Review - The Secret World of Arrietty: 8 Reasons to Watch

A girl small enough to hide under a leaf lives beneath the floor of a country house, and a boy has just seen her.

Words by Jamie Harper 15 November 2026

The Secret World of Arrietty: the main characters

A girl small enough to hide under a leaf lives beneath the floor of a country house, and a boy has just seen her.

The Secret World of Arrietty is the only Studio Ghibli film told from the height of a sugar cube. We think its garden is the loveliest the studio ever painted. Here are eight reasons, one on each slide.

Reason 1 - A family living under the floor

Studio Ghibli: a family living under the floor

Arrietty's family are borrowers: tiny people who live under the floorboards of an old house near Tokyo and take only what humans will never miss.

Every room of their home is furnished with things humans lost and never missed.

Reason 2 - Arrietty, fourteen and fearless

Studio Ghibli: arrietty, fourteen and fearless

Arrietty is fourteen, runs through the garden with a pin for a sword and wears a clothes peg in her hair.

She is curious about everything above the floor, which is exactly what her parents fear.

Reason 3 - Her first borrowing night

Studio Ghibli: her first borrowing night

The first big set piece is her first borrowing trip with her father Pod: a climb through the walls, by lamplight, to fetch one sugar cube and a sheet of tissue.

It plays like a heist, and every nail and cable becomes a ladder.

Reason 4 - A kitchen the size of a city

Studio Ghibli: a kitchen the size of a city

Seen from her height, a human kitchen is a canyon of steel, and a drop of water is as big as her hand.

Few films make you feel this small.

Reason 5 - The boy who saw her

Sho is twelve, ill, and sent to rest at his great-aunt's house before an operation. On his first day he spots Arrietty in the garden.

For a borrower, being seen is the one rule you never break.

Reason 6 - A dollhouse waiting for a borrower

Studio Ghibli: a dollhouse waiting for a borrower

The house holds a perfect dollhouse, with a working kitchen and tiny china, made long ago by a family that hoped borrowers were real.

It is the film's quiet idea: humans who want to help can still do harm.

Reason 7 - Spiller, the wild one

Then there is Spiller, a borrower boy who lives outdoors, hunts with a bow and says almost nothing.

He shows Arrietty that her family may not be the last of their kind.

Reason 8 - A harp score from Brittany

Studio Ghibli: a harp score from brittany

Hiromasa Yonebayashi directed it in 2010, his first film, from a script by Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa based on Mary Norton's novel The Borrowers.

The music is by the Breton harpist Cecile Corbel, and her harp gives the garden the sound of a lullaby.

Where to watch

Streaming catalogues for Studio Ghibli differ between the USA, the UK, Canada and Australia, and they change from month to month, so check the services you use.