The Clock family are four-inch-tall people who live anonymously in another family's residence, borrowing simple items to make their home. Life changes for the Clocks when their teenage daughter, Arrietty, is discovered.
A young witch, on her mandatory year of independent life, finds fitting into a new community difficult while she supports herself by running an air courier service.
After helping a cat, a 17-year-old girl finds herself involuntarily engaged to a cat prince in a magical world where her only hope of freedom lies with a dapper cat statuette come to life.
Director:
Hiroyuki Morita
Stars:
Chizuru Ikewaki,
Yoshihiko Hakamada,
Aki Maeda
A 12-year-old girl is sent to the country for health reasons, where she meets an unlikely friend in the form of Marnie, a young girl with long, flowing blonde hair. As the friendship ... See full summary »
Directors:
James Simone,
Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Stars:
Sara Takatsuki,
Kasumi Arimura,
Nanako Matsushima
When an unconfident young woman is cursed with an old body by a spiteful witch, her only chance of breaking the spell lies with a self-indulgent yet insecure young wizard and his companions in his legged, walking castle.
After her werewolf lover unexpectedly dies in an accident while hunting for food for their children, a young woman must find ways to raise the werewolf son and daughter that she had with him while keeping their trait hidden from society.
Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthralls all who encounter her, but ultimately she must confront her fate, the punishment for her crime.
Director:
Isao Takahata
Stars:
Chloë Grace Moretz,
James Caan,
Mary Steenburgen
During her family's move to the suburbs, a sullen 10-year-old girl wanders into a world ruled by gods, witches, and spirits, and where humans are changed into beasts.
14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clock family live in peaceful anonymity as they make their own home from items that they borrow from the house's human inhabitants. However, life changes for the Clocks when a human boy discovers Arrietty.Written by
ANN
Ningen ni mirare te wa ikenai. Sore ga yukashita no kodomo-tachi no okite datta. (Do not be seen by humans. That's been the law of children of the underfloor.)
French singer Cécile Corbel, a big fan of Studio Ghibli's films, had sent the studio her second album as a gift back in 2009. Toshio Suzuki listened to it, was seduced and thus decided to hire her to compose the film's score. See more »
Goofs
The story takes place some where in western Tokyo. Domestic cars in Japan have their steering wheels on the right side, but Aunt Sadoko's Mercedes is a left hand drive, since it is an imported car. The housekeeper Haru's red car is a right hand drive, as it is a normal, domestic Japanese car. See more »
Quotes
[last lines]
[North American version]
Shawn:
I never saw her again. But the following summer I returned and was happy to hear the people in the house down the road talking about how many things in their home had gone missing.
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Alternate Versions
The American English dubbed version (under the title "The Secret World of Arrietty") features some extra narrated dialogue at the end of the film that is not in the Japanese or British English version, presumably to end the film on a more optimistic note. See more »
I went into this film with very limited expectations. I'm not especially a fan of animated movies, and have only seen a small handful of anime productions. So it came as a very unexpected surprise to discover that I absolutely loved this movie. It just seemed to get everything pretty much right. The visual artistry was quite beautiful, with a great deal of invention in the scenes where the little Borrowers navigate through the wide expanses of the house they live underneath. The music was quite stunningly appropriate, with the lilting Celtic sound just perfect in tone for this melancholic story, with some lovely vocal work too. And these images and sounds were combined together into a simple narrative that had an enormous amount of heart to it. I felt a warm buzz long after leaving the theatre.
The Borrower Arrietty is a beautiful film. I cannot really find fault with it. So from this reviewer who has very limited knowledge of anime I give it a near perfect nine.
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I went into this film with very limited expectations. I'm not especially a fan of animated movies, and have only seen a small handful of anime productions. So it came as a very unexpected surprise to discover that I absolutely loved this movie. It just seemed to get everything pretty much right. The visual artistry was quite beautiful, with a great deal of invention in the scenes where the little Borrowers navigate through the wide expanses of the house they live underneath. The music was quite stunningly appropriate, with the lilting Celtic sound just perfect in tone for this melancholic story, with some lovely vocal work too. And these images and sounds were combined together into a simple narrative that had an enormous amount of heart to it. I felt a warm buzz long after leaving the theatre.
The Borrower Arrietty is a beautiful film. I cannot really find fault with it. So from this reviewer who has very limited knowledge of anime I give it a near perfect nine.