Arrietty

I went back to look at my rating before watching and was surprised to see such a high one, and now I remember why I gave it such praise, such a beautiful little story wrapped in such incredible visuals and music. This movie really shines in the aspect of small things, whether it’s the story, relationship, or literally the people this movie is able to stuff a ton of substance into a short runtime. I’ll start with our main dynamic, with how little these two interact with each other there is so much soul and chemistry conveyed between them. I especially love the eye contact, in almost all their scenes we hold a fantastic amount of eye contact and so much is said with any words being spoken, these scenes are truly beautiful. Their sendoff is just as excellent with two big symbols to leave each other with and a good hint that they will soon meet once again. Even without Sean’s medical problems I would still love this connection, it was obviously made for convenience but to me it only shows how much Arrietty cares for him. While not incredibly deep as I said, this story is filled character and charm, as it is based on a book it actually has pretty relevant subtext even for todays standards. I found that the journey and action especially surprised me, a good amount is found here and really fits a wild story like this. A common gripe I see for this movie is that the villains sucks, this makes no sense to me, how is Hara a villain? Saying she is a villain is like saying Arrietty’s parents are villain, they are one in the same as they are ignorant to each other and therefore are prejudice against one another. This movies music and animation stands above most Ghibli and that is no small feat, the vibrant colors and whimsical chime truly entrance you into this world and reduce you to a borrower just like them.  Not every Ghibli needs to be some captivating war epic and this is substantial proof of this, just such a warm watch and day maker.