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Arrietty encounters the cat in The Secret World of Arrietty. Image: Disney/Studio Ghibli

1. Will I like it?

Yes, if you go in knowing what to expect. This is a sweet, beautiful and sometimes funny movie, so if that’s what you go in expecting I promise you’ll be richly rewarded. It’s a terrific story, loosely based on Mary Norton’s classic novel The Borrowers, about a 14-year-old girl named Arrietty and her parents, who are Borrowers and thus only inches tall. They live underneath the floorboards of a house, venturing out to “borrow” what they need and trying to avoid being seen by the “beans” (normal-size humans). As the movie opens, a sick boy named Shawn comes to stay at the house to rest before surgery, and it isn’t long before Arrietty, on her first “borrowing” with her father Pod, is seen by Shawn. Fortunately, Shawn only wants to help the Borrower family, but the same can’t be said of the housemaid Hara, who wants nothing more than to capture them to prove that she wasn’t crazy when she claimed to have seen them some time before. Saying much more than that would spoil the movie, but suffice to say it’s a very good movie for kids, which should give you an idea how it ends.

2. Will my kids like it?

I’d be shocked if they didn’t. It’s easy to identify with Arrietty, who’s smart and daring, and who loves her parents (who are the only other Borrowers in her world) more than anything. We also would all like to think that we’d react as Shawn does when confronted with tiny people who live under the floorboards of our house, even if any sensible person would in reality take pictures of them and contact the National Academy of Sciences or some such organization. And few kids will fail to be awed by the richness of the film’s visuals, which are always interesting and occasionally breathtaking. The story is fairly simple, there is some suspense and a possibly scary bit when Arrietty’s mother Homily is captured by Hara, but there are also many funny scenes (some including a cat), and the movie wraps up in an hour and a half.

I’d say the film is good for most kids age 6 and older, and probably quite a few slightly younger ones as well. Too much younger and they may be scared by Hara’s attempts to capture and/or kill the Borrowers.

3. Disney usually gets some pretty good voice talent to dub the Studio Ghibli films. How is it this time?

The voices are very good. Disney TV stars Bridgit Mendler and David Henrie do very good jobs as Arrietty and Shawn — Mendler portraying Arrietty’s wonder and fear at the various events without going overboard, and Henrie giving the weak but brave Shawn just enough earnestness without (usually) taking it too far. Comic actors Will Arnett and Amy Poehler, who are married in real life, do the voices of Pod and Homily (Arrietty’s parents), and do a fine job: Arnett does well with the understated Pod, and Poehler does a terrific job with the loud and over-the-top Homily.

But there’s really no doubt who the real voice star of the film is: Carol Burnett as Hara. For my money, this is the most inspired bit of casting in any of the Studio Ghibli American dubs: Hara is supposed to be crazily obsessed and loud, but very (unintentionally by the character) funny, and if there’s any actress who can play that kind of role better than Burnett, I can’t think of her. She just runs away with every scene Hara is in.

4. Is this similar to previous Studio Ghibli films I’ve seen?

Well, first off, it’s important to note that legendary animator/director Hayao Miyazaki did not direct this film, but his protégé Hiromasa Yonebayashi did. Miyazaki wrote the screenplay and produced the film, so his distinctive style, if not always obvious, isn’t missing, either. Certainly there are few animators who are better able than Miyazaki to put the audience in a new, amazing world and let them experience the wonder of it without pushing it in your face, and in this Yonebayashi does just as good a job as his mentor. The task of doing this in The Secret World of Arrietty is doubly difficult, because it’s a new world, but it’s also the “real” world from a very different perspective. You’ll see parts that will remind you of Ponyo or My Neighbor Totoro, but you’ll also see bits that will seem entirely new, and to my mind that makes the experience all the better, in a way.

I will say that, while I really enjoyed the movie, it didn’t blow me away. It won’t stay with you the way Spirited Away does — although comparing other films to that masterpiece seems somewhat unfair, like comparing almost any non-Shakespearean play to King Lear. And while seeing The Secret World of Arrietty twice is certainly no chore, I think it lacks the re-viewability of, say, My Neighbor Totoro.

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