plunges on a thread from a kitchen table or performs other feats of derring-do, we have the heart-in-the-throat feeling of not only admiring her pluck, but being in her shoes. Would 3-D enhance this feeling? Possibly, but Yonebayashi and other Ghibli animators are past masters at creating the illusion of presence and depth without it.
The film threatens to devolve into the sappy, the preachy and the slapsticky at certain moments, but they are mercifully brief. There are also characters, such as the casually cruel Haru and the high-minded, mature-beyond-his-years Sho, who verge on annoying cliche, but they also have their virtues. Sho shows, in times of crisis, that he is no wuss, while bluntly telling Arietty that she and her kind will probably disappear. What chance do they have against the billions of humans with whom they uneasily share the planet? One answer arrives in the form of a tiny "wild boy" (Takuya Fujiwara) Pod encounters in the woods, who lives minus the comforts of civilization that Pod has so painstakingly assembled and constructed.
Will this become our answer as well? Like many other Ghibli films, "Arietty" comments on the devastation humans have wrought on the environment and speculates on the consequences.
More importantly for this Ghibli fan, however, the film gave me hope that when Miyazaki lays down his pencil for good, the studio will have at least one worthy successor. Sure, Yonebayashi is no Miyazaki — but who is?
Kari-Gurashi no Arietty (The Borrowers) Rating: (4 out of 5)
Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Running time: 94 minutes
Language: Japanese
Opens July 17, 2010
News.com.au
5 January 2012
By Leigh Paatsch
THE works of Japanese animation production house Studio Ghibli are a luscious law unto themselves, happily set apart from those try-hard toons that flood the market every holiday.
A typical American animated affair will throw everything plus the kitchen sink at the viewer. A Studio Ghibli picture is more likely to take you inside that kitchen sink, to a world you never possibly could have imagined.
If you have ever crossed paths with confirmed Ghibli classics such as Howl's Moving Castle and Spirited Away, you will know exactly what I am banging on about here.
A sublime example of the Ghibli effect is its latest release Arrietty, a beautiful and enchanting adaptation of British author Mary Norton's timeless children's novel The Borrowers.
The title character is a teenage girl, the only child in a family of "little people" living beneath the floorboards of a rambling country house.
The clan lives a literal hand-to-mouth existence - a crumb to you is a feast to them - and adhere to a strict set of tribal laws to ensure their cover is never blown.
What disasters may befall Arrietty and her kin emerge in stark relief when she forms a touching bond with a human, Sho, a sick boy who has arrived at the house to rest before a life-or-death heart operation.
Though Studio Ghibli's own Walt Disney, Hayao Miyazaki, is not in the director's chair, his influence is everywhere on the screen (not least because he co-penned the screenplay).
This simple tale unfolds in a calming, beguiling and teasingly spooky atmosphere. Arrietty marks a complete about-face from the worthy-but-wacky live-action adaptation of The Borrowers that dropped in the 1990s.
Nature is to the fore throughout - barely a scene goes by without the ambient sounds of a rural summertime - and it is impossible to resist the uncomplicated, hassle-free vibe beamed from every frame.
SEE Arrietty opens on January 12 in both English-dubbed and subtitled versions. Check with your cinema to see which they will screen
Arrietty (G) Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi (feature debut) Starring: the voices of Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland, Mark Strong, Geraldine McEwan, Olivia Colman The little go a long way Rating: 4 Stars.
The Sunday Telegraph
8 January 2012
Small wonders are delightful in the new Japanimation movie Arrietty
By Nick Dent
ARRIETTY: Madman: 94 minutes (G): Verdict: There are small wonders galore in this new Japanimation
MARY Norton's novel for children, The Borrowers, was first published in 1952 and has enjoyed many screen adaptations over the years. Now it is the turn of Japan's Studio Ghibli, makers of such movies as Spirited Away and Ponyo, and as can be expected, their version is filled with beauty and wonderment.
Arrietty, 13, (voiced in the UK dubbed version by Saoirse Ronan) lives with her father Pod (Mark Strong) and mother Homily (Olivia Colman) under the floorboards of a country mansion. They are Borrowers - little people 10cm tall who survive by "borrowing" things normal-sized people rarely miss.
Told not to let the "human beans" see her, Arrietty goes on her first "borrowing" mission with her father - a raid on the house's kitchen for a cube of sugar.
Arrietty is unwittingly discovered by sickly boy Sho (Tom Holland) who is delighted to find a new friend. But, sadly, housekeeper Haru (Geraldine McEwan) has other plans. The film is co-written by Japanimation superstar Hayao Miyazaki and like many of his films, Arrietty is about the desire of disempowered children to have secret, magical friends. Judging by the films' worldwide success, it's a longing shared by adults too.
Articles
Los Angeles Times
3 February 2012
‘Secret World of Arrietty’ director on the beauty of Studio Ghibli
By Noelene Clark
Gary Rydstrom is a wizard with sound. In the last three decades, he’s worked with James Cameron, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Pixar, racking up seven Oscars and nine more nominations for his contributions to such films as “Titanic,” “Minority Report,” “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace” and “Finding Nemo,” among others. Although the new film “The Secret World of Arrietty,” the latest production from Japan’s revered animation house Studio Ghibli, finds Rydstrom in the director’s chair for the second time, he’s sticking close to his field of expertise — he directed the actors as they recorded the audio portion of the English-language release of the film, which Disney is opening in the U.S. on Feb. 17.
