Arietty is a Romantic Adventure for All
If you and your date enjoy animated movies, then you must go see Hiyao Miyazaki’s The Secret World of Arietty on your next night out. My husband and I are enormous Miyazaki fans and this may be one of my new top three favorite movies. You’ll have to hurry—it is the film’s last week in our theater, though it may run longer in others—but it will be well worth it once you see it.
Arietty, the titular character, is a fourteen-year-old borrower. You might remember the borrowers from your childhood and the series with the same name. She and her family live beneath the home of a family who once believed they were there—then, as they grew older, they sort of forgot about the little people until a teen boy came to stay for some rest during one summer.
The story itself isn’t complex or even that riveting; it’s actually the same boy meets girl, girl has to move away story that we have not only seen in film, but that we’ve actually lived ourselves at some point or another. The difference—aside from the major size variations between our heroine Arietty and the boy Shawn—is in the actual telling of the tale.
Scaling the enormous landscape in all of its wonder and gorgeous animation is an entire perilous adventure for the borrowers. Insects and rats pose threats, as does the family cat at first—and every day’s typical, mundane occurrences for us mean dangers or excitement through them. It’s almost as if seeing the world through a child’s eyes.
The relationship between Arietty and Shawn is a bittersweet one that only lasts a week, but it changes both of their lives forever—and isn’t that how love often is when you are fourteen? Sure, you sort of wish he could shrink to be with her—though another young borrower does seem as if he is smitten with her too!—but the light touch that Miyazaki gives the film leaves you so satisfied, as if you’ve just glimpsed into a real magical world for a couple of hours.
This is definitely one of those films that we’ll want to buy to watch again and again, and I think it’s got the perfect touch of whimsy and beginning love to inspire further dates for those who might see it together, too. Miss out on the love of the boy or girl next door? No worries; just go see this movie.