Arrietty Written by Hayao Miyazaki & Keiko Niwa,
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Description: Touching Japanese animation that tells the story of Arrietty, a miniscule young girl who lives under the floorboards of an old house with her equally tiny father and mother.
When she’s accidentally seen by a 12-year old resident of the house, their peaceful life changes dramatically.
The fledgling friendship between the two lonely children causes the housekeeper to become aware of the small lodgers’ existence, forcing the family to choose between staying in their well-established home or leaving for the uncertainty of the great outdoors.
This review is based on a theatrical viewing I paid for myself
Lady-T’s Review of the UK’s English-language dub of the film:
Based on Mary Norton’s The Borrowers novels, Arrietty covers a fairly stripped-down version of the events contained in the first book. To fit into 94 minutes there’s no denying that it’s been quite substantially abridged and if we’re being honest I’m not sure that’s necessarily done it many favours.
In terms of the story there are some obvious differences, the location has been transposed into contemporary Japan for one, but the general plot itself is intact enough to be recognisably drawn from the same origins. Pod, Homily and Arrietty are all much as you would expect, though The Boy here has been re-named Shô, and his rather archaic-sounding rheumatic fever has been replaced with a slightly more modern congenital heart defect.
Quite frankly none of these are changes that particularly matter to the plot and the modernisation of the story is subtly done. Technology isn’t thrust in unnecessarily and if it weren’t for the occasional car and kitchen appliance you probably wouldn’t notice. Despite the film being quite short however, the main issue is one of pace and it almost verges on ponderous at times. In fairness, the biggest factor to that may actually have been to do with the translation and dub rather than any particular flaw with the film itself. The animation is beautifully crafted, no less than you would expect from Studio Ghibli, but the script feels uninspiringly flat and after a series of really well crafted dubs on previous Ghibli movies this one rather sticks out as being kind of half-hearted.
Unusually, the UK and US have ended up with different dubs this time (due, I assume, to having different distributors) so I can’t speak for the American English-language translation, but I can tell you the UK one is honestly disappointing.
Saoirse Ronan (Hanna) makes a lively enough Arrietty and I am always in favour of Olivia Colman (Hot Fuzz) in anything, but Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes) seems to turn Pod into the most peculiarly emotionless and taciturn creature. He’s almost too overtly masculine somehow, and if Tom Holland’s Shô had been any more lethargic he would have ground to a complete halt.
Perhaps unfairly that makes it feel like a general problem with the film as a whole and that’s difficult to gauge without seeing a decent set of subtitles. I will say however that while the lack of pace is not ideal, it’s the lack of peril that really seems to be most troubling.
That may again be a failing of the translation, but it strikes me that the reaction to ‘being seen’ is quite wholly undramatic. In the novel, being seen is always spoken of as the most terrifying thing that can happen, it spells disaster and fear, and it’s something worth being genuinely terrified of. In this adaptation however it’s shrugged off with almost insouciant calm. You rather get the impression they actually could have quite happily stayed put rather than leave at the end and nobody would have minded much either way. That’s what makes it so peculiar to hang the most notable plot developments off an event that warranted barely more than a blink at the time it occurred.
Over all though? Well, either find a sympathetic set of subtitles or wait for the US dub and hope that turns out better, because the UK one is sadly unengaging. The animation is beautiful and the general story sweet enough, but it’s by no means the best example of Studio Ghibli’s work, and if I’m being really honest your time might be better spent catching a repeat of Spirited Away.
Arrietty opens in the US next year, and comes out on R2 DVD in the UK this autumn.
Reviews Elsewhere
