The Secret World of Arrietty - review
Saw this tonight (quiet theater on a weekday), the latest Ghibli piece.
It was really a delight - good voice acting by the Disney cast per usual (Will Arnett plays it a lot more subtle than usual) though it's hard to compare to the Japanese in terms of lulls destroyer, different characterization due to localization, etc. The music was also the usual good output for a Ghibli import.
I'd like to mention the art, however. The detail in the backgrounds was a lot lusher than anything Western I"ve seen in quite a while (and probably will see with the 3d CGI focus of late), but it was the animation that was really good, and not just in using a lot of frames, having hair and clothes move appropriately - it was the Borrowers, on their tiny scale, had the water behave appropriately for their small size as it beaded into large drops (relatively). It's something I never thought of but did a great job bringing their scale home.
The movie is basically based on the first Borrowers novel, with a few minor touches to Afield and Afloat, except set in Japan. Coming-of-age factors, and also worries about death and sudden destruction on both scales. More subtly was also an 'end of an era' feel. I don't want to give too much away if you haven't read the novels, but I felt they did a great job on pretty much all levels. But, it is Ghibli output, so, unsuprrising.
Also, Dickinson is between advertisers and if you go to them right now, there's no pre-preview ads on constant loop: an unexpected
bonus.
It was really a delight - good voice acting by the Disney cast per usual (Will Arnett plays it a lot more subtle than usual) though it's hard to compare to the Japanese in terms of lulls destroyer, different characterization due to localization, etc. The music was also the usual good output for a Ghibli import.
I'd like to mention the art, however. The detail in the backgrounds was a lot lusher than anything Western I"ve seen in quite a while (and probably will see with the 3d CGI focus of late), but it was the animation that was really good, and not just in using a lot of frames, having hair and clothes move appropriately - it was the Borrowers, on their tiny scale, had the water behave appropriately for their small size as it beaded into large drops (relatively). It's something I never thought of but did a great job bringing their scale home.
The movie is basically based on the first Borrowers novel, with a few minor touches to Afield and Afloat, except set in Japan. Coming-of-age factors, and also worries about death and sudden destruction on both scales. More subtly was also an 'end of an era' feel. I don't want to give too much away if you haven't read the novels, but I felt they did a great job on pretty much all levels. But, it is Ghibli output, so, unsuprrising.
Also, Dickinson is between advertisers and if you go to them right now, there's no pre-preview ads on constant loop: an unexpected
bonus.