MARY Norton’s novel “The Borrowers” tells of the Clock family, brave, resourceful little people about 10cms tall, living beneath a house of full-sized humans from whom they “borrow” necessities they have every intention of returning, but somehow a time to do so never happens.

Fourteen-year-old Arrietty, the family’s only child, is surreptitiously harvesting leaves from the garden of a country house when 10-year-old Joe, booked for heart surgery, sees her.

Joe and the housekeeper are the only humans in the house. Arrietty’s mother, a good housekeeper terrified that humans will discover her family, relies on Arrietty to forage when her husband suffers a leg injury that limits his hunting ability.

Joe finds the Clock home and replaces its kitchen with that from a beautiful dolls’ house in the human residence. Joe and Arrietty become friends. One day the housekeeper sees Arrietty’s mother and calls the pest exterminators.

Directed by Hiromasu Yonebashi with characters voiced by an English cast, “Arrietty” is a gentle anime, its location backgrounds visually lovely, its characters drawn with the economy of line and modeling that characterises Japanese animation.

The drama has good tension and action. The little girl sitting behind me said she greatly enjoyed it. So did I.

At Hoyts and Dendy