Arrietty

ï ¿½ Studio Ghibli

Introduction
"Karigurashi no Arrietty", in Italy "Arrietty - the secret world under the floor", is the latest animated feature film born from the skilful graphic art of Studio Ghibli inspired by the children's novel by Mary Norton, directed by a thirty-six year old newcomer , Hiromasa Yonebayashi and the consecrated skill of Hayao Miyazaki scriptwriter of other successful films such as the Enchanted City or Howl's Moving Castle.
The book "The Borrowers" (1973), considered one of the most beautiful children's novels of recent decades and from which the story is based, has already inspired two other films: by Walt Disney (Brass Knobs and Broomsticks) and, in 1997, Peter Hewitt's The Rubacchiotti.

In the case of Arrietty, the location moves from London to Tokyo and not in the 50s, as in the book, but with a story set in the present day. Despite this, however, the topicality of the themes that the director highlights several times remains unchanged, as does his attention to ecology and the environment.

The film strikes the viewer, from the very first sequences, for the balance of the drawings, the perfection of the animation and the landscapes combined with mastery to the music and voice of the singer Cecile Corbel who manages to excite the audience, especially in the fundamental moments of history.

Arrietty, moreover, has already won the award for best animated film at the 34th edition of the Japan Academy Prizes.

Italian cinemas are preparing to welcome this film, already a box office record in Japan and premiered with subtitles at the Rome Film Festival in 2010. Lucky Red will distribute the cartoon on October 14th.

In addition to the magnificent graphics, the particularly refined soundtrack and the sweetness of the plot, paying a little more attention you realize how the cartoon is able to transmit values ​​and focus attention on the most important themes in this period. Indeed, the importance of friendship emerges, but also profound social issues such as a clear reference to consumerism, highlighting the need to borrow and reuse what is not needed by others, without necessarily having to resort to money to buying the superfluous, or the importance of the house, as well as the fear of the different that must be overcome with dialogue and communication.

ï ¿½ Studio Ghibli

History:
In Koganei, a city not far from Tokyo, lives Arrietty, a 14-year-old girl, together with her family. It could be a normal story were it not for the fact that these are not men, but beings just over ten centimeters tall who live hidden in men's homes, under the floors, eating their leftovers and stealing, indeed borrowing. , objects left unattended in order to survive. Arrietty is, therefore, a “rubacchiotta”. But in reality these curious characters do not steal, they rather use objects that would otherwise remain unused. They have a house furnished with everything you need, the nails are their stairs, a sugar cube can last for months and the landlords do not notice their presence, they are so discreet and silent.
A life made of effort and work, that of the rubacchiotti, always with the danger of losing everything they have hardly conquered, their home, the home. A metaphor for the human condition, moreover.
Arrietty, the protagonist, is a lonely girl, who spends her time among the leaves, flowers and dewdrops and her life flows quietly until a sudden event changes everything and she discovers the true value and meaning of friendship. .
Sho, is a boy almost the same age as Arrietty, with heart disease, who due to his poor health is forced to move from the chaotic and noisy Tokyo to the quieter country house of his elderly aunt, where the rubacchiotti live.

ï ¿½ Studio Ghibli

Arrietty has a colorful room full of found things, but she feels useless and inadequate because she would like to finally help her dad, Pod, "snatching" (ie looking for) objects and food left around by humans.
Thus, by chance, the meeting between the two takes place. Due to inexperience, the girl jeopardizes her safety and that of her family by letting Sho discover "the monster", who sees her just as she is intent on borrowing one of her handkerchiefs placed on the bedside table.
Yet Sho is not afraid, the diversity of Arrietty does not worry him at all, indeed. And even the girl after a first moment of bewilderment, also due to everything that her parents had told her about humans, understands that Sho cannot and does not want to harm her.
This sudden meeting, however, unleashes terror in the parents of the girl, and especially of her mother, Homily (Casilia), a fearful woman, always agitated but a housewife and an irreproachable wife.

