Arrietty, released internationally as The Secret World of Arrietty, was adapted from Mary Norton’s novel The Borrowers.
The film follows Arrietty, a tiny girl from a family of Borrowers who secretly live beneath the floorboards of a human house. Borrowers take small objects from people to survive while trying to remain unnoticed. The story changes the original British setting into a Japanese house and garden.
Hiromasa Yonebayashi directed the 2010 film, making it his feature-directing debut. Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa wrote the screenplay. Mary Norton’s first Borrowers novel was published in 1952, and its miniature protagonists had already inspired earlier adaptations before Studio Ghibli’s version.
The title creates a useful distinction: Arrietty is the Japanese title, while The Secret World of Arrietty is the English title used in many markets. Saying only The Borrowers can be misleading because it names Norton’s source novel and other adaptations, not the Studio Ghibli film itself.