![]() However this misses the essential distiction between an adaptation and a translation. Some might argue that if Hayao Miyazaki moved Mary Norton’s story from early-twentieth-century England to present-day Japan, there is no reason why Disney shouldn’t move the story to America. Americans don’t usually eat rice out of little bowls with chopsticks for breakfast.) Thus Shou becomes “Shawn,” Sadako becomes “Jessica” and Haru, for reasons that are not at all clear, becomes “Hara.” (Of course anyone who is really paying attention can tell that the characters are Japanese. Unfortunately the Disney dub commits a cardinal sin: it gives the characters Anglo names in the hope that dim-witted American viewers will be fooled into thinking this is an American movie. The movie follows Arrietty as she meets and gradually forms a friendship with Shawn, and deals with the consequences when Shawn’s well-meaning blunders cause her world to be upended. These are Pod (Will Arnett) a gruff taciturn man, but wise and competent, his wife Homily (Amy Poehler) who is prone to hysteria, and their 14-year-old daughter Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler) who is brave and inquisitive.Īs with most Studio Ghibli films, the girl is the main character. Unknowingly they share the house with three “Borrowers”, little people about 3 inches tall who live under the floorboards. She has a slightly deranged housekeeper named Hara (Carol Burnett). In the story Shawn (David Henrie) a sickly boy with a heart condition, is sent to live with his Aunt Jessica (Gracle Poletti) who lives in country house that was once elegant but is now somewhat run-down. Most American viewer probably won’t mind it but I consider it serious enough that I am penalizing the movie 1 star. Unfortunately the dub has one serious and avoidable flaw, which I will discuss below. Unlike other anime importers who tend to come up with painfully bad dubs, Disney knows how to find capable actors and (more importantly) a director who understands and respects the material. It doesn’t break any new ground compared to other recent Ghibli films, but it is a nice example of the state of the art in hand-drawn animation. The animation is about what you would expect from Studio Ghibli: beautiful and exquisitely detailed. It is a fairly loose adaptation of Mary Norton’s 1952 novel The Borrowers. It was produced and co-written by the renowned Hayao Miyazaki and directed by his protege Hiromasa Yonebayashi. To summarize: this is a Disney-dubbed version of a Japanese anime film from Studio Ghibli, currently the world’s best animation studio. When the DVD is released I may do another review of that. This is of course is Studio Ghibli’s Kari-gurashi no Arietti but I am confining this review to the English-dubbed version released by Disney and currently being shown in American theaters. Some of the material is likely to be disturbing to preschoolers.) (In spite of the talk about “small children” I would recommend this only for audiences who are school-age and up. It may well be the best choice in the theaters at the moment, animated or live-action, at least if you’ve already seen The Artist. I’m going to go out on a limb and suggest that you break the rules and see The Secret World of Arrietty anyway. Is it surprising that all the good animation seems to come from countries where adults are allowed to watch animated movies without being accompanied by a small child, or indeed where studios are allowed to make animated movies that aren’t aimed at children? This exchange goes a long way to explain what is wrong with animation in America today. I know a guy who likes to borrow his nephew so that he can go to movies like that.” I’d really like to see it.”Ĭo-Host: “Yeah. Radio Host: “ The Secret World of Arrietty is opening this weekend.
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