ï ¿½ Studio Ghibli

Arrietty immediately realizes that he can trust Sho and an intense and tender friendship begins between the two. In fact, they are two characters as different in size as they are similar in character. Sho is alone and without friends, just like Arrietty, forced to live, amidst a thousand dangers, alone with her parents, never meeting peers to play or talk with. The fear of the different vanishes as if by magic and the two learn to communicate, to tell each other their fears and their hopes, almost as if the difference in size and the absolute prohibition to be seen by humans did not exist.
Friendship and mutual understanding will teach both of them not to be afraid, both of the serious operation that Sho will soon have to undergo, and of the threatening world that hangs over Arrietty.
The director was also able to show, with a great expressive and animation capacity, the way in which Arrietty sees the world around her. A completely different way from how we are used to seeing it. Here the dew drop, a leaf, a flower take on a different importance and value when viewed from a height of 10 cm, a cat or a bird can be fearsome enemies. Thus the story unfolds for an hour and a half between comic situations and tender and moving events, underlined by the music of Cecile Corbel, without ever, however, becoming tedious. Until we get to the final by no means obvious, which obviously we will not reveal so as not to spoil the surprise.

Yonebayashi undoubtedly succeeds in his intent: to strike with the perfection of the animation, to move with the grace and sweetness of the story and, above all, to make the viewer reflect on those that are the most important values ​​transmitted by this film.

ï ¿½ Studio Ghibli

Curiosity:
The soundtrack was edited by the French singer Cecile Corbel who seems to have expressly requested to be chosen for this production. In a letter to the Ghibli Studios, Corbel, in fact, explained how their works had always inspired her songs by attaching a test CD. After a series of contacts and nine test versions of “Arrietty's Song”, the tenth was definitely favored by Toshio Suzuki, the producer, who chose Corbel as the author and official interpreter of the film's music. Its sounds are Celtic-inspired and are perfectly suited to the fairy-tale and dreamy world of the Cartoon. The cd was released in Japan in July 2010 and contains 22 tracks that underline the salient passages of the film. On iTunes it was an instant hit. Among the songs we remember Arrietty's Song (also in instrumental version); Sho's Song (instrumental version); The Neglected Garden, I Will Never Forget You, Our House Below (also instrumental version), Tears in my Eyes or Goodbye My Friend (instrumental version).

Mary Norton's imagination created these strange creatures, the protagonists of five stories, in the 50s. His characters are identical to human beings in appearance, feelings and language. Yet they are small, almost invisible and forced to live under humans, on their floors, eating and living with what they forget around because they no longer need it. They cannot have contact with them, otherwise they would be forced to leave that house and move into the woods outdoors and in the cold. The period in which these books were published was characterized by economic hardship for many families, to which the story seems to refer in more than one passage. Yet, after 60 years, nothing seems to have changed ... the story is current, as are the problems of survival, the need to give up the superfluous or the beauty of being able to share with others what is needed. We should reflect….
In Italy the series of books "the Sgraffignoli saga" was published by the Salani editions.

It seems that Hayao Miyazaki dreamed of producing an animated film with the story of the Sgraffignoli since he was 20, after reading the Japanese translation of Norton's books. After 40 years, he finally presented his project and transposed it to Japan today. A dream that he managed to realize after reaping continuous successes with his previous films that have grossed millions of yen. On the web, the success was immediate as sites and blogs that talk about the film multiplied. All that remains is to wait for the result on the Italian public, even if many fans of the genre are eagerly awaiting this event.
For all those who, despite not being experts in this genre of film, were intrigued in reading this review, it is necessary to write a few lines also on Studio Ghibli.
It is a Japanese film production studio specialized in animation and founded by Hayao Miyazaki himself in 1985. There have been many creations over the years, most of which are unknown to the general public. But films such as “Tales of Terramare”, “Howl's Moving Castle” or “The Enchanted City” have arrived in Italian cinemas, which have certainly received the favor of the public and not only of Manga lovers.

Source: www.cartonionline.com

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