#disney channel doesn’t even exist in the uk anymore

[nessa007]

[howdoyousayghibli]

Arrietty: Back to (Incredible) Basics

I didn’t realize this until the opening credits played, but The Secret World of Arrietty (2010) makes four adaptations of written stories in a row from Studio Ghibli — Howl’s Moving Castle, Tales from Earthsea, and Ponyo being the other three. I’ll admit that Ponyo is a bit of a stretch, but Hayao Miyazaki has stated that his inspiration was Hans Christian Anderson’s fairy tale, so I’m sticking with it. 

Arrietty is an adaptation of Mary Norton’s widely beloved children’s novel, The Borrowers. While it was released as The Borrower Arrietty in Japan, the U.S. and UK releases were titled The Secret World of Arrietty and Arrietty, respectively; I can’t fathom why neither wanted to promote its association with a popular book, but here we are.

These four adaptations make for some interesting comparisons, to the extent that I wonder if there was some sort of strategy meeting held at Ghibli headquarters after Tales from Earthsea squirmed out into the world. That movie, and, to a lesser but still noticeable extent, Howl’s Moving Castle were both stuffed to the brim with mysteries, big ideas, and subplots, and they suffered for it. In contrast, Ponyo and Arrietty are simpler both narratively and thematically, but are astounding in their technical artistic achievements.

Arrietty tells the story of a family of Borrowers, tiny people who live under the floorboards and survive by “borrowing” what they need — such as a cube of sugar, basketball-sized to them — from the full-size humans who live above them. The main focus is on the family’s daughter, Arrietty, who is just old enough to join her father on his borrowing trips. Their comfortable but tenuous existence is disrupted by the arrival of Sean, a sickly young boy who’s been sent to live with his grandmother and her caretaker for some peace and quiet. 

These two plot points — the Borrowers’ survival and Sean’s sickness — are really the only plot points of Arrietty. This and the fact that both of these stories are actually addressed and resolved is refreshing after the overcomplicated Howl’s Moving Castle and Tales from Earthsea. 

Arrietty is a classic Ghibli protagonist — spirited, independent, and curious. Sean is also compelling; his melancholy brings to mind Princess Mononoke’s Prince Ashitaka and makes an engaging counterpoint to Arrietty’s enthusiasm and determination. The two are voiced by Bridget Mendler and David Henrie, whose resumés both largely consist of various Disney Channel shows. Fellow Disney Channel alumnus Moisés Arias (he was also, bizarrely, Bonzo in Ender’s Game) joins the cast as the fun-but-racistly-designed Spiller.

The adults of the cast pulled in a bit more star power — Arrietty’s parents, Pod and Homily, are voiced by Will Arnet and Amy Poehler. It’s easy to hear the Batman in Pod’s gravelly seriousness, but Arnet manages to infuse equal amounts of gravel and affection into Pod’s sparse dialogue. Poehler, meanwhile, gets some of the movie’s best dialogue as the anxious Homily; the character easily could’ve been obnoxious, but, as 6 seasons of Parks and Recreation can attest, Poehler is relentlessly charming and elevates each line she’s given.

There’s great characters and voice acting in Arrietty, but where the film really shines is in the presentation. Studio Ghibli uses the diminutive size of the protagonists as a chance to show off — throughout the movie, details of animation and sound design reinforce the tiny scale of the world we’re viewing. 

Visually, these reminders come in two forms: the creative ways that the Borrowers re-purpose (downscale?) the things they borrow, and the details with which the animators pack each shot.

The Borrowers’ ingenuity is a lot of fun to look out for throughout the movie, from stamps as wall art to soda can pop-tabs used to hang soup ladles. I can’t say how many of these were thought up by the Ghibli team and how many are pulled from the novels, but either way, they point to a well-thought-out world and add a great deal of charm.

The animation details, despite everything, blow me away. I feel Studio Ghibli shouldn’t be able to surprise me anymore, but by scaling down the action, they created new opportunities to impress. The premise allows for details like the grain of the wood inside the walls, rough but worn smooth and shiny, or the way water clings together, pouring out of their tea kettle in bulbous fist-sized drops. 

The sound design is similarly effective — a ticking clock can thunder across an entire room, and a giant hand can silence the rest of the world as it closes around a Borrower. It’s clear that the team behind this film saw the Borrower’s size as not just a premise, but a challenge, which they met amply. 

There’s a YouTube channel called Every Frame a Painting, probably most famous for their “Marvel Symphonic Universe” video. I happen to think that particular video is pretty off-base, but I love the channel as a whole. I bring them up because of their “Edgar Wright - How to Do Visual Comedy” video. It’s a great video, which you should watch, but the thrust of it is that the humor in Edgar Wright’s comedies doesn’t rely solely on dialogue like in many other comedies. The video posits that, if all your humor comes from funny dialogue, you’re throwing away the visual aspect of the medium — why not tell the story in a novel, or a podcast, or a stage play? 

This is a roundabout way of saying that Arrietty feels like a film that is truly firing on all cylinders. The premise, characters, animation, and sound design all reinforce one another; they feel deliberately interwoven in a way that few films do. 

Like many Ghibli movies, in a thematic sense Arrietty didn’t exactly leave me satisfied, but that same dissatisfaction has kept me thinking about the movie weeks after seeing it. (Vague spoilers ->) Sean’s attempts to help the Borrowers largely leave them worse off than before; does that mean he should have done nothing? Or did he just need to be more thoughtful? Are the Borrowers at fault for being too suspicious? It’s hard to agree with that when there’s ample evidence supporting their behavior. (<- End spoilers) These kinds of questions mean that, even the movie lacks a certain catharsis, it inspires further thought in a way that a lot of entertainment doesn’t. 

