The Secret World of Arrietty

Hey,

So tonight I went to see The Secret World of Arrietty. This is another Disney/Studio Ghibli joint. Which means Studio Ghibli (My Neighbor Totoro, Spirited Away, Porco Rosso, and many more) does the jaw-dropping animation and Disney does the world-class dubbing for American audiences.

This particular film is an adaptation of the book The Borrowers (which was essentially ripped off by the cartoon show The Littles if you're old like me). The basic gist is that there are tiny people living in our houses who "borrow" small things like sugar cubes and tissue paper to make their wee existence more comfortable. Arriety is a young Borrower who lives with her mother and father in a pleasant country house. Arriety is bold and adventurous and anxious to go on her first borrowing expedition with her dad (Will Arnett who is basically channeling Batman here).

The problem is that a young boy named Shawn has come to the house to stay with his aunt. He's here because he's sick and will soon be having an operation on his heart so...no excitement.

There is excitement. Much of it provided by the housekeeper Hota (voiced by Carol Burnett) who suspects that Shawn may have seen a little person and who hopes to gain proof of them herself because she's tired of being dismissed as a fool. Adventure follows.

This is a much more relaxed Ghibli film than Spirited Away or Totoro. There's no real magic, just people going about their lives and bumping into one another. It's a placid little film that invites you to sit back and enjoy the visuals. That said, it's a delightful little film that parents and children can easily watch together and neither one feel terribly bored.

So go check it out.

later
Tom

Jester of Review

Hey,

So sometime back I reviewed an omnibus collection of "Dumarest of Terra" stories by E.C. Tubb. It's the story of Earl Dumarest who was born on Earth, stowed away on a freighter and wound up in the center of the universe, far from his home which became a thing of legend. So the stories involve his efforts to return home, hopping from planet to planet and scooping up adventure along the way. But the omnibus only had the first four stories.

I'm pleased to see that SF-Gateways has made the entire series available in e-book format. So now I've picked up the series with book 5: The Jester at Scar.

Earl winds up on Scar, a planet with a short orbit and a raging fungal ecosystem that flourishes and dies in a couple of months. But the fungi are valuable and men willing to risk everything will go looking for the species they need.

While Earl is out trying to find a claim big enough to get him passage off-world, the ruler of a world called Jest shows up to take in the sights, along with his new Cylan adviser. The Cylans are a group of cybernetic humans who have stripped away everything but pure intellect. They also have a problem with Earl since he keeps disrupting their plans and killing them.

Adventure follows.

It was a fun, fast read. A little too "square-jawed hero", but the author keeps coming up with interesting locales for adventure.

later
Tom