"The Secret World of Arrietty''
By David Germain, AP Movie Writer
Considering the eccentric, almost psychedelic fantasy worlds
created in Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki's tales, a
story of tiny people living beneath the floorboards of a house
seems almost normal. This latest from Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli also
is a pleasant antidote to the siege mentality of so many Hollywood
cartoons, whose makers aim to occupy every instant of the
audience's attention with an assault of noise and images. Slow,
stately, gentle and meditative, the film is a marvel of image and
color, its old-fashioned pen-and-ink frames vividly bringing to
life the world of children's author Mary Norton's "The Borrowers.''
Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, with sound designer Gary Rydstrom
directing a Hollywood voice cast for the English-language version,
the film follows the adventures of tiny teen Arrietty (Bridgit
Mendler) and her parents (Amy Poehler and Will Arnett), who live
off things scavenged from the oversized human world above.
Befriended by a sickly human youth (David Henrie) and menaced by a
busybody housekeeper (Carol Burnett), Arrietty stands at the center
of a sweet, chaste, sort-of first love story told with warm
simplicity and grandly fluid visuals.
G. 94 minutes. Three stars out of four.
