1. The Secret World of ArriettyDorothy Cummings Yuling Wang Febriyana Surjana 2. IntroductionOur group watched The Secret World of Arrietty. This movie showed therelationship between two kinds of groups. One is little people called"Borrowers". The other is actual human beings. The movie we were assigned is on the topic of endings; specifically happy endings. 3. StorylineBefore surgery for his heart, a young boy named Sho is sent to his familysestate to rest by his Aunt. The estate is comprised of a small home, amid asprawling green landscape.During his first moments on the grounds, Sho views the house cat namedNiya looking at something in some plants. After Niya leaves, Sho catchessight of what appears to be a miniature human.This is Arrietty, the daughter of a family of Borrowers that live in a dwellingunder the houses floorboards. 14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clockfamily live in peaceful anonymity as they make their own home from itemsthat they borrow from the houses human inhabitants. However, life changesfor the Clocks when a human boy discovers Arrietty. 4. Characterization Arrietty- A happy, positive, virtuous, and brave little girl with traditional Japanese characteristics. She cares about her family more than other things. But she is also different. She will do what she thinks is right; for example, she goes to see Sho in the garden yard. She is willing to believe Sho is different even if her family has told her that human beings are horrible. Arrietty has traditional Japanese characteristics and different values. Sho- A quite and virtuous human boy who has heart disease. He is willing to help Arrietty when he finds Arriettys family. And he did, but not good as he expected. But he does help Arrietty when she asks help from him. Finally, he get encouragement from Arrietty to stay strong and brave and live through his surgery. 5. CharacterizationHara the Babysitter- Hara is the antagonist ofthe story. Her suspicion and curiosity of theBorrowers leads to her attempts to find andcapture them. When she finds the Borrowershome, she captures Arriettys mother and callsin a pest company to find the others. She doesnot see the Borrowers as miniature humanbeings but instead as insects to study andexpose to the rest of the world.Niya the Cat- The fat cat is an interestingcharacteristic in the film because it appears inthe both beginning and end. Sho can findArrietty because of the cat, and Sho can saygoodbye to Arrietty because of the cat. It is aconnection between the characters in thewhole film. Niya also is intent on attackingArrietty in the beginning of the film, but by theend, seems almost friendly of the borrower. 6. ThemesWe see how the role of gender was very important in this movie. In this film, Arriettyshows her strength and heroism to the boy even though she only a little borrower girl.Arrietty is very different compared with other Disney animation. Arrietty is not a princessor someone who always needs to be saved by a prince or another hero. Differently,Arrietty goes against conventional themes of typical role model as female. She is a littleborrower girl who has strength and responsible character. The Secret World of Arriettyshows the female gender as hero, which is rare in American animation in general. In theend of the movie, Arrietty makes a move with her parents, but not before she meets onelast time with Shawn, who thanks her for giving him the courage to face his surgery.One of aspect we can relate to is how, many times, children feel so lonely, scared, andconfused about situations, like how Shawn faces a scary situation (he is going to havesurgery), and its Arrietty who actually gives him confidence and changes him to bebrave to face his life, rather than his family giving him the courage. 7. Cultural AspectsThe Secret World of Arrietty was adopted by Disney, and is translated to English.Even so, in this movie we still can see how the Japanese culture has a stronginfluence. For instance, the house is very Japanese type, the garden, peoplecustoms and typical Japanese parents, who are really busy with their ownbusiness and work. Its also interesting how Japanese stories in animated film are more likely tofeature females as strong leads, while American animated films tend to depict females as relying on someone (usually a prince) to save them. This isespecially intriguing, as Japanese culture generally views males as dominate overfemales in society. In this way, Japanese films like The Secret World of Arrietty, goagainst conventional gender roles. 8. Technical Arrietty has anime style elements, including exaggeratedexpressions, stylized hair with character color coding, large roundeyes, and a wide range of facial emotions. The filmed used computer technology instead of traditional hand paintinganimation. Miyazaki didnt reread the book when drawing for the film. Instead, hedrew the story according to his memory. The greatest challenge of creating an English-language adaptation ofThe Secret World of Arrietty was to sync the actors voices with thecharacters as they are now speaking English instead of Japanese andthe English voices had to match the animation. 9. Original SourceThe Secret World of Arrietty is based off thechildrens fantasy novel The Borrowers theEnglish author Mary Norton. The book was firstpublished by Dent in 1952. The original storylinefeatures a family of tiny people who live secretly inthe walls and floors of an English house and"borrow" from the big people in order to survive.The Secret World of Arriety also parrells TheBorrowers because the movies ending continuesthe series of five novels including four sequels thatfeature the same family after they leave "their"house. 10. Video Clip 11. The EndingThe film ends with the goodbye atmosphere. The "happy ending" means thatArrietty and Sho acknowledge their friendship and will remember each otherforever. Arrietty has confirmed Sho was friendly to little people. At the sametime, Sho is encouraged by Arrietty to finish the heart surgery with courageand confidence. Therefore, from this view, I think it is a real happy ending.On the other hand, it can be argued that this isnt a happy ending becauseArrietty and her family are still forced to flee the home theyve always known.Arriety and Sho will also never see each other again, despite the friendshiptheyve come to. 12. Sources http://movies.nytimes.com/2012/02/17/movies/the-secret-world-of-arrietty-from-studio-ghibli.html?_r=0 http://www.cgw.com/Press-Center/Online-Exclusives/2012/The-Secret-World-Of-Arrietty.aspx#.UKlyCOT7K5I