The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty
Title: The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty
Artist: An Art book on the film by Hiromasa Yonebayashi (Director)
Author of Original Story: Mary Norton
Screenplay Author: Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa
Studio: Studio Ghibli
Distributor: Viz Media
American release date: February 7, 2012
Format and length:Art Book 248 pages
Publisher/Industry Age Rating: Not rated, but is for everyone
Overall Personal Rating: A+
Similar series or titles to check out: The Art of Ponyo
The Secret World of Arrietty: The book, The Borrowers has been adapted from 1950s England in to a film during modern-day Japan. Arrietty is the child of the Clock family who are part of a race of people shorter than a pencil.
The Art of The Secret World of Arrietty leads us through the process of concepts to production-through preliminary concept sketches, character sketches, concept art, background art and production stills.
Synopsis:
Structurally this book has grouping of various progressions as a whole; it seems to progress from concept to finished backgrounds and film stills, major characters to more minor ones, from the beginning film sequence towards the end of the film. The sections break out like this:
Introduction: An overview and summary essay of the movie and how it and the art book were set up.
Pre-production: Question and answer format with the director, Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Lots of delightful concept and characters sketches, some colored, expressing the evolution of the Arrietty and the other characters in the planning stages. Illustration notes explain the reasons for the choices that they made, from design looks to project staff.
Production: Essay format from the Art Directors. Beautiful full colored pages of concept and background art. Most of the written information is in illustration captions, with a lot of insight on thought processes behind the work .
Script and Credits: The complete English language voice over script
Commentary:
I think this book is absolutely gorgeous! Many of the pictures are so beautiful they could be cut out and framed. Full page color pictures of the backgrounds make you wish you were there, or at least watching the film. The background concepts and actual background stills are works of art. Details are minute and delightful. One example I really enjoyed were the details of the individual types of flowers, really the detail to nature is something I can look at almost endlessly. When it comes time to watch the film, we won’t have the luxury to take it all in. Another thing I really admire is the depiction of sunlight (and light in general). The amount of thought and effort put into it is substantial and I am in awe of the results. With Hayao Miyazaki being part of the script development, it really contributed to being very visually interesting. It explains in the book that having an artist as part of the set up, it really lends the script to producing some wonderful images to illustrate. It is hard to pick favorite scenes. In fact, I just can’t. First that comes to mind is Arrietty’s bedroom. It looks amazing, I can’t wait to see how it plays out on screen! But the whole Clock household looks like a complicated treasure to the eyes. All of the nature and architecture images feel so engaging. Then there is the doll house…. see, where to stop? When I was telling people about the book, it was always best to just hand it over!
The illustrations aren’t the only gems in the book. It is a fascinating read. I enjoyed the background information. The production staff has contributed to many of the previous Sudio Ghibli projects. The style of combining a few short essays with the illustration notes and captions kept it from being long and dry writing. It feels almost as if you are there at the studio and someone has pulled out a portfolio to show you and that these are the comments that they would make as you go through the pictures. Every single caption is interesting, further revealing ideas behind the sketches and why some decisions were made.
Already being a fan of the Borrower series, I think one aspect of the art book that I liked was seeing the development of Arrietty. You can feel the attachment that staff may have felt over a scene or character look, only to give it up for the strength of the film. I was fond of the safety pin aspect to her outfit although it appears as if it did not make the final cut.
The only complaint I have is the soft cover of the book. The interior pages are a sturdy glossy paper and the cover is a thick stock paper with a brilliantly front colored dust jacket. However, as much as I’ve carried it around the past two weeks, looking at it and showing it to others, I would have preferred a hard cover. (Our Ponyo Art book also has the same soft cover.) I think it deserves a hard cover. The dings it sustained are indeed minor, but a hard cover would raise the quality of the book material to the quality of the interior pages and the content. It is like with the Viz Sig books, you can feel the quality.
I would recommend this book to anyone who ever intends to see or has already seen the movie Arritey. Even if you don’t intend to read it, the illustrations tell of an intriguing process.
Overall Grade: A+ It makes you dream of their world and impatient for the movie to arrive in America.
“In the Radius” The Art of Ponyo
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