Ghibli's next film adapts Mary Norton's The Borrowers

[Roy Mustang]

ANN

The official website for Studio Ghibli's next project, an adaptation of Mary Norton's The Borrowers (Yukashita no Kobito-tachi) novel, has launched on Thursday. Studio co-founder Hayao Miyazaki has been planning the Karigurashi no Arrietty (The Borrower Arrietty) film since July of 2008, but as previously revealed by producer Toshio Suzuki, Miyazaki is not directing the next film. 36-year-old animator Hiromasa Yonebayashi is making his directorial debut with this project. The film will open in the summer of 2010.

The original, Carnegie Medal-winning 1952 novel revolves around the "little people" — 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) tall — who live underneath the floorboards of an English country house. (The Japanese title literally means "the little people under the floor.") 14-year-old Arrietty and the rest of the Clock family live in peaceful anonymity as they make their own home from items "borrowed" from the house's human inhabitants. However, life changes for the Clocks when a human boy discovers Arrietty. Ghibli's adaptation will transport the setting from 1950s England to the Tokyo neighborhood of Koganei in 2010. (Koganei in western Tokyo is the home of a number of Japanese animation studios, including Ghibli itself.)

Yonebayashi was an assistant animation director of Ghibli's Gedo Senki, and he was an animation director on the Mei to Konekobasu theatrical short. He was also a key animator on Howl's Moving Castle, Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, and Spirited Away. Yonebayashi joined Ghibli in 1996, but Miyazaki and fellow Ghibli founder Isao Takahata had been contemplating an adaptation of The Borrowers for about 40 years.

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[Radical Dreamer]

ADSGKJDSLKG. THAT IS SO AWESOME. I LOVED that movie/book as a kid!! I can't wait to see what Ghibli does with it!!

[Wyntre Rose]

I agree! This sounds fantastic!!

[ShiroiHikari]

Interesting idea, but I have to wonder if the adaptation will be as loose as Howl's Moving Castle was.

[bigsleepj]

It's going to have, no doubt, lots of slimy-gooey ghost-like creatures and some pretty amazing visual stuff that makes no sense, yet still seem awesome.

[wildpurplechild]

Sounds cool, I either read the book or saw the movie, (can't rember, long time ago) wasn't there also an animated TV show? I'm sure this movie will be waaay better than the that.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

I'm familiar with The Borrowers and as a child enjoyed the books, TV series and movie but as an adult I'm a bit disappointed with this choice. I'd love to see what Studio Ghibli would do with the Narnia books. Anyway, it's Studio Ghibli so it's more likely to be awesome than crap.

[Nate]

Interesting idea, but I have to wonder if the adaptation will be as loose as Howl's Moving Castle was.

Well Miyazaki isn't doing this one so who knows.

[S.M.O.G.]

Oh! Halfway through the article I rememberd I saw this movie a long time ago! I can totally se Ghibli doing this. I've only actually seen Howl's Moving Castle, but I've seen enough trailers and stuff (I think that the rest of this post now has no credibelity) to know this is somthing they could do and do well.

[rocklobster]

I'd love to see what Studio Ghibli would do with the Narnia books.

I'm not sure this would be wise. I mean, I doubt there are any Christians working for Ghibli.

[goldenspines]

I'm not sure this would be wise. I mean, I doubt there are any Christians working for Ghibli.

Technically, Narnia can be considered either secular or Christian, depending on how you look at it. It doesn't scream "religious", which is nice, plus that makes it accessible to everyone (if they like the story, that is XD).

But that's getting off topic.
I remember the older movies of the Borrowers and I enjoyed the story (never read the book though D: ). I'm rather interested in the switch in time period and location of this version. But I'm sure Ghibli will do a nice job with it. ^_^

[ilikegir33]

I loved The Borrowers (the book and the movie) as a kid, and considering that the director, relative unknown Hiromasa Yonebayashi, worked on the animation for some of Miyazaki's best work (not to mention Jin-Roh and Serial Experiments Lain), I think this will be a great film.

