What kind of heart condition? The fatal kind apparently, as if that’s the only kind of heart issue there is. What I do know is that this movie handles it very poorly. I’m not familiar with the book Arrietty is based on, so I cannot say for sure how the boy’s health is handled in the original story. I’m certain most of my anger with this comes from also having heart problems myself. Shawn’s heart condition in particular upsets me-not because it exists, but because of what the story does with it. Additionally, these issues, specifically the medical one, lack consequences and have no bearing on the story other than to create angst instead of actual character development. His character is presented as having a lot of conflicts-living away from home, chronic heart condition-but there’s no resolution for any of these issues. I cannot even begin to understand some of the writing decisions that went into him. Shawn’s character, though, has to be the worst offender. I almost want to argue that Arren from Tales from Earthsea is better written than the characters here. I don’t think I’ve ever had so few fucks to give since The Last Airbender movie premiered.Īrrietty is a disappointment, because I expect Studio Ghibli to do so much better with its protagonists. Or in the case of our main characters, Arrietty and Shawn, a combination of the two. All of the characters- all of them-are either completely reprehensible or completely irresponsible and stupid. MadameAce: While I do believe that the narrative holds a lot of fault, some of the blame also lies within the characterization. They promise to remember each other even though they will never meet again.Īs opposed to some of the other Ghibli movies, there’s not a lot going on, but the problem with this film isn’t the narrowed scope. One last time Arrietty returns to Shawn and thanks him for what he’s done. Afterward, Arrietty’s family still moves, but their strength has given Shawn a new outlook on life. She calls on the help of Shawn and together they manage to save Arrietty’s mother and send the exterminators away.
With her father out exploring new areas to move to, Arrietty is left with the task of saving her mother. At the same time, she calls the exterminators to wipe the rest of them out. She manages to capture Arrietty’s mother and trap her in a jam jar. Haru had always been skeptical of the borrowers’ existence, but when Shawn starts acting strangely, she decides to go searching for the small folk as well. Unfortunately, all their plans are disrupted due to the sneakiness of Haru, Shawn’s caretaker. What he thinks is an olive branch of sorts the borrowers take as a sign that they need to get out faster than ever. In an attempt to make amends-and partly because of his own selfishness at wanting to see the borrowers-Shawn, after finding the location of Arrietty’s home, decides to replace their kitchen with one from a dollhouse that belonged to his mother. He and Arrietty’s mother have decided it’s too late: they’ve been found out, so they have to move. Thinking that will be the end of it, she heads home only to be approached by her father. She scolds the bed-ridden boy and tells him that they don’t need his charity. Arrietty’s pride is much stronger than her desire for safety, as she confronts Shawn rather than listen to what her father says. If she takes it, then the boy will know that they actually exist. The following day, Shawn leaves the sugar cube outside where he thinks Arrietty will find it, but Pod instructs Arrietty not to take it. The two borrowers leave quickly, but not before Shawn happens upon a cube of sugar that Arrietty dropped in their haste to return home. In her excitement for her first borrowing, Arrietty accidentally lingers a little too long gathering a piece of tissue and is spotted by Shawn, the sickly boy who lives in the house they’re borrowing from. ‘Borrowers’ are small (see: near matchstick sized) people who inhabit houses, living off items belonging to the normal-sized people who live there borrowing is the act of retrieving said items. Today, we review The Secret World of Arrietty: the only Ghibli movie that I will go out of my way to never watch again.īased on Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, the film follows the young Arrietty who has finally reached the age where she can go out ‘borrowing’ with her father, Pod. And whereas my dislike for a film will certainly color my desire to see it in the future, I don’t think there has been a movie so far that I would outright not watch ever again. Tsunderin: So far on our journey through Ghibli’s film library there have been quite a few films that MadameAce and I have disliked.
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