With Original Artistic Style, ‘Arrietty’ Entertains For All Ages

When going to see an animated movie, we walk into the theater expecting an action-packed experience. Not high-stakes action, of course. But anyone who has grown up on Disney movies and Looney Tunes knows that much of the fun of cartoons comes from their ability to stretch a story in directions of which no live-action movie could dream. In these films, toys can fight for each others' lives in a dump. Ogres can travel to a fairytale kingdom that resembles Hollywood. Aside from avoiding nudity and F-bombs, there are few rules in an animated movie. For this reason, it's rare to see a cartoon film that takes place in one setting, letting its story unfold at a leisurely place. But this scaling back of the narrative to focus on characters and details is what makes The Secret World of Arrietty such a treat to watch.

The film was made by Studio Ghibli, the Japanese animation studio behind the recent classics Ponyo and Spirited Away. Unlike those films, Arrietty tells a story that should be familiar to most American audiences. The movie follows the adventures of three little people living under the floor of a house. When the youngest of the miniature family, a teenage girl named Arrietty, befriends a human boy who lives in the house, she places her family in danger of being discovered and tormented by the other humans in the household. For those who don't know, this is the plot of The Borrowers, a children's novel from the 1950s that has seen a few lighthearted adaptations over the decades.

Studio Ghibli, along with director Hiromasa Yonebayashi and writers Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, had their own innovative take on this old story, making a film that surpasses any big-screen animated endeavor of 2011. Stripping the movie of subplots and immediate conflict, the animation crew at Studio Ghibli allows the first half-hour of the movie to unfold as the whimsical journey of one 10-centimeter-tall girl exploring the gargantuan world around her.

In these quiet segments, which account for most of Arrietty's runtime, the artistic collaboration comes together impeccably. As Arrietty makes her first trip to the human family's kitchen with her father to "borrow" tiny amounts of supplies, the audience, seeing the world through her eyes, is overwhelmed by the innovation and beauty on display. The two tiny characters grapple down a seemingly mammoth-sized cabinet, appearing as two ants making their way across a detailed, colorful portrait. People could sell still shots of this film to art museums, such is the beauty of the animation on display. Adding to the sense of being a small person in a big world is Arrietty's expert sound mixing. The soft patter of Arrietty's feet on a walkway of nails as rain falls gently in the background only enhances the impressive visual.

Another applause-worthy aspect of Arrietty is the careful dubbing. Walt Disney Pictures, which hold distribution rights of Studio Ghibli's films in North America, has chosen a great voice cast including the likes of Amy Poehler, Will Arnett, and Disney Channel stars Bridgit Mendler and David Henrie. While this quiet movie demands scaled-down voice acting, these four lend subtlety to their characters that is rarely seen in an animated movie.

The only factor holding Arrietty back from being an animated masterpiece is its irritating villain. The rising conflict in the movie involves the human boy's maid, Haru, discovering the existence of the little people and making it her obsession to eradicate these "thieves." As she screeches to herself incessantly instead of caring for the boy, who is about to undergo heart surgery for a potentially fatal disease, one increasingly wants to "boo" her off the screen.

Even when its story strays into the dark and depressing (and occasionally annoying), the painting-like animation and well-crafted characters keep it afloat. With this addition to Studio Ghibli's history of masterful storytelling, I can barely wait to see what the studio triumphs over next.