[Roy Mustang]

I'm not sure this would be wise. I mean, I doubt there are any Christians working for Ghibli.

That didn't stop Tatsunoko Productions making Superbook years ago and you know there was least Christians in Japan then there is now.

As for the The Borrowers, I will be happy to see it.

[font="Book Antiqua"][color="Red"]Col. Roy Mustang[/color][/font]

[S.M.O.G.]

Technically, Narnia can be considered either secular or Christian, depending on how you look at it. It doesn't scream "religious", which is nice, plus that makes it accessible to everyone (if they like the story, that is XD).

I get whay you're saying, and it is good that not everything christian screams "CHRISTIAN," but non-christians adapting a story writen by a christian with christian themes risks in removing said christian themes, and could end up giving a completly different message.






Fun fact: I used the word "Christian" seven times (counting the one right there) seven times in this post.

[Roy Mustang]

I get whay you're saying, but non-christians adapting a story writen by a christian with christian themes risks in removing said christian themes, and could end up giving a completly different message.

They still gave the same massage in the movie, and you can't tell me that everyone that work on the Narnia movie was Christian.

I guess any book that has a Christian theme in it, and they want to make a movie. They need sit down and ask the people that work for the company if they are christian and if not, hire christian only to work on the movie.




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Col. Roy Mustang
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[Nate]

I get whay you're saying, and it is good that not everything christian screams "CHRISTIAN," but non-christians adapting a story writen by a christian with christian themes risks in removing said christian themes, and could end up giving a completly different message.

So I guess if an atheist writes a story with atheist themes, we have to make sure there's absolutely no Christians producing it, or otherwise they could remove those atheist themes and give a completely different message.

Also, I guess we should take Superbook and The Flying House off our list of Christian anime, because non-Christians worked on those, so they don't count...right?

I don't know. I personally like to believe that God is big enough that if non-Christians adapted a Christian book, His message would still come through because He's God and He is the master of everything.

Also I believe in a God with a long white beard, a gold crown, and a long robe with lots of shiny jewels on it. He sits on a big throne in the clouds, and He's about five hundred feet tall. He talks in a real deep voice like "I...AM...GOD!" He can blow up stuff just by looking at it. This is my own, personal idea of God.

[Radical Dreamer]

Okay guys, let's get back on topic. I can't imagine this conversation going down a positive road.

[S.M.O.G.]

1) I did not say there that it has to be only christians working on it, but there should be a christian in a position where the christian message will come through.

Since Narnia started this discussion, I'll use that as an example. I have no idea how many christians were involved in the making of the movie, but the christian themes were still there. However, the copyright holder (C.S Lewis' stepson) is a christian and very strict on who does what, and what changes they make. So if Ghibli adapted Narnia, I would assume that they had permision (though I think that would be obvious,) and that even if there were no christians directly involved with the project, the message would still be there because there would be somebody making sure no drastic changes were made.


2) I did not say that if a non-christian adapted a christian story, it would lose the message, I said it would risk losing the message. Look at Lord of the Rings. it was written by a christian author, with christian themes, but adapted by a non-christian.

The movies still contain christian themes, because they are in the story itself. the only way to take out those themes would be to change the story itself. Yes some of them were lost, but that was mostly due to time cuts, normal for any book-to-movie conversion.

Moral of the story: just be carful and use common sense.

EDIT: Oops, I guess Radical Dreamer posted while I was typing. Sorry!

[the_wolfs_howl]

Being one of the (seemingly few) people who thought the Ghibli adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle was every bit as good as the original, and the Ghibli adaptation of Tales from Earthsea was better than the original, I am extremely excited to see another Ghibli adaptation.

I've never been a huge fan of the Borrowers (mainly because the movie traumatized me for some reason when I saw it at the age of five), but since anything Ghibli is automatically awesome, I think this will be too.