Coming to theaters on February 17, 2012 is the movie The Secret Life of Arrietty.
The movie is going to be released by Walt Disney Pictures in North America. The interesting thing about this film is that it was released in Japan (July 17, 2010), UK and Australia back in 2010. In Japan the movie is knowing as The Borrower Arrietty. In th UK and Australia it’s simply known as Arrietty.
The movie was a huge success and it received a lot of praise for it’s animation and music. It was also the highest grossing film at the Japanese box office for 2010, winning the award for Best Animation of the Year at the Japanese Awards (similar to our Academy Awards).
An amazing 7.5 million people saw the film in theaters, an all-time record in Japan for a movie with a first time director (source: IMDB).
The Secret Life of Arrietty is based on the novel, The Borrowers, written by Mary Norton. I remember reading this book in school, although it was back in the Stone Age so I really don’t remember much about it.
Here is the movie’s trailer for your enjoyment. For email subscribers you can view the trailer by Clicking Here.
The movie is about a young girl (I would estimate teenager) who lives under the floorboards with her parents in a country cottage in Japan.
One day a young boy name Sho arrives at the house. He is a human boy who has a serious heart condition. His mother and grandmother felt it was best that he spend some time in the country house to get much needed rest.
One night Arrietty gets to finally go on a borrowing expedition with her father. It’s something she’s wanted to do all her life.
Borrowers, such as Arrietty and her family, only take small things that humans will not notice are missing, like a few crumbs and maybe a sugar cube or two. There used to be other Borrower families but they fled into the country side in fear of the humans.
No one has seen a Borrower, except possibly Sho’s mother. She often spoke of the little people who lived in under the floor boards. In fact she had a beautiful doll house set up for them in case they wanted to move into th house. Sho’s grandmother and the house maid, Haru, think the idea of little people living in the house is ridiculous.
That night, when Arrietty joined her father on a borrowing expedition she accidently comes across Sho, who some how knew she was there. Even though he didn’t see her he told her that he knew about them from his mother.
Arreitty fled that night so as not to be discovered by Sho, but she returned the next day out of curiosity. She almost became bird food if it wasn’t for Sho rescuing her. From that moment on Sho and Arrietty developed a special friendship.
Haru, the house maid, originally did not believe there could be little people lurking around the house. As time went on she became more and more suspicious and set out to find and capture the mysterious little people, that is if they really did exist.
Can Arrietty and her family escape detection, or will they be forced to flee their beloved home and make their way into the woods and find a new place to live?
What will be come of Arrietty and Sho’s friendship?
To learn more you’ll have to go and see The Secret Life of Arrietty when it makes it’s way to theaters on February 17, 2012.
When I first learned I was going to be seeing an advanced screening of this movie I had to Google it to see what it was all about. When I found out that the movie was done in anime I was not overly thrilled. I an NOT a fan of anime. I think that style of art is creepy and not too appealing – to me that is. I know plenty of people are totally into that type of art. I’m not one of them. However I always go into things with an open mind. If Disney was releasing this film in North America I figured there had to be something special about it.
There are a few scenes that are done outside. I think the artwork is amazing! It looks so realistic. It was hard to believe it was an animation.
Television legend Carol Burnett voiced the character of Hara, the housekeeper. Oh my goodness! She was totally creepy! I didn’t like that character one bit. She was scary looking. She gave me the heebie jeebies!
I thouht it was odd to see Japanese writing in the movie. For example, the exterminator truck was written in Japanese. I’m curious to know if children will pick up on that. I realize that this is a movie that was already released in other countries. The movie has been re-voiced with English speaking actors. I’m surprised they didn’t tweak the Japanese writing too.
Over all I think it was a nice family movie. I’m not sure if it’s something that my teens would enjoy, or my husband, but perhaps if my kids were younger they could appreciate that movie better. I think younger children and parents would appreciate the movie more.
To learn more about the movie please visit www.Disney.Go.com/Arrietty. You can also follow the movie on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/SecretWorldofArrietty.
Here is an exclusive clip from the film. If you are reading this via e-mail you can find the click here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPmXhN5LVQ4
If you would like to download some fun Secret World of Arrietty activity sheets you can find them by CLICKING HERE.
Kimberly
*I went to a free screening for this movie. There was no compensation. The opinions expressed are my own.