The Borrower Arrietty: Difference between revisions
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* [[The Archer]]: Spiller, though the audience never sees him use it in action. The first time was really just to show off to Arrietty and to show how the bow is used. The second time around, {{spoiler|he aims for Sho when he sees the latter conversing with Arrietty, but realizing that they're saying their farewells, he backs off.}}
* [[Audible Sharpness]]: Arrietty's pin/sword.
* [[Badass Adorable]]: Arrietty. Spiller when he's trying to show off for Arriety.
* [[Badass Cape]]: Spiller has a fur cape that doubles nicely as a hang glider. In a shot, audience members gets to see Spiller use it to glide across the sky and moon from Arrietty's perspective down below.
* [[Bamboo Technology]]: The Borrowers' technology mostly consists of scraped together things they collected from humans. This doesn't stop them from creating advanced and powerful tools, though.
* [[Beauty Equals Goodness]]: All of the good characters are drawn to be normal and decent-looking. Haru, on the other hand, looks rather toad-like half of the time. She starts out looking acceptable and noble, but as her antics goes on her appearance slowly becomes more ugly.
* [[Big Creepy-Crawlies]]: Any bugs when drawn in comparison to the
* [[Big Fancy House]]: Almost every scene in the film takes place in the house, which is filled with serene and ornate grass and trees. In the house, it's difficult to tell that it's actually in the middle of a big city, due to its size and the abundance of wildlife.
* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: {{spoiler|Arrietty and her family ultimately move away from the house, the Borrowers never ended up using the doll house like Sho's great-grandfather hoped, and Sho soon faces his operation. However, Arrietty and Sho tenderly part ways, exchanging tokens to each other, and it's implied that Arrietty and her family will live in a more hopeful and safe place. In the Disney dub, Sho's operation was a success. He was basically preparing to die beforehand, but the ending narration reveals that he's still alive a whole year later.}}
* [[Bland-Name Product]]: We briefly see a bottle of "Ivori Soap".
* [[Boy Meets Girl]]: In this case, the trope is used in an interesting way. The size difference between Arrietty and Sho, as well as the Borrowers' rule to never be seen, means that Arrietty is embarrassed and slowly walks away. Sho, however, is persistent in trying to speak
* [[Butt Monkey]]: If anything bad happens, it's always to Homily. She gets captured by Haru, and has to watch her house get taken apart when Sho places the doll house kitchen in her home.
* [[Cats Are Mean]]: Played straight at first--Sho's cat Niya is a mean predatory thing. Ultimately subverted when he makes his peace with the Borrowers. Near the end of the film, he closes his eyes halfway -- a display of affection from real cats.
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]:
** The pin, which is later used to free Homily.
** {{spoiler|Averted with the dollhouse.}}
** "Don't look down."
* [[Creative Closing Credits]]: The credits sequence is imposed over a fully animated epilogue involving Arrietty and her family {{spoiler|floating down a stream on a teapot}}. Its animation quality is just as great, if not greater, than the rest of the film. When that sequence is finished, the credits transition to a background with more detail than most paintings.
* [[Creepy Cockroach]]: Arrietty tries to fight one to show off her bravery, but Pod discourages her, saying a borrower shouldn't go looking for trouble.
* [[Cultural Translation]]: Unlike many Ghibli films in the past, some names where changed in the dub as well as flipping some scenes to make it seem like it's set in America, although the backgrounds make it clear where it is actually set.
* [[Dub Name Change]]: Sho to Shawn, Sadako to Jessica and Haru to Hara in the Disney dub, to be more reflective of American names rather than Japanese ones.
* [[Dying Race]]: The Borrowers, at least allegedly. Borrowers live so far away from each other (in comparison to their size) that they have very little contact, so they can't be sure how many other Borrowers still exist in the world. Sho makes Arrietty angry by discussing this topic, before his [[Wham! Line]].
* [[Expressive Hair]]: A Ghibli staple. Usually used with Arrietty and Homily.
* [[Expy]]: Nearly every major human character has a counterpart in the original books. Sho/Shawn is The Boy, and Aunt Sadako/Jessica is basically Great Aunt Sophy.
* [[Facial Markings]]: Spiller.
* [[Fainting]]: A monster faint, of sorts, when Homily sees Shawn put the doll house kitchen in their home.
* [[Forbidden Friendship]]: Between Arrietty and Sho. Borrowers are not supposed to be seen by humans, and when it happens they move away. Thus, their interactions and exchanged dialogue are forbidden by the very behaviour and existence of Borrowers. This is not helped by Sho's condition, and his instructions to avoid rigorous activities or exercise.
* [[Gaslighting]]: Sho pulls a minor case of this on Haru, moving the dollhouse kitchen back to the dollhouse when she's not looking to convince her that she's imagining the Borrowers.
** He also appears in front of her after she locks him in his room, visibly startling him.▼
* [[GASP]]: Arrietty when she realises that she has was seen by Sho.
* [[Gentle Giant]]: Sho would be this from Arrietty's point of view; his heart condition makes him unable to do much, so he instead chooses to sit in the garden and quietly observe the environment around him, and to read.
▲** He also appears in front of her after she locks him in his room, visibly startling him
* [[Good Parents]]: Pod is a stern yet fair version. Homily may be a bit more easily hysterical and anxious when it comes to the safety of her family, but she cares very much for Arrietty and wants the best for her daughter.
