“The Secret World of Arrietty”

Rated G

This is the kind of movie review that is going to get me in trouble. Let this be a fair warning to my readers.

 

First, let me set the record straight. “The Borrowers” is a beloved children’s book by British author, Mary Norton, written in 1952 and led to a series of books based on the same theme: little people who live beneath the floor boards of regular folks. They survive by “borrowing” (stealing) things from “beans” (which is what they call us).

Hollywood made a slapstick comedic version with John Goodman back in 1997. British television made a TV version in 2011. And now, in “The Secret World of Arrietty,” we have a Japanese version that has been converted (voiced) into an American version of the film. However, the visual is most certainly Japanese, immediately recognizable as an anime version.

People either love anime or they do not. I am not a fan. Film critics love it for reasons about which I am ignorant. I, in regard to this particular art form, am a philistine, a blasphemer, and an atheist.

“The Secret World of Arrietty,” based on such a very British story, is infused with no little dose of wabi-sabi, the Japanese art of finding beauty in everyday simple things, slow, uncluttered, and in no hurry. The soundtrack sounds so much like the music one hears in those little shops that burn incense, sell wind chimes, local art, hand creams, and soaps that require a down payment.

The borrowers stay away from the beans … and cats … and do battle with bugs to survive. They are very much like us except, in this cinematic version, fathers seem inscrutable, taciturn, and grunt a lot and mothers act somewhat hysterically if not bipolar. (In fact, the mother in this film looks more like the mother of the father — but perhaps I am being shallow.) The protagonist of the book series and this film is Arrietty … a girl.

She befriends a sickly bean … who has come to the house to recover from what we hear is heart disease. The boy helps Arrietty and her family even though they are trying to flee the house because, we learn, that it is advisable that borrowers always stay hidden (a secret) from beans. It seems that humans are always trying to either capture the borrowers or exterminate them. In “The Secret of Arrietty” the threat to the borrowers is the household maid, rather dog-faced in this Japanese version and voiced by Carol Burnett. Will Arnett voices the father but his talent was totally unnecessary; a minimum wage, middle-age, semi-articulate, bored somnambulist could have done the job quite adequately.

This certainly is a colorful and beautifully animated film. I appreciate that even though I am not fond of the anime art form. I found it too wabi-sabi for my taste. (I never forgave “Speed Racer” for ruining animation.) I thought the charming story was made too antiseptic for me. I was unmoved and uncharmed.

On the other hand, my interest in the Norton series was piqued. I would love to see an animated version by animators that would appeal to me, like the folks who brought us “The Triplets of Bellevue.” Now, that would keep me from getting drowsy and smelling sandalwood and soap.

Having said that, those of you who like “pretty,” yoga, and aromatherapeutic meditation may find “The Secret World of Arrietty” an ecstatic process to achieve ekagrata, whatever that means. My grousing will be unwelcome. So sorry. A thousand pardons. It just is not my plate of sashimi.

“The Secret of Arrietty” earns three bow ties out of five.