The legendary Hayao Miyazaki himself, who previously and successfully drew from English literature in Howl's, is credited with planning and, with Earthsea's Keiko Niwa, the screenplay. Like most previous Ghibli releases, Arrietty could also boast of near-perfect critical reviews.Īrrietty, called Kari-gurashi no Arietti ( The Borrower Arrietty) in Japan, adapts the 1952 children's fantasy novel The Borrowers by English author Mary Norton. Arrietty features Disney Channel star Bridget Mendler in the title role and comedically accomplished married couple Amy Poehler (staying, as always, one step behind Tina Fey) and Will Arnett as her parents. It helps that the studio's English language dubs have always enlisted actors famous and relevant to Americans of a wide variety of ages. It stands to reason that the wider and harder Disney pushes these movies, the larger an audience they will reach. Arrietty's $19 M in 1,500 theaters handily bested Ponyo's $15 M 2009 run in 900 theaters, which itself easily outpaced Howl's Moving Castle $4.7 M haul from 200 theaters in 2005 and Tales from Earthsea's blink and miss $48 K 2010 showing on just five screens. The Ghibli films' American performance has been almost a perfect reflection of their theater count. To put that achievement into perspective, Arrietty's $19 million at our box office still trailed the totals of Winnie the Pooh and Mars Needs Moms, Disney's two big homegrown animated underperformers of 2011.īut, Arrietty barely fell short of those while playing in far fewer theaters and spending a lot less on marketing. Earlier this year, The Secret World of Arrietty became one of North America's all-time highest-grossing Japanese films and the biggest to come from Disney's 15-year partnership with Studio Ghibli.
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