Completed: The Secret World of Arrietty

Know the plot for "the borrowers" ?
great... now imagine that story with stunning visuals and an amazing score...

yeah that's pretty much this film in a nutshell.

I personally haven't seen every Hayao Miyazaki film. I was first introduced to him about ten years ago when my friend showed me Princess Mononoke... i think i saw spirited away shortly before or shortly after but i knew i liked the look of his films. Eventually i saw Naussica, castle in the sky and Howls moving castle.... all which i enjoyed.... Then i saw ponyo.

while i didn't hate ponyo i was kinda expecting a darker then the disney version of little mermaid and i got a much cuter and probably even more child friendly telling of the story... which is fine but since it wasn't what i expected i was a little disappointed. Again it wasn't bad but i never had been exposed to his 'kid movies'... hell i started with princess mononoke which is actually quite dark... anyways. next i saw kiki's delivery service.... which was cute but the pacing was a bit odd and i kinda wish there was more of a running plot.... still it was very slice of life so i enjoyed it. and now we get to arrietty....

if i had to rank  hayao miyazaki films that i have seen.... it would probably be...

1.   Princess mononoke
2.  Arrietty
3.  Howls moving castle
4.  spirited away
5.  nausicca
6.  Castle in the sky
7.  Kiki's delivery service 
8.  Ponyo

but once again... none of these films are bad.

I really enjoyed Arrietty... maybe after i watch it in Japanese without the disney engrish songs it'll bump princess mononoke.... but for now it's a close second.

the good?
The backgrounds are lovely
the characters and their design is believable and interesting.
The music is stunning and i will be looking to get the soundtrack either on iTunes or on cd.... i don't care i just want it.
the story is cute, yes it's been told before but i don't care it had it's happy moments and it's sadder moments.... it didn't get me to cry but it was pretty close.

things that make it a close second?
The voice acting... it's okay.... but the dialogue... i dunno just a little forced? it was better then most of the other disney dubs but not as good as the mononoke dub. I look forward to hearing it in it's original form.... i kinda wish disney would just put out a sub version.... but i guess asking children to read is a bit much.... and apparently all animation is for kids...
the pacing is a bit odd... again that seems to be common in his films so it didn't bug me too much but it's something to mention.
there are some cg backgrounds... they didn't bug me but my friend whom i saw it with didn't like how the two meshed so i figured it is worth mentioning.

so yeah i really enjoyed this, i think it's one of his better works.... granted i don't think i've seen even half of his catalogue so who am i to judge.

go see it in theaters if you've liked any of his other films or are just an anime fan in general.