“Arrietty” is a quiet, unassuming film that grows more affecting the longer it runs. It’s a Ghibli picture, which means it’s made with a care for detail that most studios can’t touch, and it’s directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who was making his feature debut in 2010. The film is a live-action adaptation of Mary Norton’s 1952 novel “The Borrowers,” and it follows a family of miniature people who live inside the walls of a house, borrowing small items from its human inhabitants to survive. What makes it work is not spectacle but intimacy — the close-up of a sugar cube, the whisper of a conversation, the terror of being seen.
The story is simple. Arrietty, a 14-year-old Borrower, and her family — stern patriarch Pod, anxious matriarch Homily, and her adventurous daughter — live in peaceful anonymity until a human boy named Shō discovers her. At night, Pod takes Arrietty on her first borrowing mission to get sugar and tissue paper, and they enter a bedroom through a dollhouse. Shō sees Arrietty take a tissue, she drops the sugar cube, and they both know they’ve been detected.
The film’s central tension is that the Borrowers must stay hidden. Pod warns Arrietty not to take the sugar cube because their existence must be kept secret from humans. But she sneaks out anyway, leaving the sugar cube and a note beside the air vent. When Haru, the housemaid, comes in to fend off a crow, she grows suspicious of the Borrowers. The family decides they must move out.
That’s the setup, and it holds up. The film is 95 minutes long, and every minute is spent building the world of the Borrowers — their furniture made from matchsticks, their food from crumbs, their fear of being seen. The animation is fluid and precise, the colors are warm and lived-in, and the story is told with a patience that most modern films don’t have.
What elevates “Arrietty” above a standard animated family film is its willingness to treat its characters with genuine stakes. The Borrowers are not cute sidekicks — they are real people with real homes, real families, and real fears. When Pod returns injured from a borrowing mission and is helped home by Spiller, a Borrower who lives in the wild, the film shows the cost of their secrecy. The crow attack is handled with real dread, and the moment where Shō saves Arrietty is genuinely thrilling.
The voice cast, both Japanese and English, is uniformly excellent. Mirai Shida voices Arrietty in the Japanese version, and she brings a quiet, curious energy to the role. Ryunosuke Kamiki voices Shō, and his performance is confident and gentle. Tomokazu Miura and Shinobu Otake play Pod and Homily, and their anxious, protective dynamic anchors the film. The English dub, featuring Bridgit Mendler as Arrietty, is solid, though it’s the Japanese version that carries the emotional weight.
The film’s North American title is “The Secret World of Arrietty,” and that title captures what the movie is really about — the hidden world that exists alongside our own. The film’s tagline, “Discover a secret world within our own,” is a direct promise, and it delivers on it. The dollhouse through which the Borrowers enter Shō’s room is not a magical portal — it’s a piece of furniture. The sugar cube is not a prop — it’s a thing the family needs to survive. The film asks us to look at our own homes with fresh eyes, to see the small, unseen creatures that might be living inside them.
The film’s structure is a week in summer, and that structure gives the story a natural rhythm. Shō arrives at his mother’s home, discovers Arrietty, and spends the rest of the week trying to protect her and her family. The film is not a sprawling epic — it is a small, personal story about a boy and a girl who find each other across an impossible distance. The ending, which reveals that Shō’s mother and grandfather had noticed the Borrowers and built a dollhouse for them, ties the story back to its source material while giving it a distinctly Japanese twist.
The film’s schedule runs as follows over its 95-minute runtime:
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| Beginning of the film | Arrietty and Pod go on their first borrowing mission for sugar and tissue paper, entering Shō’s bedroom through the dollhouse |
| Middle of the film | Haru grows suspicious of the Borrowers and the family decides to move out |
| Near the end | Shō saves Arrietty from danger |
| Closing scenes | It’s revealed Shō’s mother and grandfather had noticed the Borrowers and built the dollhouse |
The film’s score, written by Cécile Corbel, is delicate and unobtrusive. It doesn’t hit you over the head — it simply underlines the emotions of the scene. The same is true of the music, which is used sparingly and always to effect.
“Arrietty” is a film about connection in a world that doesn’t want you to exist. It’s a film about family, about the secret places we hide, and about the joy of being seen. It’s not a blockbuster, and it doesn’t try to be one. It’s a small, beautiful film that rewards attention. The film’s highest praise is that it lives up to its reputation as a Studio Ghibli production — a film that is both a children’s story and an adult one, a film that respects its audience and its characters.
The film was released in Japan on July 17, 2010, by Toho, and it became the highest-grossing Japanese film of its year. That success is not surprising — the film is a masterclass in animation, storytelling, and emotional restraint. It’s a film that understands that the smallest gesture can mean the most.
“Discover a secret world within our own.”
Trailer, via StudiocanalUK.
The Borrowers
The Borrowers are the heart of the film. They are a family of miniature human beings who live secretly in the walls and floors of a typical household, borrowing small trinkets from humans to survive. The film is based on Mary Norton’s 1952 novel, and it respects the source material while adapting it for a new generation. The family dynamic is the engine of the story — Pod is stern, Homily is anxious, and Arrietty is adventurous. The film spends its runtime exploring their world, their routines, and their fears.
The Week in Summer
The film’s structure is a week in summer, spent at a mother’s house with a great-aunt, Sadako, and a housemaid, Haru. Shō arrives, discovers Arrietty, and spends the week trying to protect her. The structure gives the story a natural rhythm — the week is a container for the events that unfold, and the film uses the passing days to build tension. Every morning, the family wakes up and prepares for another day of hiding. Every night, Shō waits for Arrietty to appear.
The Dollhouse
The dollhouse is the film’s central device. It is a piece of furniture that the Borrowers use to enter Shō’s bedroom. The film presents it as a simple object, a toy, but it becomes a portal to a secret world. The scene where Pod and Arrietty enter through the dollhouse is handled with a quiet reverence — the camera follows them as they crawl through the small space, and the perspective shifts to show the world from their point of view. The dollhouse is a literal representation of the film’s theme — a secret world within our own.
The Voice Cast
The voice cast is a mix of Japanese and English actors. In the Japanese version, Mirai Shida voices Arrietty, and she brings a quiet, curious energy to the role. Ryunosuke Kamiki voices Shō, and his performance is confident and gentle. Tomokazu Miura and Shinobu Otake play Pod and Homily, and their anxious, protective dynamic anchors the film. The English dub, featuring Bridgit Mendler as Arrietty, is solid, though it’s the Japanese version that carries the emotional weight.
The Score
The score, written by Cécile Corbel, is delicate and unobtrusive. It doesn’t hit you over the head — it simply underlines the emotions of the scene. The same is true of the music, which is used sparingly and always to effect. The film’s sound design is equally impressive — the rustle of fabric, the click of a door, the hum of a refrigerator. The sound is used to create a sense of scale — the Borrowers are tiny, and their world is vast.
The Reception
The film was released in Japan on July 17, 2010, by Toho, and it became the highest-grossing Japanese film of its year. The film received positive reviews from critics, who praised its animation and music. The film’s success is a testament to the quality of the production — it is a film that was made with care, attention, and a clear vision.
The Verdict
“Arrietty” is a film that rewards patience. It is not a film that hits you with explosions or special effects — it hits you with a story. The film’s highest praise is that it lives up to its reputation as a Studio Ghibli production — a film that is both a children’s story and an adult one, a film that respects its audience and its characters. The film’s tagline, “Discover a secret world within our own,” is a direct promise, and it delivers on it. The film is a small, beautiful film that rewards attention.
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