Studio Ghibli To Animate Mary Norton's The Borrowers

by dtshyk
Dec 15, 2009 10:38 PM | 44 Comments

According to the official website, new Studio Ghibli's movie "Karigurashi no Arrietty" was announced to be premiered next summer.

Karigurashi no Arrietty official website

The movie is based on British writer Mary Norton's novel "The Borrowers".

Staff
Plan & Script: Miyazaki Hayao
Director: Yonebayashi Hiroaki (assistant graphic director of "Gedo Senki")
Theme music: Cécile Corbel

The original plan was made by Miyazaki and Takahata nearly forty years ago. Miyazaki changed the stage of the story from Britain in 1950's to Tokyo in 2010. A family of ten centimeter tall dwarfs live through mice's attacks, insecticide, and rattraps.

Source: Mainichi

20 of 44 Comments Recent Comments

Kantarou said:
If they handle this the same way they handled Gedo Senki, it will be not worth watching at all.

gedo senki was a failure

Mar 6, 2011 10:05 PM by cardtrick

I'm excited for this movie, seeing Ian Holm voice the english dub version would be sweet, but if not that still doesn't mean I won't see it. The only thing wished was for them to make Spiller a teen. He was Arietty's same age in the live action and book, not 12.

Nov 15, 2010 11:01 AM by RICEA42991

Grah! Bring the English release soon please! T_T

Sep 14, 2010 7:32 PM by GoodEnoughForMe

2 min trailer :3

Sep 14, 2010 3:23 PM by lifeaspect

I'm apprehensive and over-the-top-excited at the same time.

Ghibli tries too hard whenever it decides on some Western classic. Why don't they go back to their "Mononoke Hime" epicness?

Jun 4, 2010 3:51 PM by indigosmanthus

Great news! The Borrowers seem a nice concept for a ghibli film. I'm sure they will have no problems creating the atmosphere. Also, Miyazaki's presence says it all.

Apr 21, 2010 11:27 AM by mirichan00

I am so excited to hear this! A studio ghibli movie based off of the borrowers is a great idea. My best friend has read the book and was happy when I shared this news.

I really enjoyed Ponyo for those who are disregarding it. I've watched it with my parents, my boyfriend, and friends at least 3 times. You have to accept that Miyazaki in interviews himself says he wanted to create a movie the smaller children around him would enjoy that wasn't Totoro. I think he accomplished that and more. I think most of his movies surpasses your typical age restrictions from young to old.

I foresee no problem with the setting in Japan. I just viewed the animation teaser and it looks so pretty. I can't wait to see what they do with the characters and their little world.

Apr 21, 2010 10:15 AM by StarMasayume

There are actually two, live action adaptations that I know of for the borrowers. One stayed true to the books, while the other one put a much modern twist on it. I look foward to it, because I was a fan of both the Littles and the Borrows, the books, growing up. I find it a little hard to compare the two series though, other then the fact that they are little people. Littles is a LOT more light hearted then the Borrowers ever was. There is a kind of... darkness to the storyline.

Feb 10, 2010 12:12 AM by Yemi_Hikari

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak_ogRodsdw

Small preview of the anime :)

I'm excited I enjoyed the story,live action film, and the littles plus I'm a huge Ghibli fan so I'm very excited to see this.

Feb 7, 2010 6:41 PM by Sigyn

Ahhh that's from that movie with Tom Felton! I want to see this! :3

Dec 20, 2009 9:30 AM by GeniusofIron

Winter said:
I'm disappointed that they changed the setting...after seeing Howl's Moving Castle (another book adaptation), I can't be excited for this. There were a lot of retarded changes in Howl's Moving Castle that dragged the story down (random unexplained war, useless old lady witch), most of which could have been avoided if they had at least attempted to stick to the books plot. Not to say the book was a masterpiece, but the plot probably would have flowed better if he hadn't tried so hard to make the story his own or whatever.

Recommendation: Stay away from Gedo Senki, another movie of Ghibli. the adaptation of "Wizard of Earthsea".

Howls's Moving Castle was a faithful masterpiece compared to that one.

Dec 19, 2009 9:44 AM by Ahenshihael

I'm disappointed that they changed the setting...after seeing Howl's Moving Castle (another book adaptation), I can't be excited for this. There were a lot of retarded changes in Howl's Moving Castle that dragged the story down (random unexplained war, useless old lady witch), most of which could have been avoided if they had at least attempted to stick to the books plot. Not to say the book was a masterpiece, but the plot probably would have flowed better if he hadn't tried so hard to make the story his own or whatever.

Dec 19, 2009 6:55 AM by Winter

dtshyk said:
Miyazaki changed the stage of the story from Britain in 1950's to Tokyo in 2010.

:/

Other than that, I'm sort of excited. I'm not a huge Ghibil fan but The Borrowers was a childhood favorite. Don't screw this up Miyazaki.

Dec 18, 2009 11:02 PM by LucySky

AmaterasuOmikami said:
Why did they change the setting? It's an animated film, it would be really easy to set it in England.

Perhaps the producers lack knowledge of England and so they changed the setting to somewhere they're familiar with. If that is the reason then its a little lazy of Studio Ghibli. You would have thought they would have at least considered keeping it in England, especially after seeing the rich and wonderful setting of Katsuhiro Otomo's Steamboy.

Dec 18, 2009 5:00 PM by Touka

Why did they change the setting? It's an animated film, it would be really easy to set it in England.

Dec 18, 2009 3:13 PM by VelvetEris

i wish them luck and hope they do a justice to there previous flop x.x gedo senki was barley watchable

the borrowers should be awesome

Dec 17, 2009 7:37 PM by Corpse69

Fuck yeah, another Ghibli!
Well I still have to watch all the ones I haven't watched yet though...

Dec 17, 2009 9:59 AM by HooHiraiBunny

motoko09 said:
Very interesting!! I only hope that it won't be something for children ...

It's about little people who live under the floor boards and you hope it won't be for children?

Dec 17, 2009 4:47 AM by Touka

Toontooter said:
So..Miyazaki is now one of the 'BORROWERS'?

"Borrowing" Mary Norton's book and setting the film in Japan.

Some might (politely) call it concept misappropriation.

Is Japanese manga running out of original ideas?

No. It's just that even the Japanese are free to adapt other countries works into animation.

Dec 17, 2009 4:45 AM by ladyxzeus

Studio Ghibli? I'm in!

Dec 16, 2009 5:18 PM by Retro8bit

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