- Adaptation Displacement: While not to the same extent as is the case with Kiki's Delivery Service and Howl's Moving Castle since The Borrowers is already a well-known British children's story, Arrietty is one of the more famous adaptations of the book and in countries like Japan and North America, where The Borrowers isn't as popular, Arrietty tends to overshadow the original book series. Despite being heavily marketed in North America as an adaptation of the book.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Haru’s belief that the Borrowers are thieves may or may not be entirely in the wrong, considering they can't really return what they take.
- Awesome Music: The music is composed by Cécile Corbel, giving the film's score a Celtic feel that's both a very pretty listen and unique for a Ghibli production. "Arrietty's Song
" and "The Neglected Garden
," in particular, are GORGEOUS. - Broken Base: The US dub vs. the UK one. While the US dub has garnered high acclaim from both fans and critics and is generally considered to be on par with Disney's other Ghibli dubs, there's also a significant portion of fans who prefer the also well-regarded UK dub on the basis of it retaining all the original character names and BGM (whereas the US dub changes a few character names and changes up the score in a few places). It helps that The Borrowers was originally a British story, leading some to argue that the English accents in the UK dub are more fitting than the American accents in the US dub.note
- Moral Event Horizon: Haru crosses this when she deliberately locks Shawn in his own room, sneakily rather than openly, and with a smirk on her face as she does it for that matter.
- Especially with the accompanying Fridge Horror: Shawn has a heart condition and she was warned that even him being startled could set it off. He could have had a medical emergency and been unable to get out of his room to try and get help.
- Even worse, merely finding out that the room was locked could have set off his heart condition, as finding that the door is locked and you have no way out of a room is rather scary.
- Alternately, Haru finding proof that the little people exist after all, and her first reaction is to call for an exterminator. Because they stole a few literal handfuls of things for their own livelihood.
- Retroactive Recognition: In the UK dub, Shawn is voiced by none other than Tom Holland, who would become famous for being the actor of a certain web-slinging hero in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- Tear Jerker: The farewell between Arrietty and Shawn.
- The Woobie:
- Shawn. His parents are divorced, his mom isn't around much due to work, and on top of all this he has a heart problem which he is going to have an operation for that he may not survive. You just can't help but feel bad for him.
- Also Arrietty herself. She spends much of the film blaming herself for endangering her family, eventually forcing them to move out of their very nice home. Plus in one of Shawn's more thoughtless moments where he suggests her species will go extinct soon, you really empathize with how angry she gets.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/YMMV/TheSecretWorldOfArrietty
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