Ghibli Announces Borrower Arrietty Film

Studio Ghibli has formally announced its development of an anime feature film adaptation of British novelist Mary Norton’s Carnegie Medal winning 1952 novel The Borrowers. The original novel was set in the 1950s and told the story of four inch tall “little people” who live under the floorboards of an English country house, “borrowing” the things they need to live comfortably. Ghibli’s “Karigurashi no Arrietty” (The Borrower Arrietty) will move the setting to present day Koganei, Tokyo and revolve around a human boy discovering the existance of 14-year-old Arrietty Clock and her family of “little people.”

36 year-old Hiromasa Yonebayashi, who has been with Studio Ghibli since 1996 and served as assistant animation director on the studio’s 2006 feature Ged Senki and director for the 2003 Mei & the Kittenbus short film will direct the picture. Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki initially proposed an anime adaptation of The Borrowers 40 years ago. When asked why he revived the idea last year, Miyazaki said, “The situation of karigurashi (borrowing life) is very nice. It just fits to our present age. The age of mass consumption is ending now and the idea of borrowing proves the advent of it with depression.” The movie will open next summer. The film’s theme song, “Arriety’s Song,” co-written and performed by French musician Cecile Corbel will be released in Japan on the 19th.

Source: Anime News Network & Ghibli World