Up Next: 

From Up on Poppy Hill! Goro takes a second stab at directing — let’s see if he learned his lesson from Tales from Earthsea, shall we?

Alternate Titles:

Arrietty: Ah, That’s Better

Now You’re Just Showing Off, Mr. Miyazaki

“Arrietty, Kids?” “Aye Aye, Captain!”

Stray Notes

The crow and bird fighting are a great The Cat Returns callback 

”can I have some warm milk?” You go sneaky Sean, this kid rules

Has Mr. Ghibli ever seen a boy that wasn’t skin and bones?

*sees raccoon* haha sick Pom Poko reference

Wish I had a Lego Batman dad

And a Leslie Knope mom

DON’T RUN SEAN YOU’RE SICK

Why do they randomly emphasize the T sound in Arrietty sometimes (ARE-ee-eh-dy vs. AIR-ee-EH-tee)

Yooooo Spiller is tsundere AF

TOM HOLLAND voices Sean in the UK version??? And it was his first role in anything ever????

[ghostspacetoast]

Before a couple of years ago, I would only watch YouTube for music videos, karaoke and old cartoon theme songs. I didn’t subscribe to any of the popular YouTube personalities. I had watched Shane Dawson when I probably shouldn’t have and I admit, I did watch a few FRED videos.

But for a little more than year now, I have been a fan of best friends Phil Lester AKA AmazingPhil and Dan Howell AKA Danisnotonfire on YouTube and I think calling myself a fan is an understatement. I have every push notification possible activated for any of their social media accounts, I own both of their books, two shirts, one sweatshirt, one sweater, sweatpants, and a little plushie. I also went to see their stage show when they came to DC last May. And the only reason I have a Tumblr is to like and reblog fan art and memes. So I guess you could say I’m a tad bit obsessed.

And today is Phil Lester’s birthday. He is 30 years old. This was a day the phandom (dan+phil fan base name) knew was coming. 30 isn’t old, but there are a lot of tweens and teens in the phandom and hitting 30 might as well be considered old and un-hip.

Before I dive into the rabbit hole of Dan, Phil, and the entire fandom, let me get on with the list on why Phil Lester is so amazing.

After 10 years, he continues to make YouTube videos. Phil is known as “a YouTube dinosaur.”

He still believes in the magic of Christmas for when Dan says Mrs. Claus isn’t real, Phil says “this is the magic Christmas video about Akinator. If you say Mrs. Claus doesn’t exist I’m going to leave!” Catch it at 7:10 to see the sassy unfold.

He loves house plants but doesn’t have a green thumb.

 Phil has a great singing voice, as shown in Dan and Phil’s song “The Internet is Here.”

He is clumsy as hell but somehow he is still alive.

He gives great advice.

Phil was a contestant on The Weakest Link and made it pretty dang far.

And in that video he said he wanted to be “in the media somewhere” and a “film director” after he graduated from university, and Phil did it all through YouTube. (cannot be anymore proud of this man I’ve never met, but his dreams came true and it’s a real happy thing.)

He tries to expand on his brand with the Seven Second Challenge and doing videos out of the ordinary for his channel, like baking videos.

His smile is great and his laughter is contagious (and after I typed this I found a laughter compilation and couldn’t stop smiling the whole time.)

Phil’s eyes are straight from the ocean, outta this world. 

Phil (and Dan) are Disney stars! Well, they have done voice work as technicians 1 and 2 in the UK edition of Big Hero 6 and were two gorilla princes in The Lion Guard. This was the first time I had watched Disney Junior in awhile, but it was worth it to see my favorites in action.

He was also an extra on Faintheart as a viking.

Did I mention he is British? Yeah yeah his accent doesn’t define him, but it doesn’t hurt either! Also..have you heard the way British people say zebra?

He’s done things that have scared him, like doing a 25 ft cliff jump in Jamaica or doing a touring stage show for thousands of people.

Phil was a cohost along with his best friend Dan to a show on BBC Radio 1 called Internet Takeover. They had this show for a few years and this led to them interviewing One Direction, Taylor Swift, Fall Out Boy and even being hosts and announcers for some primetime awards shows in the UK.

He loves waffles.

At one point he was the world’s fastest coin stacker.

He never fails to be totally relatable.

His talent for unintentionally making innuendos.

Phil is pretty good at flipping pancakes. 

The one amazing moment when Dan got picture proof of Phil eating Dan’s cereal without asking.

Dan and Phil were in YouTube Rewind as two Stranger Things-esque boys.

He has 3.9 million subscribers and counting. #getPhilto4Mil

He finally nailed the famous warmup Danger Men At Work, way after their tour ended.

He was the one who inspired Dan to make videos.

Dan and Phil have an annual Q&A video called Phil is not on fire where they put cat whiskers on their face and it has become a cult phenomenon so when I did this my parents were worried and told me to wash my face but I didn’t because they just don’t understand that the cat whiskers lie within! 

And basically this whole video where we get to see baby ginger Phillip. 

Phil won the filmmaker of the year award at the British Online Creator Awards and he invited Dan onto the stage (I’d be crying if I wasn’t already so stuffy from my cold.)

He is the representation of sunshine, his name is Phil Lester and he is 30.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted on here and you sure did get a heck of a post! I hope you enjoyed my possibly lengthiest blog post ever. If you made it this far, snaps to you. I do wish this guy the best birthday possible because he has made my life better since I subscribed. I truly hope one day I will be able to meet him.

featured image made by lxzyfangirl.tumblr.com

  30 Reasons Why Phil Lester is Amazing on his 30th Birthday Before a couple of years ago, I would only watch YouTube for music videos, karaoke and old cartoon theme songs.