Movie Review: The Secret World of Arrietty

Recently, I was contacted by Disney, wanting to know if I’d like to attend an advance screening of their new animated feature “The Secret World of Arrietty” in New York City.

As a long-time fan of Mary Norton’s “The Borrowers” book, as well as being pretty keen on Studio Ghibli (the orginators of this Japanimation film, as well as another Hayao Miyazaki classic: “My Neighbor Totoro”), I was pretty enthusiastic as I could get (while still recovering from that neck injury that had me on hiatus until recently).

So off I went on my mommy adventure!  (Thankfully my husband was willing to watch the twins, as 4 yrs old was still a little young for them, despite the “G” rating – they have a tendency to shriek their enthusiasm, which isn’t exactly conducive to other audience members.)

When I got to the AMC Empire 25 theatre on 42nd Street, my blogger invitation got me a seat in the BEST row, right smack in the middle of the theatre.  Perfect for optimum viewing! (Thanks Disney!)

As the film started, I was amused to see the landscape was emphatically Japanese!  This was a bit nostalgic for me, as I lived in Japan for 3 years after I got married.

I soon became immersed in the story of an unlikely friendship between two vastly different worlds – Arrietty the Borrower, a 14-yr old girl of miniature size, and Shawn, a 12-yr old human boy, who’s come to stay in his Aunt’s house as he awaits a heart operation.

These two lonely children are drawn to each other, despite their differences in size and lifestyle – proving once again that friendship, like love,  is a universal concept that transcends all barriers and obstacles.

And the level of detail in the animation was stunning!  American animation is getting pretty good – Disney’s last animated feature, “The Princess & The Frog” did an amazing job of bringing old-style New Orleans to “life”, but in “The Secret World of Arrietty,” every nick in the wood furniture, every mildew-patinaed wall, is lovingly done with such care, making it that much easier for us to immerse ourselves in the hidden world of the Borrowers.

I enjoyed the characters, and I was particularly impressed by the Borrower father, Pod, voiced by Will Arnett.  A bit of the strong-but-silent type, he nonetheless conveys how much he cares about his family.

The Borrower mom, Homily, voiced by Amy Poehler, was a bit on the ditzy side, which I wasn’t too fond of, as it takes away from her maternal authority when she cautions her daughter to be wary of befriending “Beans” (The Borrower word for human beings.)

Other than that, the only other quibble I had with the movie as a parent was the scene that had Shawn, the human boy, clambering around on a rooftop.  (Wouldn’t want any kids trying to emulate THAT stunt!)

The movie is pure delight for children – even the ladybugs, pillbugs and grasshoppers got “oo”s and “ahh”s from the younger members of the audience.  Like them, I also wished I could live in that miniaturized world, fraught as it is with dangers that wouldn’t faze a “Bean” normally.

And despite my wishing with all my heart that there could be a “And they all lived happily ever after without a care in the world” ending, the future is unknown as the Borrower family sets off on their next exciting adventure.  I hope Disney and Studio Ghibli have a sequel planned!

I highly recommend this movie, and can’t wait until it comes out on DVD so my twin 4yr old girls can see it and shriek with joy to their hearts’ content, but suggest that parents are present for children younger than 9 or so for the first viewing at least.

Synopsis

Residing quietly beneath the floorboards are little people who live undetected in a secret world to be discovered, where the smallest may stand tallest of all. Arrietty, a tiny, but tenacious 14-year-old, lives with her parents in the recesses of a suburban garden home, unbeknownst to the homeowner and her housekeeper. Like all little people, Arrietty (AIR-ee-ett-ee) remains hidden from view, except during occasional covert ventures beyond the floorboards to “borrow” scrap supplies like sugar cubes from her human hosts. But when 12-year-old Shawn, a human boy who comes to stay in the home, discovers his mysterious housemate one evening, a secret friendship blossoms. If discovered, their relationship could drive Arrietty’s family from the home and straight into danger.

In Theaters

  • February 17, 2012

MPAA Rating

 G

Genres

 Action/Adventure, Family, Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Animated, Foreign, Adaptation

Distributors

 Walt Disney Studios Distribution

Run Time

 1 hour 20 minutes

 

**Disclaimer:  I received a free advance screening pass to see the movie.  Travel was at my own expense.  The opinions expressed in this review are my own and are not influenced in any way.

Garbage in, Garbage out…

We’ve been having (as parents do) a bit of a problem getting the girls to pick up after themselves.

By the time bedtime rolls around (huzzah!), the living room looks like a hurricane hit it, and their bedroom isn’t much better.

Persuading, bribing, scolding, time-outs – nothing was working.

