This evening, I decided to go to the theatre to watch the 2010 Japanese animated film, The Secret World of Arrietty. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, written by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, and produced by Toshio Suzuki, this fantasy/adventure film was based on the novel The Borrowers by British writer Mary Norton. This film was originally in Japanese, but the version I watched was dubbed in English. Disney later created a UK and USA cast for this film. I watched the version dubbed with English voices by the USA cast, which includes Bridgit Mendler, David Henrie, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Carol Burnett, Moises Arias, and Gracie Moore. Also, in the USA-dubbed version, Sho was called Shawn, Haru the maid was called Hara, and Sho’s aunt, Sadako Maki, was called Jessica.
How Arrietty Changed Sho — And Me: A Reflection on Studio Ghibli’s Quiet Masterpiece
It is an interesting Japanese animated movie, dubbed in English, about a sick twelve-year-old boy sent to live with his aunt in the countryside before his surgery and his relationship with a tiny fourteen-year-old girl, who lives under the floor with her parents. She is adventurous and brave, while he is sad, timid and afraid of dying. They first become aware of each other when the boy arrives and sees his aunt’s cat, Niya, preying on something in the front yard. It appeared that the cat was preying on a mouse. But Niya scares Arrietty away. Sho leaves a message for Arrietty, telling her that he saw her, which makes her scared because of her parents’ stories about previous Borrowers.
But she decides to confront him to tell him to leave her family alone. She realizes that Sho is nice and friendly, and they become secret friends, communicating back and forth via notes. His aunt shows him his mother’s dollhouse, which their father had created for the tiny people. But they never saw any. Sho gifts the dollhouse’s kitchen to Arrietty’s family, but Hara, the maid, eventually finds it under the floor while snooping around, and she kidnaps the mother and places her in a jar cage, before calling the exterminator to trap the rest. Arrietty searches for her mother until she finds her, and Sho helps them escape. Meanwhile, Sho takes the kitchen from under the floor and places it back into the dollhouse. Arrietty and her parents pack up to leave with their Borrower friend. He takes them on a trip, down the river, in his vintage teapot.
What The Secret World of Arrietty taught me about fear, kindness, and resilience — a review with heart and insight
The tiny people are treated like rat thieves by the humans because they scavenge for items and food that they need from humans in order to survive. They are very scared of humans. If any humans see them, they end up quickly moving elsewhere, similar to nomads. They are always on the move for a safe, secret, and underground habitat. While watching the film, I thought that these “Tiny People” were treated similarly to mice or rats, who live in an underground area, like homeless people, and they go out during the nighttime hours to scavenge for needed items from humans’ houses. They appear to be near extinction because there are not many of them around anymore.
I often thought that the Clock Family’s home looked more like an underground sewer environment, filled with junkyard pieces organized into a comfortable home for Arrietty and her parents. This story reminded me of other stories, such as the 2019 Korean film, Parasite, as well as the novel, Down Town by Viido Polikarpus and Tappan King, because the main character enters into an adventurous and fantasy world of underground people.
Sho and Arrietty become best friends, and Arrietty didn’t want to move elsewhere because she felt they were safe. They each taught each other to move on and live their life. Arrietty taught Sho to be strong and brave, while Sho taught Arrietty that not all humans are evil. Some humans are good people. Sho was no longer scared about his needed heart surgery, while Arrietty learned to give humans a chance and trust good humans who want to help. They developed a special bond, but they moved their separate ways and never saw each other again. After the successful operation, Sho returns to the house, around a year later, and he hears stories about items often disappearing from neighbors’ homes.
