*** 1/3
A Studio Ghibli film that made it to American shores not directed by Miyazaki? He did do the screenplay, though, and I read that he hand-picked the director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi.
An adaptation of The Borrowers. It was a huge hit in Japan, and Disney has released it in the US with American voices (and apparently British voices in the UK).
Arrietty is a 14-year old girl who lives with her mother and father in their makeshift house. Oh, and she's four inches tall and she and her family rely on taking little things from the house that they live underneath. A similarly-aged boy is visiting the big house for the summer. We eventually find out why, and it makes sense that he feels drawn to Arrietty. She feels isolated, as she's never met another borrower, and being the strong heroine she is, she doesn't fear anything, even seeing a full human.
I didn't think that this was quite up there with some of Miyazaki's classics (the relationship between Arrietty and Shawn feels kind of flat. But the visuals...for all of Pixar's magic, Studio Ghibli's animation captures something in the world that transports you. The images seem to embody a realism of the natural world, with plants, insects, and animals taking on a life that they rarely do in other films. That's on display here. And the image of Arrietty with her red hair pulled back, wearing a red dress and with a pin for a sword...much has been made that Pixar is now releasing a movie featuring a female protagonist. Miyazaki has done it numerous times before.
Well worth seeing. And even if my daughter, or I, didn't love it as much as Ponyo, that Disney is releasing these movies while keeping the spirit of the originals intact is a great thing.
A Studio Ghibli film that made it to American shores not directed by Miyazaki? He did do the screenplay, though, and I read that he hand-picked the director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi.
An adaptation of The Borrowers. It was a huge hit in Japan, and Disney has released it in the US with American voices (and apparently British voices in the UK).
Arrietty is a 14-year old girl who lives with her mother and father in their makeshift house. Oh, and she's four inches tall and she and her family rely on taking little things from the house that they live underneath. A similarly-aged boy is visiting the big house for the summer. We eventually find out why, and it makes sense that he feels drawn to Arrietty. She feels isolated, as she's never met another borrower, and being the strong heroine she is, she doesn't fear anything, even seeing a full human.
I didn't think that this was quite up there with some of Miyazaki's classics (the relationship between Arrietty and Shawn feels kind of flat. But the visuals...for all of Pixar's magic, Studio Ghibli's animation captures something in the world that transports you. The images seem to embody a realism of the natural world, with plants, insects, and animals taking on a life that they rarely do in other films. That's on display here. And the image of Arrietty with her red hair pulled back, wearing a red dress and with a pin for a sword...much has been made that Pixar is now releasing a movie featuring a female protagonist. Miyazaki has done it numerous times before.
Well worth seeing. And even if my daughter, or I, didn't love it as much as Ponyo, that Disney is releasing these movies while keeping the spirit of the originals intact is a great thing.
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