Finally Finding One of My Favorite Soundtracks: The Secret World of Arrietty

 Every now and then a movie produces a soundtrack that touches the heart and soul in various ways.  Some soundtracks inspire a generation.  Star Wars was one of those iconic soundtracks.  Growing up I was enchanted by Chariots of Fire, Field of Dreams, and the original Muppet Movie.  Then it was Ever After, Emma (Gwyneth Paltrow), A Little Princess, and Sense and Sensibility.  In college I was addicted to the first Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack; Barbossa Is Hungry was played on loop (I have vivid memories carrying my discman around campus, perfectly balanced, steady steps, so the CD wouldn't skip).

For some reason soundtracks haven't really caught my attention all that much in this last decade, but when I heard The Secret World of Arrietty, a movie by Hayao Miyazaki, about eight years ago, the songs jumped off the screen full of enchantment.  The music doesn't sound typical Miyazaki, instead it's whimsical Celtic by Cecile Corbel.  The very first time I heard the music I wanted the soundtrack, but couldn't find it, and that was even after visiting Japan.  Guess I was looking in all the wrong places.  But a few weeks ago I finally found it, by accident, on the Amazon Market Place under the title: Karigurashi No Arrietty.  It arrived in the mail yesterday, and it really is simply whimsical and enchanting.  Celtic is such happy music.

 (As a side note, I'm listening to the Field of Dreams soundtrack off of YouTube, that's another hard one to get, and it's bringing back so many memories.  So haunting.)

Reviewing The Secret World of Arrietty

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

"Barrowng," he said after a while.  "Is that what you call it?"

"What else could you call it?" asked Arrietty.

"I'd call it stealing."

Arrietty laughed.  She really laughed.  "But we are Borrowers," she explained, "like you're a--a human bean or whatever it's called.  We're part of the house.  You might as well say that the fire grate steals the coal from the coal scuttle."

~The Borrowers by Mary Norton

In preparation for "The Secret World of Arrietty," a Studio Ghibli/Miyazaki film, I quickly read Mary Norton's 1952's book The Borrowers to see how the two compare.  Typically I don't like doing this, knowing full well that liberties must be taken for a books plot to work well on the screen.  There are several movies I'm glad I read the book after, such as Ella Enchanted (loved the movie, but if I had read the book first, I would have hated it.  Now I can see the two as separate entities).

And I'm glad I read Diana Wynne Jones Howl's Moving Castle after watching Miyazaki's adaptation.  Great liberties were taken there, and one of my favorite scenes in the book, where Howl takes Sophie and Michael to Wales, our World, never made the movie.  Actually, the fact that Howl is from our world, wrote a doctoral thesis and played rugby at University never made it either.  Kinda inconsequential information, but interesting and thoroughly amusing just the same.

The Borrowers was charming, and how did Miyazaki translate it to animation?  I feel he actually improved upon the written word into an enchanting film.  There are some changes, but I rather prefer them.  In the beginning of the movie Arrietty is allowed a bit of freedom outside the house, which she never has in the book.  And the cat, there is no cat in the book, dangerous creatures they are, but in the film one of the main characters is a cat, who has an important rule to play in the plot, but not what you would think.  And the path the borrowers must take to get into the main house is a visual splendor of climbing, walking on nails, and flying up with the aid of pulleys; in the book the path they took was simple and uneventful. 

The animation, as always, is gorgeous.  I love the attention to detail Studio Ghibli pays to background art.  And even though there isn't magic, which is a trait typically found in their films, you can't help but still feel the magic in the story telling and visuals.  Cecile Corbel, a French musician, did the music for the film.  Though the movie takes the story to Japan, away from the original England, the musical score has a celtic feel that is quite fitting.

I would put "The Secret World of Arrietty" in the same camp as Miyazaki's "Kiki's Delivery Service" and "Whisper of the Heart," which are actually two of my favorite movies from him, and I'm sure Arrietty will quickly become my absolute favorite.  It's hard to choose with so many great Studio Ghibli films.

Now I just need to see the movie in the original Japanese, which I'm looking forward to.

Have a great day!
Sarah