ARRIETTY

Something Borrowed

Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi
Starring Mirai Shida, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Shinobu Otake, Tomokazu Miura

With CGI and 3D being the dominant paradigm in big screen animation, it’s sometimes easy to forget that we used to value beauty over glossy spectacle in our family entertainment. Thank god, then, for Studio Ghibli and their latest offering, for serving as a timely reminder of the artistry inherent in well-rendered hand-drawn animation.

Based on the beloved - and much adapted - children’s series by Mary Norton, the film follows the adventures of the titular Arrietty Clock (Mirai Shida), the young daughter of a family of Borrowers living in the forgotten places of a suburban Tokyo house. Borrowers are four inch tall humans who survive by “borrowing” what they need from the “human beans,” as they call normal-sized folk. Secrecy is their watchword, and never being spotted by humans is essential to their continued survival. Inevitably, the Borrowers’ clandestine existence comes under threat when Arrietty is spotted by Sho (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a sickly young boy who has come to live in the house. Against the express warnings of her parents, Homily (Shinobu Otake) and Pod (Tomokaze Miura), Arrietty forms a close and tender friendship with the ailing lad.

It almost goes without saying at this stage of the game, considering the excellence of Studio Ghibli’s existing body of work, but this is a simply beautiful film, with every frame exquisitely rendered. Eschewing any limiting fidelity to realism, Yonebayashi utilises painted backgrounds to give his world a wonderfully warm, textured feel, while sticking with traditional cell animation for the characters, which lends them a charming energy of life. The production design is especially impressive, with much thought given over to the physics and logistics of a being mere inches high in a full-sized world. The result is a myriad of charming details and touches: a single drop of tea is enough to fill a Borrower’s cup, while double-sided sticky tape serves as mountaineering gear when Pod goes on a foraging mission.

Those expecting the scope of some of Ghibli’s earlier works may be disappointed; this is a small-scale film, not only in terms of its characters, but also in regards to its narrative. This is a small story about personal relationships and ordinary courage. Yet this is no failing; the film is cozy and intimate, inviting the viewer into its world. It’s also surprisingly bittersweet, with a real undercurrent of melancholy: the Clocks wrestle with the idea that they may be the last Borrowers left in the world, while Sho’s illness is a very real and largely unresolved threat.

If Arrietty doesn’t quite hit the sublime heights of some of Ghibli’s earlier works, such as the Oscar-winning Spirited Away, then it misses them by only a hair’s breadth. This is a gorgeous, assured, and above all heartfelt film, possessed of a palpable sense of wonder, and only the most cynical audience won’t find themselves utterly transported.

_TRAVIS JOHNSON