The final result, directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, is pretty to look at and inventive in its worldbuilding (to a Borrower like Arrietty, a pin is a heroic sword and a sugar cube is a feast) but ultimately feels a little hollow. — C.H.
Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata had wanted to adapt Mary Norton's 1952 children's book The Borrowers (about sprite-sized people who borrow objects from everyday human life in order to survive) for decades. The final result, directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, is pretty to look at and inventive in its worldbuilding (to a Borrower like Arrietty, a pin is a heroic sword and a sugar cube is a feast) but ultimately feels a little hollow. — C.H.