Kari-Gurashi no Arrietti/Arrietty

Stars: English language dub: Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland, Mark Strong, Olivia Colman, Phyllida Law Original Japanese voices: Mirai Shida, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Shinobu Ohtake, Tomokazu Miura, Kirin Kiki, Keiko Takeshita, Tatsuya Fujiwara, Shin'ichi Hatori

Director: Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Having achieved enviable auteur status Japans Studio Ghibli, creators of such well-received animated films as Howls Moving Castle and Ponyo, join forces with, among others, Buena Vista Home Entertainment, to make this attractive and engaging version of Mary Nortons classic novel The Borrowers (filmed under that name in live action in 1997 with John Goodman, Jim Broadbent and Celia Imrie).

Here, the setting is a rambling mansion in Japan where diminutive 14-year-old Arrietty and her parents live behind the walls and exist by borrowing things they need from the human owners. Until, that is, Arrietty makes friends with the sick young boy who comes to live in the mansion to wait for the vital operation he needs

Charm, happily not tainted by Disney-esqe sentimentality, is the overriding element in director Yonebayashis handling of the story, spiced with surprisingly stark sequences of the little familys ultimate fate. The animation is beautiful, especially the backgrounds against which the action is staged. Invading crows are suitably scary in context while the fractious cat first seen with Arietty is a memorable moggie.

A cartoon feature that works for both children and adults is always to be welcomed and Arrietty, with either the original Japanese dialogue or the well-dubbed English language version, fits the bill perfectly.

Alan Frank

Japan 2011. UK Distributor: Optimum. Colour.
94 minutes. Not widescreen. UK certificate: U.

Guidance ratings (out of 3): Sex/nudity 0, Violence/Horror 0, Drugs 0, Swearing 0.

Review date: 31 Jul 2011