the secret world of arrietty

rtil · February 18, 2012 05:52 AM

so i saw arrietty today, went early so the theater was not very crowded but it was mostly parents and their kids. the kids seemed very into the movie which was cool. arrietty is very calm and relaxing a very nice break from all the wacky/zany hyper talking animal 3d cg films for kids today.

my overall thoughts about the movie,
the good:
-animation and background art is, of course, incredible. the attention to detail is stunning, and seeing arrietty's perspective of the world is fascinating
-the sound design is also incredible. never heard so much detail to sound in an animated film before.
-a story that kids and adults can enjoy. no cheap jokes and typical cgi fare that people have come to expect of children's films.

the bad (?)
-the pacing is a little slow, and everything is resolved rather hastily. arrietty and shaun (the boy) dont spend much time together.
-[spoiler]shaun is a bit of a boring character and a downer, and he has a change of character somewhat abruptly after working together with arrietty. but the ending is sweet[/spoiler]

arrietty is a somber story with a few laughs and not a whole lot of thrills and excitement. it's very laid back and it takes itself slowly, which is ok because it's extremely charming and it suits the story. it's a simple movie with attention to detail that only ghibli can offer. the english dub is also well done, although there are a few moments here and there where the mouths keep moving but nothing is coming out. nothing too crazy though.

i recommend everyone go see it, at the very least to support ghibli films outside of japan

ZennyPLUS · February 18, 2012 06:10 AM

I plan to see it when I get my next day off with my girlfriend, we both enjoy Ghibli films.

dilly · February 18, 2012 02:15 PM

i am going to see this on monday! ghibli all da way

Sinitron · February 18, 2012 05:22 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Borrowers

you forgot to mention its relation to the books

there's also been other movies based on them

The Secret World of Arrietty - Official Trailer [HD]

ZennyPLUS · February 18, 2012 07:30 PM

And that's the main reason they had to use a different name over here in the States, not so sure about the EU or anywhere else.

cipher · February 18, 2012 08:54 PM

I have never heard of this.

I shall look into it.

rtil · February 18, 2012 08:57 PM

i thought everyone knew it was a loose adaptation so i didnt bother to mention. most ghibli films are

Abnormal · February 18, 2012 09:54 PM

there's no way i'm not going to see this

always gotta support studio ghibli

Gladius · February 18, 2012 11:37 PM

saw the borrowers live action film when was really young

don't remember a thing

rtil · February 27, 2012 01:08 AM

i saw arrietty for a 2nd time today and i like it even more than when i first saw it, which is rare for me when watching movies. you catch a lot more , there's a lot of brilliant subtlety in the film and the beauty of it is still overwhelming. also, the theater was packed with adults and children, and they all seemed to love it and that was amazing to see. before the movie there is a trailer for madagascar 3, with a bunch of stupid jokes and yelling and screaming.. all this hyper 3d wacky animal cg films from america that has parents tired and feeding kids bottom of the barrel garbage.. then they all got to see arrietty. i hope it inspires many of them to see more ghibli films and discover that there's more than the insullting slime hollywood has to offer children today.

The Neglected Garden...

ZennyPLUS · February 27, 2012 05:02 AM

Quote from: rtil on February 27, 2012 01:08 AM
i saw arrietty for a 2nd time today and i like it even more than when i first saw it, which is rare for me when watching movies. you catch a lot more , there's a lot of brilliant subtlety in the film and the beauty of it is still overwhelming. also, the theater was packed with adults and children, and they all seemed to love it and that was amazing to see. before the movie there is a trailer for madagascar 3, with a bunch of stupid jokes and yelling and screaming.. all this hyper 3d wacky animal cg films from america that has parents tired and feeding kids bottom of the barrel garbage.. then they all got to see arrietty. i hope it inspires many of them to see more ghibli films and discover that there's more than the insullting slime hollywood has to offer children today.

The Neglected Garden...

I'm seeing it this Wednesday! I'm not sure why animation aimed at kids so wild, I guess it amount of energy in the animation is relative to children, since they're usually active at a young age. I'm not sure...

naturally · February 27, 2012 06:12 AM

seeing it friday. i think this might be the first ghibli film i've seen in a theater.

emanhattan · February 27, 2012 07:17 AM

i really enjoyed the movie and as rtil i think the sound design of this movie is remarkable

its probably my favorite of all the studio ghibli movies and i think it would be near perfect if it wasnt for the kid in the movie. He was a bit of a douchebag and i dont know if this is just how the character is written or if its just the english dub but he just doesnt act like a normal kid would and I found it really distracting. halfway trough the movie theres a moment when he sees arriety for the first time and he starts saying some psycho shit in a voice that doesnt suit the character at all (again this might just be a bad impression from the english dub?

