The Secret World of Arrietty, the new release from Japanese entertainment company Studio Ghibli (of Spirited Away and Ponyo), is a humble and inspired yet deeply predictable film made within the framework of a much darker movie.
The film has an existential backdrop, with everything seemingly perpetually on the verge of tragedy, but it’s all atmosphere; the film shies away from any shock-inducing left turns, instead following a smooth, suitable-for-children narrative that comes across as both safe and necessary, given its family-friendly marketing.
The film follows an ailing boy (voiced by David Henrie, Wizards of Waverly Place) who travels to his aunt’s quiet, rural home to have a few days of peace and solitude before his heart surgery. While there, he discovers the “borrowers”: miniature people who live under the floorboards and steal commonplace household items, such as sugar cubes, from his aunt and her goofy yet sinister housemaid (the wonderful Carol Burnett, Post Grad).
The story is anchored by the experiences of Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler, Wizards of Waverly Place), the spunky and endearing 14-year-old “borrower” and daughter of the frantic Homily (Amy Poehler, Parks and Recreation) and the subdued Pod (Poehler’s real-world husband Will Arnett, Up All Night).
Arrietty is the movie’s protagonist and one of its greatest assets. An early scene where she and her father go for her coming-of-age borrowing adventure takes on the energy of a perfectly orchestrated caper film.
Occasionally, the film gives off an entrancingly mysterious and creepy vibe, something similar to Henry Selick’s devilishly fun and wholly frightening Coraline. But such a sensation lingers only for a short while. The entire movie, which is less than the sum of its parts, instead chooses to swim in a warm river of wistful sweetness, never pushing its boundaries too far outside the realm of harmless kiddy fodder.
The film gets bogged down in sugar-coated treacle that even the wonderful visuals can’t rescue it from. The boy’s sickness? A broken, perhaps unfixable heart. The perfect remedy? Loving and believing in something magical.
It’s animation at its most obvious, trying desperately to make the cliché seem fresh and wonderful again. It doesn’t necessarily fail in this pursuit, it’s just been done better on a plethora of other occasions.
To not recommend The Secret World of Arrietty would be unfair, given there’s nothing outlandishly wrong with it. However in the month of February, where hardly any movie dares to be bold and unsettling, this decidedly tidy, pleasant film fails to separate itself entirely from the rest of the crap pack, making it a fine family outing, but a forgettable experience overall.
VERDICT: The Secret World of Arrietty isn’t an animation masterpiece on the level of Ratatouille or Fantastic Mr. Fox, but it has some rewarding qualities that make it a decent, well-constructed movie in total.
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