The Secret World of Arietty

The secret world of arietty is an adventure film about, well, little people. By that, I don’t mean midgets but actual little people, the size of a pen. I saw this movie in its original Japanese version. I don’t like dubbed versions, it changes the feel of the film entirely. It’s there that ‘Sushi’ will turn into ‘Big Mac’ or ‘Tentacle porn’ will turn into ‘Amateur’. It just lacks authenticity, that’s all I’m saying.

The movie, overall was an average watch. I’ll begin by stating some things that I actually liked about movie. Firstly, the cinematic beauty. Japanese movies generally tend to get this right, but here, as we are viewing things from a miniature being’s perspective, the grandeur attached to everything just escalates to another level. Secondly, the soundtrack. I believe this movie has one of the most invigorating and intoxicating soundtracks in the last decade. It is one of the major saving graces of this otherwise ordinary film.

Now to why the movie is not as awesome as it could have been. Maybe it’s just me, but the formula used by the movie has been used very effectively by plenty of Hollywood movies before it. “Honey, I shrunk the kids”, “Ants” and “Toy Story”. All focused on miniature beings who, for some arbitrary reason, never choose to interact with humans. All of the above mentioned movies were either funnier, more effectively built or more imaginative than this one. The movie was as predictable as it could have been. When the trailer of your movie is the biggest spoiler of all, your movie or your trailer has some serious issues. In hindsight, I think this movie could have been made into a much better and much more impactful short film.

There were a couple of details in the movie which were just unnecessarily added to generate extra audience sympathy. For example, the child who finds out about these creatures is suffering from a terminal disease. I have no f**king Idea why that was necessary. It didn’t have anything to add to the movie and I wouldn’t have cried if he had died halfway.

Finally, the movie did have an adventurous feel to it as a movie of this genre is supposed to have. The whole LOTR, “Us against the world” thing. The soundtrack only makes it more epic. That is where the movie really stood out for me. There was a little bit of subliminal messaging in the movie as well, the whole “Avatar” bullcrap where the writers try to add their little bit about how Humans are the biggest danger of all. Unlike avatar, this aspect of the film was well portrayed here without it taking centrestage.

Final Verdict: An awesome soundtrack, A dated but well treated concept make it worth a one time watch.

6.5/10