The Secret World of Arrietty-A Ghibli Film With a World and Characters I Loved Spending Time In

Like most Studio Ghibli movies, The Secret World of Arrietty contains a gorgeous, wonderfully detailed world that I loved spending time in. Any scene following Arrietty or the rest of the Borrower characters has such a wonderfully vast, larger-than-life feel, with the animation providing this beautiful sense of scale to everything. Contrasted with that is any scene following Shõ, which has this enjoyably quaint, relaxing, and comforting feeling, with the classic Ghibli approach of painting-quality wide shots that provide this lovely feeling of stillness. 

And like many Ghibli movies, The Secret World of Arrietty takes a more relaxed, almost slice-of-life approach to its story. The film spends much of its time on characters simply going about their day and interacting with each other, with little of the moments of action and danger you expect from a film about characters the size of insects. But what makes it all work is the immense charm of these characters. There's something so endearing about these characters that seeing them go about their day and interact felt so warm and comforting. 

The film is pretty light on much conflict through much of the film. Any conflict that does come up is referred to in passing dialogue but doesn't get paid off until the last third of the movie. That allows the inherent charm of these characters to shine and gives the film that wonderfully relaxing feel you expect from a Studio Ghibli movie. However, the film doesn't keep to that tone for the entire runtime, as it adds more conflict in the last act that comes out of nowhere. The house caretaker, Haru, has an out-of-nowhere character shift to being suddenly obsessed with capturing Arrietty and her family. It becomes even more jarring as the conflict gets wrapped up fairly quickly. 

Through it all, though, even throughout the last act, the inherent charm of these characters and the beauty of the setting shines. The Secret World of Arrietty works, as most of Studio Ghibli's films do, by enchanting you with its world and providing an endearing cast you love to watch grow as characters and bond. Like the best of Ghibli's films, I found the film to have such a warm, comforting feel that it made it such a lovely time.

Now Streaming on Max in the U.S