THE SECRET WORLD OF ARRIETTY
Starring Bridgit Mendler, David Henrie
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (with Gary Rydstrom)
Spawned from Studio Ghibli, the storied animators responsible for Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke, Hiromasa Yonebayashi's directorial début boasts an impressive pedigree but also shoulders some lofty expectations. Consequently, it may take some viewers a spell to accept that Arrietty is more likely to inspire wide-eyed wonder than full-on awe.
Sent to the countryside to rest up for an operation, sickly Shawn (David Henrie) glimpses something odd upon his arrival: Arrietty (Bridgit Mendler), a 10cm-tall sprite lurking amidst the grass. Through determined efforts, he finally befriends the teenaged Borrower who resides in a basement home fashioned out of miscellany scavenged from the human world by her taciturn father (Will Arnett) and high-strung mother (Amy Poehler).
While the alliance between an infirm, isolated boy and a dying breed (the Borrower population is on the wane) lends a melancholic undertone, it never detracts from the animators' astonishing ability to transform the mundane into something majestic. Never is this more prevalent than when tiny Arrietty embarks on an odyssey to retrieve a sugar cube for her mother. Using nails and staples as footholds, she clambers through the walls until she arrives in a modest kitchen that, to her miniscule eyes, may as well be the Grand Canyon.
Alas, if the meeting of disproportionate worlds provides constant fodder for inventive visuals, the disconnect between the eloquent Japanese animation and rewritten English dialogue (supervised by Gary Rydstrom) proves an occasional distraction. It's such minor shortcomings that keep us from completely immersing ourselves in the fantastical reality that Yonebayashi and his team have created.
