English Title: The Secret World of Arrietty
Studio Ghibli
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Tom Holland
Directed by: Hiromasa Yonebayashi

Cat Out of the Bag Alert!  This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Based on the popular children’s book, The Borrowers. Arrietty (voiced by Saorise Ronan) is a young girl living with her family in a nice house. Only they’re four inches tall and live a secret life beneath a house of humans.

Cartoon Cat: The film begins with a human boy named Sho (voiced by Tom Holland) coming to live in his mother’s childhood home. A large tan and gray Japanese bobtail cat named Niya is in the yard, stalking something in a bush.

A crow attacks the cat, interrupting her stalking. Niya eyes Sho warily and then gives up chasing what’s in the bush and runs away.

Moments later Arrietty is heading back beneath the house when she realizes Niya is charging across the yard towards her.

Arrietty ducks beneath the house, leaving Niya reaching for her through a grating.

Niya is a bit standoffish with Sho at first but slowly lets him pet her more.

Eventually Niya becomes comfortble with Sho and even lies on his stomach while he is reading a book in the garden.

Sho knows that Arrietty is nearby when Niya gets antsy, but he calms the cat down.

This doesn’t prevent Niya from lunging at Arrietty when she shows herself, but Sho is able to hold the cat back.

Near the end of the film, Arrietty and her family move from the house because they have been seen by too many people. Niya shows up and sees Arrietty.

Niya no longer attacks Arrietty; in fact they seem to understand each other.

Niya goes back to the house and leads Sho to where she has seen the little family.

As they say goodbye, Sho explains that Niya is the one who brought him to Arrietty. Arrietty even pats Niya’s nose.

Final Mewsings: Cats can learn to love people, big or small

Relevant Links:

To discuss this film and other cats in movies and on television, join us on
Facebook and Twitter.