It's a mini adventure! [Review: Arrietty]

"The Borrowers" by Mary Norton, the origin of the film Arrietty, is a much-loved children's novel from the UK. I have no idea how it fell into the hands of director Hiromasa Yonebayashi: without generalizing too much it seems Japanese animators have good literary taste.

The Borrowers are Little People living in the floor and wall spaces of a house and "borrowing" what they need. For some reason in my house they seem to need a lot of biros. Little People are found in the stories and legends of any country where alcohol is readily available. The film is about a 13-year old Borrower child, Arrietty, whose coming of age trip into the world of the Human Beans goes awry when she is spotted by a young Bean who is not asleep.

The UK release of this film features some of the best voice talent you could hope to find, led by Hanna's Saoirse Ronan as Arrietty. None of which was any consolation to me as I found myself unexpectedly watching the subtitled release instead. Still, if you have to watch any film in an unfamiliar language, it might as well be a Studio Ghibli film: no translation is needed for ivy leaves in the rain.



The artwork of this film is simply beautiful and beautifully simple. Arrietty cuts a dashing pose in her red dress, clothes-peg hairclip and pin sword: it's been noted elsewhere that, alongside Rapunzel in Tangled she is one of the very few female leads in children's animation this year.

The film does make good use of the centimetre-scale setting, interestingly this is less about Arrietty's father Pod making steampunk contraptions from cotton reels and safety pins (although he does do this) and more observation of fluid dynamics - tea, poured from a doll's house teaset, forms giant droplets. The Borrowers are always tiny and vulnerable and so their dilemma on being discovered by the Human Beans is real and affecting.

It's Grimm Up North [Review: Hanna]

Some films entice you in with awesome sequel promises, then disappoint with boring originality. Catfish is not the sequel to Sharktopus. The same goes for Donkey Punch and Sucker Punch, or Tron:Legacy and Tron. Miley Cyrus fans may experience similar disappointment at the opening of Joe Wright's film Hanna: is this tale of an albino child being raised by a rogue CIA agent as a warrior in the Arctic Circle as distant from Disney's popstar-alter-ego fairytale as you can get?

Maybe not quite so distant. Hanna's training leaves her unfulfilled and lonely: she wants to know what music feels like and, it turns out, her long-deceased mother was a talented singer. After her recapture and escape from a CIA base she befriends another tweenager and before the abandoned theme-park finale (all films should end in an abandoned theme-park) there are plenty of familiar pre-teen angst moments: awkward friendships, trust and secrets, almost killing boys who try to kiss you, skinning rabbits for breakfast and so on.

The deer's heart of this film is ripped from European fairytale, and of course this is a Grimm rather than Disney retelling with plenty of grue. Hanna (Saoirse, pronounced "K-ai-t," Ronan) is by turns Snow White, the Ugly Duckling or Red Riding Hood, while CIA handler Marissa Vigler (Cate Blanchett) is the wicked stepmother and Erik Heller (Eric Bana) the kind-hearted huntsman. It is this fairytale layer that turns Hanna from just another spy vs spy thriller into something much more captivating.

However there are other influences too. Hanna has a tendency to spout definitions like a walking Wikipedia: this was a central theme of my 2009 Sci-Fi London short Too Much Too Soon and I'm big hearted enough to take this as a tribute rather than any kind of plagiarism. Thanks Joe!*

Erik and Hanna reminded me of Kick-Ass superheroes Big Daddy and Hit Girl. While the question is the same - is there a scared child inside the trained killer? But Hanna's identity is defined by her origins, training and mission - she is the bullet.

The film relies heavily on national stereotyping - the Brit tourists that Hanna befriends will be familiar if you've ever come across the Modern Parents strip in Viz and are the funniest Brit stereotype I've seen for a long time, even including The King's Speech. The German stereotyping of the agents on Hanna's trail is more painful, although in dramatic terms they are portrayed as efficient and emotionless team players rather than bungling or argumentative crooks - so at least make a credible threat. Vigler's accent? American reviewers should drawl their own conclusions.

*this paragraph flagged for irony moderation