Synonymous with the humanistic, eco-minded, pastel-hued elegance of Japanese filmmaker and animation virtuoso Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away), Studio Ghibli, which Miyazaki co-founded, has earned its vaunted reputation as Disney's Pixar of the East. Although Miyazaki serves only on the periphery as co-writer and production supervisor, his soulfulness still radiates through The Secret World of Arrietty, a hand-drawn adaptation of Mary Norton's ageless kid-lit series The Borrowers, about four-inch-high humanoids who live beneath the floorboards of those dangerous "human beans." Within the Ghibli catalog, director Hiromasa Yonebayashi's delicate debut (the English-dubbed version is credited to Gary Rydstrom) is an underplotted, near-humorless trifle, but in contrast to the shrill, saccharine CGI cartoons—live-action included—that pass for family entertainment today, it's pure magic.
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