Smallness: Miyazaki’s “Arrietty” & Norton’s “The Borrowers”

The childhood fascination with smallness and the appeal of the microcosm (from the Los Angeles Times)

Kids — tykes, urchins, tots, moppets, bambinos, waifs, ragamuffins, cherubs and small fry — are fascinated by smallness. Consider their films: “Antz,” “A Bug’s Life,” “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids,” “Toy Story,” “The Rescuers,” “The Secret of NIMH,” “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Stuart Little” and countless others. Indeed, a nod to the diminutive seems obligatory if titles of children’s stories are any measure: “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Little Women,” “Little House on the Prairie,” “The Little Prince,” “The Little Engine That Could,” and so on. Now comes “The Secret World of Arrietty,” a tale of the tiny.

With a screenplay by anime genius Hayao Miyazaki (“Ponyo,” “Spirited Away,” “Howl’s Moving Castle”) and produced by his Studio Ghibli, “The Secret World of Arrietty” was the highest grossing film in Japan in 2010. When it was released elsewhere, it was warmly received by reviewers, who praised its visual artistry in an era in which others have turned to 3-D effects. Now with English-speaking voices (among them Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett and Will Arnett), the animated feature has been released in the U.S. by Disney.