Hayao Miyazaki co-wrote the Japanese screenplay for the film, which is based on “The Borrowers,” Mary Norton’s 1952 children’s book about tiny people who live in the nooks and crannies of human homes, “borrowing” what they need to survive. Rydstrom says it’s a bit more straightforward than many of the myth- and fantasy-filled films to come from Studio Ghibli, which Miyazaki co-founded in 1985.
“It’s a very simple story, but it’s beautifully told,” Rydstrom said. “It comes from an English book from an English author, from a Japanese studio. We threw in our American cast, and the music, which is beautiful, is done by a lovely French composer [Cécile Corbel], so it’s incredibly international.”
Like many in the industry, Rydstrom describes himself as a “huge fan” of Studio Ghibli’s productions — he previously helmed the audio for the U.S. release of Ghibli’s film “Tales From Earthsea,” based on the book by Ursula K. Le Guin. “It’s nice when a studio has such an identifiable sensibility,” Rydstrom said. “They make movies like no other animation studios make them. I love movies that feel like they are done by human beings that have such a personal and sometimes quirky and unique style to them, and all their movies do. … There’s also a beauty in how they use animation to study the most minute moments of life.”
“Arrietty,” Rydstrom says, is no different.
“It’s full of little moments about how the raindrops hit the leaves, and how nature reacts to humans and tiny humans running through it. There’s an observation to life that Studio Ghibli has, a beautiful observation to life that’s completely unique.”
“Arrietty,” the directorial debut of Studio Ghibli’s youngest director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi, was critically praised and a box office hit when it opened in Japan in 2010. The film received three subsequent translations: a French dub, a U.K. dub featuring the voice of Saoirse Ronan, and Rydstrom’s American release.
“It might be a weird thing for me to see the U.K. version, the same way it probably is for the Japanese filmmakers to see our version. Probably disconcerting to see your movie with completely different actors,” Rydstrom said. “I don’t feel in competition with it at all. It’s funny, this is a way that various people then, with a new cast, a new director, a new writer, can reinterpret the same movie. Someday maybe it will be a good term paper or a thesis for someone to figure out how the U.K. and American versions differ.”
Karey Kirkpatrick, whose credits include “Charlotte’s Web” and “Chicken Run,” wrote the U.S. screenplay, producers Frank Marshall and Kathleen Kennedy cast the film, and Rydstrom worked with the actors to make the unnatural, mechanical process of voicing a character in a vacuum more organic.
“If this was my movie, my animation movie, we’d be working with the actors first,” Rydstrom said. “We’d be finding the lines and the characters and what was good, and then once we’d cut that and liked that, we would animate to that. This is already animated. We have to make English fit into the timing of the original Japanese, make sense to us as an audience, and then the actors have to make it seem natural. A lot of what I was doing was making sure that the actors felt comfortable enough with the process to still be natural. Because they have to pay attention to timing as well as emotion, and that’s a hard thing to do. It’s a weird, backwards way of approaching a movie, and it’s also not my movie. It’s Studio Ghibli’s movie, and we want to be true to the original spirit of the movie as much as possible.”
Rydstrom says his job was made easier by a talented cast of experienced comedy actors, including Amy Poehler, Will Arnett and one of Rydstrom’s heroes, Carol Burnett. “What I liked is every one of these famous-in-comedy actors worked against what their normal type would be in a movie,” Rydstrom said. “Carol Burnett, who’s usually such a nice, lovable person — she’s played a few bad characters, like in “Annie” — but she really sunk her teeth into this role, which is the bad guy in the movie, this maid, who is this underhanded, sneaky, cruel character. And she played it to the hilt, so that was my favorite.”
Arnett, usually seen in quirky or sarcastic roles, played an “earnest, direct” father with a dash of “cool dude” action hero, he said, and Poehler played a high-strung, worry-wart mother. “She made the character, which could have been shrill and annoying, she made this character lovable,” Rydstrom said.
But the real star, who “carries the movie,” he said, is Bridgit Mendler, the 19-year-old “Wizards of Waverly Place” actress who voiced Arrietty, a naive and curious 14-year-old Borrower girl who befriends a human boy.
Arrietty, left, voiced by Bridgit Mendler, is a tiny girl with a strong will. She shows her mother Homily, voiced by Amy Poehler, an object she borrowed while on a mission with her father in Studio Ghibli's "The Secret World of Arrietty." (Studio Ghibli/Disney)
“Bridgit was able to act with her voice and give a real personality and sparkle to the performance, and you like her the moment you hear her,” Rydstrom said. “I was utterly impressed with her the whole time that we worked on this. When you’re doing this kind of thing, you watch actors come in and start doing their lines and start building up a character. It’s amazing to see what they bring to the movie with their voice acting. … There’s a difference acting with your voice only, and your voice has to carry all the funniness and warmth and personality that you can sometimes rely on your facial expressions and your body actions for.”
Rydstrom, who is currently working on sound for the upcoming Pixar film, “Brave,” said he’d love to direct more features. He was slated to direct “Newt,” a Pixar film he co-wrote, but the project was pushed back and then presumably canceled.
“That’s not happening, or at least not happening now, but we developed it over a couple of years,” Rydstrom said. “I’m trying to be open to any possibility for things in the future, but right now in my career, I’m getting a chance to do a variety of things, which is nice to do. Sound design, which I’ve done for years, and still love to do, and these Studio Ghibli movies, I really enjoy the challenge. It uses talents I have from my sound career in post-production in an interesting way, and I get to work with actors, which it turns out that I really love. So I’m open to any and all opportunities down the road.”
