2 Teaser Trailers that debuted on TV last week, and an interview and performance of the theme song.

Thanx I hope they let this stay on YouTube. Ghibli was quick to remove trailers for Ponyo. Just stupid if you ask me. Looks beautiful. There's a lot, in english, about the film in the news section of www.ghibliworld.com

Just watched this today, and Ghibli does it again. Yet another masterpiece for them. So in short, the story is very different from the 1997 film, and other versions to say.

The film follows through Arietty's eyes through the film, from her lifestyle of being hidden from humans, her initiation with her father in going into the home and borrowing things, and when she is discovered by the teenage boy Sho, who is mostly bedridden with a weak heart.

The film is incredibly beautiful (I watched a digital projection), the sound design is the best I've heard this year, the performances are fun, wonderous, and very emotionally touching.

It's not a movie that's all happy and wondrous, there is danger, peril, and emotional goodbyes of course.

I still give the film 9 out of 10. It's one I'd like to revisit again and again.

I got to see Karigurashi no Arietti this afternoon too and was also very taken with it. Not knowing Japanese very well, I was often left to simply look at the aristry, but that was more than enough to leave me with a favourable impression. After years of admiring Studio Ghibli films for, among many other things, their attention to detail, this was a film that I felt really rewarded sharp eyes. Following around itty bitty Arietti through the carefully constructed world her family has made of bits and bobs from the grandmother's house was so fun. The story was also quite touching: spare, innocent, and genuinely thrilling. I'm looking forward to seeing it again (with English subtitles, of course!).

Have you seen this one? I'm interested in seeing it because I'm a Ghibli fan, but I'm also interested in why it apparently did so lackluster in Japan.

Yes, my daughter and I both thought it was great. Very imaginative rendering of the film's concept, and also explores a compelling theme--learning how to trust someone that could crush you under his thumb at any moment if he were ever so inclined.

Is the 9th highest grossing Japanese film of all time "Lackluster"?

I was going off of what a podcast had said, but it turns out they were talking about Goro Miyazaki's latest effort, and not Arietty, my mistake.

I had to miss five minutes thanks to having to escort an annoyingly weak-bladdered daughter from the auditorium at a crucial dramatic moment (I missed virtually all the climactic scene in the forest), but this was certainly the best new film I took my kids to this past year.

Incidentally, it's worth mentioning (not least because I had to put Sight & Sound right on this!) that there are two English-language dubs: an American one with Carol Burnett and an Anglo-Irish one with Saoirse Ronan. I've only seen the latter (my kids aren't really up to subtitled Japanese just yet), but I thought it worked beautifully - there are so few obviously 'Japanese' elements in the film (though I liked the repurposing of plastic fish-shaped soy sauce dispenser) that it played entirely convincingly in English.

I read that the US English is re-naming some of the characters to fit the English (just why...?) Like Sho is called "Shawn" in English, Aunt Sadako is "Aunt Jessica" (how did they come up with that one?)

I really don't get why they have to do that. And just to say, those are not the English equivalent names in the original book.

Goro's new film is Japan's top grossing film of 2011 (or so I just read).

Re: Names

Looks like when Ghibli signed that contract with Disney while stipulating "no cuts", it did not extend to film names and places.