Remembering back to when my own mother had to handle this problem, I recalled that her solution was to simply bag up all the mess in Hefty’s finest – and cart it off to the town dump.

I still haven’t gotten over the trauma of losing my Starlog sci-fi magazines.

So, while this method was a tad extreme, it did result in a clean room, if an unhappy child.

So we modified.  We told the girls that if they were going to treat their nice things like trash, then mama and daddy would, too.  After bedtime, any kid mess was swiftly deposited in a trashbag, and left on the coffee table to be seen by our twin kidlets in the morning.

And lo!  Whereupon the sleepy children laid eyes on the nicely tidy room and the proudly beaming mama – they asked the logical question, “Where’s all our toys?!”

I pointed to the bulging trashbag on the table, “There!  Right where they belong!”

Wails and howls of righteous indignation followed.

No, they begged, don’t throw away our toys!

So I told them that if they put the toys away, I would help and we would save their treasures from the Wrath of Daddy.  (Conveniently my husband was not around, so I blamed him.)

The toys were put away in less than 10 minutes.

Upon repetition, however, the charm and novelty of this new method of tidying soon wore off and the girls decided to see what would happen if they did not put their things away after being bagged.

Tonight, they’re going to find out.

Oooo, that sounds ominous, doesn’t it?  Well, tonight when Daddy comes home, with great ceremony and fanfare he is going to take the trashbag out – and unbeknownst to the kidlets, he’s going to stow it in the trunk of his car.

That’s it.  We don’t have money to throw away (pun intended – ha ha!) and toys ain’t cheap.  Eventually, the toys will be subtly and quietly cycled back into the toybox, but hopefully, we’ll only have to do this once.  The girls will know that mama and daddy will not cave in the face of twin pre-k stubbornness.

And that is the backbone of discipline at this age of development.  Knowing that mama and daddy Mean It.

We’ve learned our lesson, that mercy is wasted on the very young.  When you give them that inch, they’ll run with it for far longer than the proverbial mile.

Baa, Baa, Messy Sheep, Have you any trash?

Baa, Baa, Messy Sheep, Have you any trash?

Yes sir! Yes sir! 12 bags full…and more!

While I’ve been on hiatus from the herniated disc in my neck, I’ve had ample time for other fun pursuits, namely – early spring cleaning!

To put it mildly – I am not the world’s most organized mama.  And my husband is a very organized person.  You would think that this would be great for me – I make a mess and he puts it right.  But that would depend on your definition of “right”.

In the ongoing tidying wars (for all 16 years we’ve been married), he’ll put something away – usually in a place I’d need FTA drug-sniffer dogs to suss it out – and I create a hellacious mess trying to retrieve the item, when next I need it.

This has resulted in towering piles of crap.  Everywhere.

So while I’ve been on medical leave, I gave him an ultimatum:

I’m in pain and I’m darn cranky – you HAVE to do what I say or I’ll make you miserable.

He caved.

So there I was, ensconced in a comfy chair, a comfy cusion propping up my poor sore neck, directing him in the proper way of housecleaning, and feeling every inch a queen. (apologies to Shakespeare for the paraphrasing)

And every time he balked at putting something in what HE thought was a darned odd place for it, I’d dramatically groan in pain and clutch at my poor sore neck and arm, while glaring menacingly at him.

He caved.

At the end of the first weekend, we’d accumulated 12 large grocery sacks of trash, 1 large trash bag of shredding scraps, and 3 sacks of donation goods.

What’s more, things are FINALLY put away in places I have some hope of retrieving them from!

After all, we can’t keep insisting on the twins picking up after themselves, if mama and daddy visibly demonstrate the wonders of slovenliness and sloth!

The Owwie Song

On the plus side, Halle has composed a song my honor titled “The Owwie Song”.  It’s about how she wishes mommy’s owwie arm would stop hurting.

It goes like this:

“Owwie go away, owwie go away, don’t come back any more, mommy’s arm feel better, owwie go away.”

She sang it three times to me today.

Zanna who recentry has decided cuddling is not her favorite pastime, very sweetly cuddled up to my good side and gave me kisses, as I moaned in pain on the sofa today.

Even my husband is typing this for me.

On the other hand, my neck and spine are a bit messed up and I can barely use my right arm because it hurts so darn much.

Sooo… I’m taking a break from the blog for about a week until this gets better (hopefully) in hopes that I can avoid surgery.

In the meantime, please check my giveaway page, where there are contests for $100 amazon.com giftcard and a Kindle Fire e-reader and other fun stuff.

I’ll check my e-mail occasionally though.

Love,

Lara