The Secret World of Arrietty
Movie, 2010, The 2010s, Set in Under the floorboards
The Secret World of Arrietty is #18 of 25 in release order and #18 of 25 in chronological order in the Studio Ghibli.
The story
14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clock family live in peaceful anonymity as they make their own home from items "borrowed" from the house's human inhabitants. However, life changes for the Clocks when a human boy discovers Arrietty.
The Secret World of Arrietty recap
The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) follows a tiny Borrower living under the floor of an old house who is spotted by the sick boy staying upstairs. Hiromasa Yonebayashi made his directing debut on this adaptation of Mary Norton's The Borrowers, scripted by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa. Arrietty (Mirai Shida) lives with her careful father Pod (Tomokazu Miura) and anxious mother Homily (Shinobu Otake), secretly taking small things they need from the humans. Shō (Ryunosuke Kamiki), a boy resting before a heart operation at his great-aunt Sadako's house, glimpses her on her first borrowing trip. He leaves her a sugar cube, and she visits to ask him to leave them alone, and they become friends. The housekeeper Haru (Kirin Kiki) grows suspicious, and Pod decides the family must move.
The Secret World of Arrietty ending explained
The Secret World of Arrietty ends with Haru capturing Homily and calling pest control, and Arrietty asking Shō for help in freeing her. The family leaves with Spiller, a wild Borrower, floating down a stream in a teapot. Shō gives Arrietty a sugar cube, she gives him her clothes-peg hair clip, and he says her courage has made him want to survive his operation.
Where to watch The Secret World of Arrietty
The Secret World of Arrietty is streaming on HBO Max in the US. You can rent or buy it on Amazon, Apple TV, and Google Play.
Ratings
IMDb 7.6/10, Rotten Tomatoes 94%
Where it fits
- Release order: after Ponyo, before From Up on Poppy Hill.
- Chronological order: after Ponyo, before From Up on Poppy Hill.
Cast
- Mirai Shida as Arrietty (voice)
- Ryunosuke Kamiki as Sho (voice)
- Tomokazu Miura as Pod (voice)
- Keiko Takeshita as Sadako Maki (voice)
- Kirin Kiki as Haru (voice)
- Shinobu Otake as Homily (voice)
- Tatsuya Fujiwara as Spiller (voice)
- Shin'ichi Hatori as Postman (voice)
- Masahiro Yoshino as Additional Voices (voice)
- Hiromasa Yonebayashi as Additional Voices (voice)
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi.