They are, for all intents and purposes, identical save for the voice acting both offer perfect home theatre versions of the film’s immersive soundscape, and are stirring listening experiences. Not so with “Arrietty.” The film’s sound design is lush, precise, detailed, and enveloping, and it’s captured perfectly in two lossless audio tracks on Blu-Ray: The original Japanese language 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, and the dubbed English language 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. With any animated film, especially one of this caliber, there’s always an expectation that the visuals will overshadow the audio. Their final exchange, in particular, goes for an emotional wallop unsurpassed even by the greatest of Ghibli movies. Their relationship develops in the subtlest, most beautifully restrained of ways, each scene they share producing smiles and tears in equal measure. Together, they fulfill the empty places in the other’s soul. Sean’s greatest desire is to be needed, to find someone to whom he isn’t a burden, and Arrietty simply wants a friend. Sean, meanwhile, has a fatal heart condition, and has come the countryside for rest and relaxation while waiting for a surgery that has little chance of saving him. Arrietty loves her parents, but they are the only other Borrowers she has ever known, and that loneliness has become hard to ignore. Arrietty, a Borrower, and Sean, a human boy living in the house her family borrows from, are drawn together by the sadness in their lives. This is where the film’s true beauty lies. Most importantly, I love that Miyazaki and Yonebayashi are willing to forego a plot-driven structure in order to simply spend time with these characters, to watch the Borrowers operate in their wondrous little world and let the relationships develop organically. There is a human antagonist bent on capturing the Borrowers, which is the closest the story strays towards convention, but even this works in the film’s favor, for it adds a necessary weight to the emotional finale. Their love is far less obvious and far more meaningful. She befriends a human, yes, and while this turns into love, it is not romance. She has a pleasant, loving relationship with her parents, Pod and Homily, and there is no obnoxious family drama to speak of. Arrietty is a marvelous, strong-willed protagonist, and no more needs to be made of it than that. Yonebayashi’s “Arrietty” does none of this. I can imagine a horrifying American version of “Arrietty” where the title character’s parents try to quash her free-spirited nature, the humans are portrayed as evil, and Arrietty is berated by her kind for falling in love with one of them. When it comes to Ghibli, I am always amazed, first and foremost, by their storytelling, for Miyazaki and company avoid the conventions and pitfalls that so often destroy lesser films.
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