Film

Arrietty

Name: Arrietty
Genre: Fantasy, Animation, Family
Released: 2010
Cast: Mirai Shida, Ryunosuke Kamiki, Tomokazu Miura, Keiko Takeshita, Kirin Kiki

A tiny girl and her family scavenge a human house for survival, rendered by Studio Ghibli with the studio's usual patience for texture — dew on grass, the roar of a kettle. It's quiet, tender, and almost eventless by design, trading plot momentum for scale and wonder. Best for viewers who love slow, tactile animation over spectacle.

TMDb rating

7.7

If you liked this

My Neighbor Totoro1988

The closest sibling in tone: unhurried, rural, and full of the same reverence for small domestic moments and giant, gentle mysteries hiding just out of sight.

But Almost no conflict at all — if you need stakes to stay engaged, this will feel even slower than Arrietty.

Spirited Away2001

Ghibli's imagination at full throttle — a bathhouse for spirits, shape-shifting parents, a girl who has to out-think a whole world of rules she doesn't understand.

But Noisier and more surreal than Arrietty; some of it edges into genuinely unsettling territory for younger kids.

Whisper of the Heart1995

No magic here, just a bookish teenager falling into first ambition and first love — Ghibli's quietest, most grounded film, with the same delicate attention to ordinary life.

But There's zero fantasy element, so if the small-people conceit was the draw, this won't scratch that itch.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Incredible Shrinking Man1957

Same core idea — a person forced to navigate a world sized for someone else — but told as existential horror instead of pastoral wonder, decades before Ghibli got there.

A B-movie classic that takes the exact fascination of Arrietty — a human-sized world turned into a landscape of terrifying scale — and runs it through Cold War paranoia and practical effects.

But Dated dialogue and gender politics that feel very much of 1957; the tone is grim where Arrietty is gentle.

Kiki's Delivery Service1989

A young girl making her own way in an unfamiliar world, rendered with the same warmth and craft — broomstick deliveries instead of borrowed sugar cubes.

But More episodic than narrative-driven; some viewers find its low-key rhythms meandering rather than meditative.

Ponyo2008

Ghibli's most childlike film — brighter, sillier, and stranger than Arrietty, with the same tenderness toward a friendship between a human and something not quite human.

But Aimed squarely at younger children; the logic is dreamlike rather than coherent, which can frustrate older viewers.

When Marnie Was There2014

A lonelier, more melancholy Ghibli film about a girl who forms a secret bond that reshapes how she sees her own life — similar hush, sadder undertow.

But Slower and sadder than Arrietty, with a mystery plot that some find drags in the middle third.

The Borrowers1997no page yet

The same source novel, played as live-action British comic adventure — John Goodman hamming it up as the villain, practical effects standing in for animation's magic.

But Broader and sillier by a wide margin; anyone hoping for Ghibli's stillness will find this loud and slapstick instead.

Coraline2009

Stop-motion craftsmanship rivaling Ghibli's hand-drawn care, with a small girl navigating a world built at a scale not meant for her — just far creepier.

But Genuinely frightening in places; not the gentle bedtime watch Arrietty is.

The Iron Giant1999

American animation with the same soft heart — a lonely kid, a secret too big to keep, a bond across an impossible size difference that ends in real feeling.

But Cold War subplot and giant-robot action push it further into adventure territory than Arrietty ever goes.

Microcosmos1996

It's the same obsession with scale and the hidden world underfoot, stripped of fantasy and rendered as pure, astonishing fact.

A wordless nature documentary shot at insect scale, turning dewdrops and blades of grass into vast, alien terrain — the literal version of what Arrietty only animates.

But No story, no characters, no dialogue at all; it demands patience Arrietty's narrative structure never asks for.

Downsizing2017

Takes Arrietty's central conceit — being small in a world built for someone else — and repurposes it as cynical adult commentary rather than tender fable.

An adult satire built on the same premise — what happens when the world is suddenly too big for you — but aimed at consumerism, class, and midlife disappointment instead of childhood wonder.

But Tonally scattered and much darker than its trailer suggests; some found its shift from comedy to bleak drama jarring.