In Tokyo, 12-year-old Sho (aka Shawn) has a heart condition and is neglected by his parents. He moves to the house of his Aunt Sadako (aka Aunt Jessica) and her housemaid Haru (aka Hara) to wait for a heart surgery, but he is depressed with the absence of his mother. Meanwhile 14-year-old teenager Arrietty lives on the underground of Sadako/Jessica’s house with her father Pod and her hysterical mother Homily.
They are Borrowers, tiny people that collect simple things they need in the house. Sho/Shawn sees Arrietty in the garden and during the night, she participates for the first time in a harvest with her father. Arrietty accidentally drops a sugar cube in Sho/Shawn’s bedroom, but the next morning Sho/Shawn leaves the cube near a window in the basement. Arrietty’s parents decide to move to another place since they have been discovered by an inhabitant of the house. But there is the menace of Haru/Hara who wants to capture the tiny people.
Arrietty, titled The Borrower Arrietty in Japan and The Secret World of Arrietty in North America, is a 2010 Japanese animated fantasy film directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi as his feature film debut as a director, animated by Studio Ghibli for the Nippon Television Network, Dentsu, Hakuhodo DY Media Partners, Walt Disney Japan, Mitsubishi, Toho and Wild Bunch, and distributed by Toho.
The novel was adapted as a screenplay by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, based on The Borrowers by Mary Norton, an English author of children’s books, about a family of tiny people who live secretly in the walls and floors of a typical household, borrowing items from humans to survive. The film stars the voices of Mirai Shida, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Shinobu Otake, Keiko Takeshita, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Tomokazu Miura, and Kirin Kiki, and tells the story of a young Borrower (Shida) befriending a human boy (Kamiki), while trying to avoid being detected by the other humans.
The Secret World of Arrietty (2012)
Directed by: Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Starring: Bridgit Mendler, Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, Carol Burnett, Saoirse Ronan, David Henrie, Olivia Colman, Geraldine McEwan, Phyllida Law, Mark Strong, Tom Holland, Luke Allen-Gale
Screenplay by: Hayao Miyazaki, Keiko Niwa
Cinematography by: Atsushi Okui
Film Editing by: Rie Matsuhara
Art Direction by: Yôji Takeshige, Noboru Yoshida
Music by: Cécile Corbel
Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures
Release Date: February 17, 2012
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