It’s the kind of film that makes you slow down and consider its vast details long after the running time, whereas most Hollywood animated features feel like they were made to keep up with sugar-sniffing and technology-obsessed children.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 22, 2023

An oasis of calm in the normally hyperactive world of toon entertainment.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 18, 2021

If you've never found yourself watching a Studio Ghibli film, then you owe it to yourself to do so.

| Original Score: 3.5/4.0 | Sep 22, 2020

Children will very much entertained by all that is going on here. It has enough fun and comedy along with a great sense of adventure through the film.

| Original Score: B+ | Jan 11, 2020

The movie is a charming and slow attentive study of a friendship that teaches two budding youths, albeit of varying sizes, to learn trust, choose fearlessly and keep open hearts.

| Jul 29, 2019

Sometimes it is good to just sit back and have a calming slice of life story.

| Jan 18, 2019

So grounded that it makes its premise seem almost entirely plausible, and it makes it seem like even the smallest childhood fantasies might be real.

| Original Score: 9/10 | Nov 4, 2018

Clearly aimed at a very young market and consequently the story has been stripped to its bare basics, which is to its deficit.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 24, 2018

The story is sweet and simple, but unique.

| Aug 23, 2018

It has exuberant charm, illustrious animation and a high level of intimacy - basically everything you've come to expect from a Ghibli film, but on a smaller, more child-focused scale.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 14, 2018

Studio Ghibli's adaptation of Arrietty's tale feels oddly traditional.

| Dec 13, 2017

Although conceived and written by [Hayao] Miyazaki, the film was actually directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi, and the inimitable magic of the earlier films isn't quite there.

| Aug 21, 2017

Arrietty combines the bold, mature qualities of prior Ghibli fantasy outings like Spirited Away and Nausicaa with the droll humor of My Neighbor Totoro, resulting in a movie that is simultaneously thrilling and whimsically adorable.

| Dec 8, 2014

While Arrietty lacks the originality and imagination of many in the Studio Ghibli catalogue, it has the heart, warmth and beauty of its predecessors and is certain to leave you feeling moved.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 8, 2014

It's very pretty (plus a song that is like a gumdrop melting in your ear). Girls may enjoy the sweet, rather wistful story more than most boys.

| Dec 8, 2014

The Secret World of Arrietty is a magical and heartwarming story for older kids and adults. It's a secret world you will fall in love with.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Dec 8, 2014

Arrietty is brave and bright, exactly the sort of strange and wonderful being who might change someone's life forever.

| Original Score: 8/10 | Dec 8, 2014

It's the kind of children's film that's easy to overrate, simply for not treating the younger contingent of its audience like ADD-addled freaks, but far easier to enjoy as the handiwork of a relaxed master filmmaker.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Dec 8, 2014

What is so bewitching about the mostly static backgrounds in Arrietty is that they can be oxygenated at will by the smallest instance of judiciously placed movement, such as a single fluttering ladybird or a pair of jaunty butterflies in the foreground.

| Dec 8, 2014

This is truly a film for both parents and children. I really can't find anything wrong with it. Not one thing. It's a beautiful and poignant experience.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Dec 8, 2014