So, last night I watched The Secret World of Arrietty with some friends! This is, I believe the most recent movie from the famous, Hayao Miyazaki. It is a story about a miniature family, who call themselves “borrowers,” that live in a tiny house under a bigger house inhabited by regular sized humans. Life is pretty simple for the family, that is until Arrietty accidentally breaks their only rule on her first “borrowing;” she is discovered.
She is seen by a young boy named Shawn, whom is staying in his Aunt’s home until he gets surgery done on a long standing heart condition. After some time, the family decides that 
the only thing they can do now that they have been discovered is leave their home for a safer place. Arrietty is adamant that Shawn is different, and will not hurt them, but her father, Pod, tells her that many borrowers have gone missing who thought the same thing of the humans. True to the nature of a curious teenager, she proceeds with caution when Shawn starts leaving her little notes and small gifts. A wary friendship between the two grows as Arrietty begins to trust that Shawn is not going to hurt her; he even saves her from a nasty crow!
Despite the friendship and trust, the family is still going about moving when the housekeeper, Hara, discovers that the “little people” are real. Huzzah, shes not crazy! But 
you are however, quite crazy, Hara, and should be fired immediately. She eventually gets a hold of, and traps Arrietty’s mother, to which a daring rescue mission by the two friends is the only thing that can save her. To make a long story short, Shawn sneaks out onto the roof with Arrietty, through the house, they sneakily find out that Arrietty’s mother is in the pantry, trapped in a bottle, and Arrietty goes in there to free her while Shawn distracts Gargamel, er…I mean Hara. After the rescue, Hara is exposed as being a basket case and is given some “time off.”
As Arrietty and her family leaves we sort of see the two friends going about their lives, and I assume thinking of each other. Luckily, Arrietty runs into Shawn’s cat, who previously wanted nothing more than to devour her entire family. Shawn gave his cat a stern talking to, which clearly, changed the cat’s entire world view on little tiny people. Anyway, the cat, being that it’s so smart, runs up to the house and leads Shawn to where Arrietty and her family are. They are about to board a tea kettle, where Spiller(another borrower) is waiting 
to take them to a safe place down the river(stream for us). Arrietty sees Shawn and goes to talk to him one last time. They exchange some very sweet parting words, and Shawn says that he has learned how to be brave from Arrietty. They give each other small gifts; a sugar cube for Arrietty, Arrietty’s hair clip for Shawn. They promise that they will always remember each other, and in a tearful goodbye, they part ways. We can only assume that the heart surgery went alright, because Shawn came back the next summer, and was happy to know that the neighbors down the street had small items from around their house mysteriously disappearing.
I really liked this movie! The little touches, like the uses for everyday objects by the borrowers were what were so neat. Like a pin was used as a sword, a pair of earrings were climbing hooks; stuff like that! It was also very cool to see a movie from the perspective of a family of 4-inch tall people, and then have it switch to our size, seeing their world. There were really seamless transitions between how the perspective was drawn depending on who the focus was on at the time. A bit of trivia for those of you who secretly watch a lot of Disney Channel, like I do. Arrietty was voiced by Bridget Mendler, and Shawn was voiced by David Henrie!
I suggest this movie if you like Hayao Miyazaki’s previous work, for sure!
All characters and images are copyright of the original owner.
