The Secret World of Arrietty (2010)

What a lovely little animated film this is from Studio Ghibli now streaming on various services. It was one I hadn't seen yet and it was a little charmer. Apart from all the gorgeous animation, there's a cute little tale here too.

Think Land of the Giants (1968-70) and you'll not be far off! Arrietty is a 13 year old girl living in a family of similarly-sized kinda 4" people, "Borrowers", trying to avoid the full-sized humans who, when they get wind of them, historically, stamp them out.

So there's mum, dad and her living under the house of a bunch of full-sizers which is the home of a lady who has taken in her nephew for a while as he's waiting for a heart operation and needs rest. His mother is too busy to care for him. So auntie is a very nice lady who believes in the historic sightings of the Borrowers (they seem to be called this because they 'borrow' food and stuff from full-size humans - kinda "Stealers" really then - when they're sleeping) and nephew is well up for the contact, befriending Arrietty.

It's when they go on raiding parties into the house for supplies that it really reminds me of Land of the Giants with beautifully-imagined use of cotton reels, pins, hooks and nails in order to navigate around the giant (to them) terrain! It really is charming and with a nasty housekeeper character in the mix trying to exterminate them as 'pests' and spunky Arrietty raising to the challenge of survival at every turn, the makings are here for a lovely adventure.

It's so refreshing to see an animation that's not mainstream and out of America (ducks for cover) but rather a gentle, masterfully-created piece of art with such amazing attention to detail, the Ghibli way. A charming treat, 90-minutes well-spent.