anyway very enjoyable, beautiful looking movie with a fun story and likeable characters. the design of arriety and the other burrowers is cute and their vision of the world is fascinating

i also saw the madagacar 3 trailer holy shit it looks hideous ahsgahba

dilly · February 27, 2012 04:36 PM

They had the madagascar trailer when Beauty and the beast was re-released in theaters and everyone growned :I

rtil · February 27, 2012 10:02 PM

Quote from: emanhattan on February 27, 2012 07:17 AM
its probably my favorite of all the studio ghibli movies and i think it would be near perfect if it wasnt for the kid in the movie. He was a bit of a douchebag and i dont know if this is just how the character is written or if its just the english dub but he just doesnt act like a normal kid would and I found it really distracting. halfway trough the movie theres a moment when he sees arriety for the first time and he starts saying some psycho shit in a voice that doesnt suit the character at all (again this might just be a bad impression from the english dub?

i'm not sure how he's written in the uk and japanese dubs, but i dont know if i'd call him a douchebag. he is a downer but it's understandable, [spoiler]his parents are going through a divorce and don't even want to take care of him so they send him off to his relatives, and he's been sick and weak all his life so he's accepted the fact that he is not going to live a normal life and that death is inevitable. so his bleak outlook on life makes sense, the fact that he speaks about it so calmly isn't psychotic at all - everything he says about life is true. but he is wrong about the borrowers, and that's when arrietty gets really upset. it may have been another roundabout way of shaun trying to protect her, like "there aren't any of you left, but i'm here for you", but i'm probably reading into it too much.

shaun kind of echoes what arrietty's mother is always worried about - things like getting eaten by the cat, squashed by a bug, "what will become of us?" - the hand of fate, the inevitability of death. but arrietty teaches shaun to live life to the fullest while you can. and that means being brave and sticking up for the people you love.

i don't think shaun had ever had a friend before he met arrietty. given his grim circumstances in life, he wasn't really that mean. after all, he only had good intentions for arrietty from the beginning.[/spoiler]

Abnormal · February 28, 2012 01:12 AM

Quote from: rtil on February 27, 2012 01:08 AM
i saw arrietty for a 2nd time today and i like it even more than when i first saw it, which is rare for me when watching movies. you catch a lot more , there's a lot of brilliant subtlety in the film and the beauty of it is still overwhelming. also, the theater was packed with adults and children, and they all seemed to love it and that was amazing to see. before the movie there is a trailer for madagascar 3, with a bunch of stupid jokes and yelling and screaming.. all this hyper 3d wacky animal cg films from america that has parents tired and feeding kids bottom of the barrel garbage.. then they all got to see arrietty. i hope it inspires many of them to see more ghibli films and discover that there's more than the insullting slime hollywood has to offer children today.

The Neglected Garden...

yeah i was pretty psyched to see people of all ages packed in the theaters and having a good time

anyways yeah it was a pretty great movie it had a few badly written/cheesy lines throughout but altogether it was a pleasure to watch. the whole tiny people concept was a pretty neat vehicle for studio ghibli's great as always art and whatever. it's not the best ghibli film but who cares, it's good. i agree with rtil i didn't think the kid was out of character and once his backstory got fleshed out it all made a lot of sense

Kött · March 3, 2012 08:26 PM

I have just finished watching it and I gotta say that it was quite a sweet movie.
Animation and backgrounds were splendid as they always are in Ghibli productions but I especially liked the soundtrack in this one. The story wasn't really or thrilling but still interesting and I liked the calm atmosphere and the pacing. Furthermore, it certainly is quite hard to produce g-rated movies that still entertain such a broad age goup an I really respect that. But having that in mind, I actually think that the ending did have a bitter aftertaste in some ways for being so open. I mean they did give a lot of hints into the positive directions of the upcoming development (as the boys operation or Arrietty's future) but I always prefer something like a little epilogue eliminating these doubts. Well, I guess the younger part of the target group probably doesn't even think that far so it might just be a nice method to make it an interesting ending for every age group...

naturally · March 3, 2012 10:20 PM

saw it yesterday with a few friends and loved it. my friend next to me was freaking out about the sounds in it throughout the whole movie. not one of my favourite ghibli films but i really enjoyed it. especially how pretty the garden looked from arrietty's perspective.

rtil · March 3, 2012 11:21 PM

Quote from: Kott on March 3, 2012 08:26 PMI actually think that the ending did have a bitter aftertaste in some ways for being so open. I mean they did give a lot of hints into the positive directions of the upcoming development (as the boys operation or Arrietty's future) but I always prefer something like a little epilogue eliminating these doubts. Well, I guess the younger part of the target group probably doesn't even think that far so it might just be a nice method to make it an interesting ending for every age group...

i like the openended conclusion. however , i know for a fact that in the english dub, they added an extra line at the end that is not present in the original japanese. shawn says in narration that [spoiler]he never saw her again, but he came back next summer and heard about neighbors complaining about little things missing from their house. so this is a very short way of saying that arrietty and her family are living close by, and that shawn's operation went well.[/spoiler]

Kött · March 4, 2012 12:10 AM

Well, that's weird... my English dubbed version didn't include that part but I'm not really a friend of stuff like that anyway; altering the original throughout the translation in a completely different way I mean.
At least an open end gives your imagination room to create your own version and especially in this case something as an additional line is more like a restriction.
[spoiler]That is mostly referring to that "He never saw her again" part...[/spoiler]