arrietty

I have to confess that I've never been a huge fan of the borrowers.

I mean, I'm not saying I actively dislike it; it's just something that's never really appealed to me.  I don't really know why - it's a fairly neat idea and clearly has enduring appeal, but I dunno, it's just never really clicked with me.

I am actually really referring to adaptations there.  I know it was originally a series of books, but I've never read any of them.  Perhaps I would like it more if I did.  However, I have seen several adaptations - in particular a series by the BBC when I was a kid.

I mention all this to give background.  And also just in case you didn't realise that Arrietty is an adaptation of The Borrowers.  Arrietty is essentially the lead character, but it's interesting Ghibli went with that as a title, rather than The Borrowers.

Especially since it seems like a reasonably faithful adaption to the core of the story.  I obviously say that not having read them, but the adaptations all seem to have the same core story too, so I'm guessing it's to that far odd.

Perhaps they did it to help make it feel a bit more unique given that they're relocated it to Japan.  I don't really see this as a big issue myself.  Moving it to Japan hasn't been accompanied by any weird changes to the basic ideas so localising it probably makes sense from a sales point of view.

Another thing to note is that Arrietty isn't a Miyazaki film - people tend to assume all Ghibli output is Miyazaki and he was the Exec Producer, the originator of the idea to adapt The Borrowers and the screenwriter so he had a big part to play but the film is directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi.

Interestingly Hiromasa was actually responsible (key animation) for one of the bits I enjoyed most in Ponyo where the fish escape from submarine.  And Arrietty has some really nice touches in the animation, although I have to confess some of it was also a bit clunky - the budget perhaps didn't quite match the ambition.

It's also perfectly reasonable, and is particularly suitable for a younger audience.  The real problem with it is that it lacks a bit of depth.  Unlike previous Miyazaki penned stories there isn't really much in the way of depth - it's all there on the surface.

So yeah, nice enough, but I'm not sure I'd want to watch it again and again.