Arrietty

So, for the last few Studio Ghibli movies I've reviewed, I've gone over ones that I've enjoyed to lesser degrees than some of other ones, but now we're back to ones that I love and think are some of my favourites, Arrietty. I know in most places, it's called The Secret World Of Arrietty, but, here, it's just Arrietty. Anyway, apparently this is based on some book that I really don't know anything about, so just judging this film on its own, I honestly love it. I feel like this is the same kinda movie as something like My Neighbour Totoro or Kiki's Delivery Service, as in I feel like it gives me the same kinda feels in a way. I feel like I've seen this kinda story before, but the way they do it is very likeable and very charming. The story is about a family of tiny people called Borrowers who live in a tiny house inside a normal house and try to live their lives by taking things from the normal house without ever being seen. One of the members of the family is a teenaged girl named Arrietty who's then spotted by a boy named Sho who's staying at the house for a while and he's really sick. They start to get along and they start to open up to each other but the maid of the house named Haru starts to suspect that they're around and tries to capture them so Arrietty and her family decide to try to move and Sho tries to help. So, unlike some of the past few Ghibli movies that felt like they had big stakes on the rest of the world and stuff like that, this one is definitely back to things being smaller scaled and more relaxed in a way, and you could say it really is small scaled given the premise and what they do. I really like how they shoot this film. It's the kinda thing you'd see in something like Toy Story or A Bug's Life where you follow small characters and so you see the world as massive like they do and I really love it for that. I love how they use common items as tools and the different ways they do all that is really creative. The film is also pretty fast paced. I mean, it's only an hour and a half long but they do a lot really quickly but I think they do it really well too and allow a lot of character moments in it too like showing the connection between Arrietty and Sho and how they get to the point where he's helping her. But I think they also do a great job at hateable characters too, and by that, I mean Haru, the maid of the house because she's constantly trying to catch Arrietty and her family and so she's doing all these things to them and it makes her extremely hateable and so it's extremely satisfying at the end when she fails and you see her be defeated. And, really, all that really helped make this one of my favourite Studio Ghibli movies because even though there's not really anything in this that's insane or masterfully done like other Ghibli movies, just the little things they do do just helps make these characters very likeable and enjoyable and I love how they show that by having the characters be incredibly smart about the situation and knowing what to do at any moment. I especially love how the ending is almost kinda bittersweet because, not only does Arrietty and her family move, but it's shown that Sho could die because of his illness so that's kinda left open at the end too even though he says he's going for an operation. But I still think they leave it open enough to see that there is hope for him anyway. So, yeah, even though this is a more smaller film, literally, I think everything they do in this made it very enjoyable and just very fun to watch. I also love the dub here and how genuine it is. There's actually two versions of this film's dub because there's the American one and the British one and I've only seen the British version, but I think they do an amazing job like Saoirse Ronan as Arrietty and Tom Holland as Sho. I was really surprised to see Tom Holland do a dub for a Ghibli movie, but he does an amazing job. And the rest do a great job too. So, again, this review probably wasn't the most insightful you'll ever see about this film, but it's still just a film I'm really happy I saw and these are my genuine thoughts on it. And, with what's in it, I still love this movie because they do so much that makes the film so likeable and I'm really happy to say this is one of my favourite Studio Ghibli movies. So, I would highly recommend checking this out if you're watching all the Studio Ghibli movies. So, yeah, guys, those are my thoughts on Arrietty. Thank you all for reading and please comment down below to tell me what you think.