(No friendship is too small… even if it‘s with a tiny chick)
CAST: Voices of Brigit Mendler, David Henrie, Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett, Moises Arias, Gracie Polleti.
DIRECTOR: Hiromasa Yonebashi
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and more reasons to install security cameras in your home - straight ahead…
Remember those chuckleheads in PARANORMAL ACTIVITY 1, 2, & 3? Remember how they were so bedeviled (there’s the right word) by things-that-go-bump-in-the-fucking-night that they decided to install security cameras around their houses to see what the hell was going on? Remember their horror at discovering the culprit was, um, not exactly human? And more like the demonic equivalent of Manny Pacquiao? Well, if the folks in THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY would’ve followed their lead, they would’ve discovered that the perpetrators of years of petty theft of tiny items (sugar cubes, needles, thread, buttons, etc.) in their home ain’t exactly human, either. At least, not normal-sized.
You see, within the house of Aunt Jessica (voice of Gracie Pollett), lives the Clock family. They are father Pod, mother Homily, and daughter Arrietty (voices of Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, and Brigit Mendler). What’s so bizarre about that? I mean, a lot of people let their relatives live with them, right? Well, folks, for starters, the Clocks are not related to Aunt Jessica, nor does she know they exist in her abode. Hell, they aren’t even as big as her pinkie. What am I talking about? Not much - just the fact that the Clock family are teeny-tiny versions of us, and live under the floorboards of Aunt Jessica’s house in what looks like the inside of a cottage in one of those Thomas Kinkade paintings. Oh, and the Clocks like to venture out at night to “borrow” the aforementioned tiny things mentioned before. Well, “borrow” isn’t exactly accurate because it implies returning the objects at some point. And it don’t exactly look like them Clocks are about to do that anytime soon. So, I guess “rob blind” is a more apt description.
Anyhow, things take a turn for the interesting when Aunt Jessica’s sickly nephew Shawn (voice of David Henrie) arrives in the isolated homestead to summer away his health issues. You know how in haunted house movies the characters will move in and graaaaaaaadually realize the place is spooked? Well, in this flick, Shawn pretty much trips over Arrietty in the bushes as soon as he arrives. So much for the mysterious build-up. I know this ain’t technically a haunted house flick, but damn - couldn’t we have gotten a couple of false alarms and red herrings? Because when you think about it, this flick kind of follows the same formula. It’s just that the “ghosts” are smaller than a baby carrot. And they have kleptomaniac tendencies…
Anyhow, it doesn’t take long for Arrietty to reveal herself to Shawn. As you can imagine, an instant friendship forms. But, as with a lot of friendships, there are some challenges: (1) he’s human-sized; (2) she’s smaller than a Cheetoh; (3) at any given moment, Shawn’s cat Nina could eat her like a Cheetoh; (4) Pod and Homily understandably have an issue with their beloved daughter being friends with a kid who could literally squash her without trying; and (4) Shawn’s nosy housekeeper Hara (voice of Carol Burnett) has long dreamed of finding proof of the “little people’s” existence - and exterminating them like a colony of dirty roaches. I guess she wasn’t too happy about all those missing sugar cubes, eh?
Can this friendship survive? Or will Arrietty and her parents, as Pod warns them, have to move and find another home because they have been found out? Or can they trust Shawn to protect them? How long can Shawn keep Nina the Cat from shredding them? How long can he keep Hara the Bloodhound at bay, who’s like Renee Russo and Catherine Zeta Jones’s insurance investigator babes from THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR and ENTRAPMENT, only soooooooo not a babe (not even remotely close)? Will Shawn and Arrietty have a happy ending? Or will she be chomped by a crow while he watches?
Now, that would be a fucked-up ending. Hilarious, even breathtaking - but still fucked-up.
BUT, SERIOUSLY: During our “Personal Favorites” celebration to commemorate the end of our initial “365 Movie Reviews In 365 Days” run last June, we reviewed one of my personal favorites: the lovely, enchanting, and almost indescribable SPIRITED AWAY. Directed by famed Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, SPIRITED AWAY told the dream-like tale of a Japanese girl named Chihiro, and how her family explores a seemingly abandoned theme park. Turns out the place is actually a “Spa for the Spirits” - and for trespassing on supernatural territory and eating the food of the other-worldly guests, Chihiro’s parents are transformed into pigs. Chihiro narrowly avoids a similar fate, and must now infiltrate the world of the spirits to find allies, avoid enemies, and find a way to save her parents and herself.
In keeping with the “Personal Favorites” credo of “you like what you like and I respect that”, we didn’t assign any ratings to the dozen or so movies we reviewed during that homestretch run. However, if I could assign a rating now to SPIRITED AWAY, it would be ****1/2 out of *****, for many reasons but mainly its magical ability to transport you to a different world - to, as its title suggests, actually spirit you away. And now, we turn out attention to Hayao Miyazaki’s latest effort (this time, as producer): the more restrained, but no less lovely THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY, which is finally reaching our shores two years after its initial release in Japan.
Based on the novel “The Borrowers” by Mary Norton, THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY explores the unlikely bond between a young boy and a young girl - only the girl is exceedingly tiny. As with SPIRITED AWAY, Miyazaki and director Hiromasa Yonebashi create Shawn’s world - and Arrietty’s world within it - with vivid strokes. As with SPIRITED AWAY, the effect is hypnotic and surreal - especially when we follow Arrietty and her family up the seemingly cavernous confines behind the walls of Shawn’s home. The images of Arietty and Pod using nails as ladder and stairs is a striking one. As with the best animated films, ARIETTY and SPIRITED AWAY draw you in to the rhythm and colors of their universe.
Speaking of color, with the rise of computer-generated animation in films like CARS, TOY STORY 1-3, ICE AGE, and many recent hits, it’s easy to forget how arresting “old school” hand-drawn and hand-painted animation can be. Both ARIETTY and SPIRITED AWAY remind us just how enveloping this medium can be. Earlier, I joked about how some of the sets looked like the interior of a Thomas Kinkade painting. In all seriousness, though, many of the exterior shots have the soft-focus, yet also somehow sharp, look of Kinkade’s paintings. There were moments where we actually felt ourselves getting drowsy - not from boredom, but from the serene look and feel of this movie.
Arrietty, Shawn, Pod, Homily, Hara, Spiller, and Aunt Jessica are all voiced with perfection by the cast. It’s as much to their credit as it is the animators, that the characters end up as distinctive and memorable as they are. Even the animal characters like Nina the Cat and the Crow end up with something approaching personality. Speaking of Nina, one of the pleasures of ARRIETTY is how she is positioned to be an adversary against Arietty and her family - only to wind up becoming a valuable ally. Further cementing the theme of unexpected friendship.
Ultimately, THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY reminds us of E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL, with its themes of unlikely friendship and selfless sacrifice. Shawn has a heart condition that prevents him from too much physical exertion - but he risks his health and life to help Arrietty and her parents - just as Elliott risked his own skin to help E.T. return to his own kind. And just as E.T. had a poignant farewell to cap it, so too does ARRIETTY have a coda that will linger in your memory for a time to come.
In the end, this movie is a beautiful Valentine to unlikely kinships everywhere - and the steps true friends take to ensure the safety and well-being of one another. To commemorate Shawn and Arrietty's friendship, Matt Kearney's awesome "Ships In The Night":
