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Ghibli's Arrietty Has UK Premiere In Sheffield, May 29

The Studio Ghibli film Karigurashi no Arrietty, based on the British children's book The Borrowers, will be screened at the Showcomotion Young People's Film Festival in Sheffield on May 29. The film page is here. Tickets (£2 each) can be booked on the page, through the festival boxoffice or by phone: 0114 275 7727. The boxoffice is open from 10am on weekdays, and from 1030am on weekends.

The film is entitled Arrietty (the Japanese title translates to The Borrower Arrietty). The screening is at 1730 on Sunday 29 May at the SHOWROOM cinema - map.

The screening will be in Japanese with subtitles.

Arrietty is also provisionally scheduled for a UK cinema release on July 29, according to an official website. The Launching Films site lists Optimum Releasing as Arrietty's UK distributor. However, all dates and details on the site are subject to change.

The SHOWROOM site includes the following synopsis:

Sho moves into his great aunt's house. Living there already are a group of tiny people, the Borrowers. A 14-year-old Borrower named Arrietty strives to prove herself by helping her father gather materials that her family needs from Sho's new home. Arrietty soon discovers Sho breaking the rule that humans must not know about the Borrowers' existence. As Sho and Arrietty's relationship develops, human interference endangers the Borrowers' lives. Arrietty and Sho must work together to try and protect the Borrowers' way of life.

Arrietty was released by Studio Ghibli in Japan in July last year. It was directed by the first-timer Hiromasa Yonebayashi, although Hayao Miyazaki was closely involved in the project. As well as co-writing the scenario, Miyazaki has a longtime interest in the source book, The Borrowers by Mary Norton.

Published in Britain in 1952, The Borrowers was very popular in postwar Japan (see this story). It also won Britain's Carnegie Medal for children's writing.

Previously, when Optimum released Ghibli films to cinemas, it distributed both American-dubbed and subtitled prints, though there is no confirmation yet about if this will be the case for Arrietty. The film's Japanese cast includes Ryunosuke Kamiki (Howl's Moving Castle, Summer Wars), as Sho. The forthcoming American dub features Bridgit Mendler (as Arrietty) and David Henrie.

Before Ghibli's anime version, The Borrowers and its sequels had been adapted several times in live-action. There was a 1973 American television film, a 1992 BBC serial, a follow-up serial in 1993, and a cinema version in 1997. The latter featured Flora Newbigin as Arrietty, along with John Goodman, Jim Broadbent, Celia Imrie and Tom Felton.

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