* [[Hair Decorations]]: Arrietty and her little clothespin hairclip. {{spoiler|She gives it to Sho/Shaun in the end.}}
* [[Happily Married]]: Pod and Homily.
* [[Hate Sink]]: Haru. Unlike most other Ghibli antagonists, her motivation -- that Borrowers are thieves and stealing what doesn't belong to them -- is [[Hand Wave]]d, and she becomes an external source of conflict in a film mostly driven around internal sources.
* [[Housewife]]: Homily is the only non-action one in the family, preferring to stay at home.
* [[Humans Are Cthulhu]]: Their size makes Sho and his aunt intimidating, although they respect the Borrowers and take care around them.
* [[Ill Boy]]: Sho, who was always a weak boy and will be getting an operation on his heart.
* [[It Was Here, I Swear]]: Haru tries to show Sadako/Jessica the Borrowers' home, as well as the kitchen which they Sho put inside their house. When Haru checks where it is supposed to be, the kitchen is missing. When she checks in the doll house that the kitchen has come from,
* [[I Will Protect Her]]: Sho to Arrietty.
* [[Last of His Kind]]: Arrietty's mother references this, fearing that she and her family were the last Borrowers. {{spoiler|Later proven not to be the case with Spiller's existence.}}
* [[Lilliputians]]: The entire race of the borrowers, and perhaps the trope the film depends on the most (other than [[Scenery Porn]]) due to its core premise revolving around it. Without this trope, the entire film will fall apart.
* [[Memento MacGuffin]]: Before {{spoiler|they go their separate ways in the ending}}, Arrietty gives Sho her clothespin hairclip.
* [[Mouse World]]: Well, more like a single dwelling, but the Borrowers' houses are still quiet small. Spiller does hint that there are other families of Borrowers, but they are never depicted in the film.
* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]]: Sho's effort to do Arrietty and her family a kind turn by giving them the dollhouse kitchen not only traumatizes Homily and forces the family to prepare to move, but it also leads to Haru discovering their home and capturing Homily. Though Homily, as predicted, ''really'' likes that kitchen and is heartbroken to part from it.
* [[Noble Savage]]: Spiller certainly looks the part.
* [[Non-Action Guy]]: Sho, due to his heart condition. Even running for a short distance wore him out. Instead, he is frequently seen engaging in quiet activities such as reading a book.
* [[Officially Shortened Title]]: In some regions, the film is simply known as ''Arrietty'', instead of the Japanese title ''The Borrower Arrietty''. In the USA, this trope is inverted and the title becomes the much longer ''The Secret World of Arrietty''.
* [[Opening Monologue]]: Downplayed with its brevity, and the fact that this is the only narrated part of the film.
* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Sho's parents are divorced; he rarely sees his father and his mother is often working.
* [[Parents in Distress]]: Arrietty and Sho team up to rescue Arrietty's mother Homily from Haru.
* [[People Jars]]: Or rather, a Borrower jar. Homily is put in one, by Haru, and Arrietty has to rescue her.
* [[Playing Against Type]]: Comedic actor Will Arnett voicing the [[Harrison Ford]]-esque Pod.
* [[Plucky Girl]]: Arrietty, of course, yet another Ghibli staple. Arrietty deals with breaking one of the core laws that guard her peoples' interactions, and seeks out the boy who she once met. She has to save her mum in a people jar. The second to last shot in the film has Arrietty looking into the distance, hopeful for what her future brings.
* [[The Quiet One]]: Pod and Spiller even more so.
** Sho isn't very talkative either.
* [[Ravens and Crows]]: A crow attempts to catch Arrietty, only to crash and get stuck in a window screen.
* [[Soap Opera Disease]]: Sho has a heart condition ever since he was a child.
* [[Scenery Porn]]: It's Studio Ghibli. Were you expecting anything else? It's even more prevalent in the film than their usual works, with sweeping shots of plants and the garden. Shots of what the locations and settings which would appear normal to a human is shown to be vastly different from the perspective of [[Lilliputians]]. Greenery is abundant throughout the entire film.
* [[Ship Tease]]: There are a few hints dropped here and there that Spiller likes Arrietty.
* [[Shout-Out]]: Spiller's costume and facial markings are very reminiscent of San's wardrobe and make-up from ''[[Princess Mononoke]]'', which is an earlier ''[[Studio Ghibli]]'' film.
** In the photo of Sho's mother and aunt as children, they look similar to Satsuki and Mei from [[My Neighbor Totoro]]. In addition, their mother resembles the mother of Satsuki and Mei.
** The title character is a young woman in her early teens belonging to a mythical race. She wears a mono-colored one-piece dress, has dark(-ish) colored hair, has a bow-like hair ornament, and she befriends a cat. [[Kiki's Delivery Service|Sound familiar?]]
** A rude, spotted fat cat who fights with a crow? [[The Cat Returns|That's new.]]
* [[Shown Their Work]]: The way the liquids behave on small-scale. They all have surface tension, so water beads from their teapot in droplets, and melted cheese forms big round balls, among other things.
** The flora and fauna are animated in a rather realistic manner, right down to the dew that forms on top of them.
* [[Sleep Mask]]: Arrietty's mother wears one in bed.
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