#BookToFilm of The Borrowers by Mary Norton #atozchallenge

I grew up loving The Borrowers by Mary Norton, who wrote a total of 5 books in the Borrowers Series. Whenever my family could not find something, we would remark, "Borrowers must have it."

The first children's book, The Borrowers, was published in 1952, followed by four sequels. The Borrowers won the 1952 Carnegie Medal from the Library Association.

The film versions that I will be discussing are: The Borrowers (1973,), The Borrowers (1997), and The Secret World of Arrietty (2010). I was not able to get my hands on the 1992 BBC TV series and the 1993 sequel The Return of the Borrowers, the 2011 BBC production, or anything beyond the teaser for an animated series with a teaser released in 2018 (see the teaser here). The animated series at Blue Spirit is still in development. 

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The Borrowers (1973) TV film was fairly close to the original novel, with no bookending of Kate and Mrs. May framing the story of the Borrowers. None of the films discussed here have Kate and Mrs. May. It is quaint to see Dame Judith Anderson in the film as Great Aunt Sophy. For more details on the cast, click here. I love seeing how the technology of the time combined the world of the Borrowers into the world of Beans.

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The Borrowers (1997) starred John Goodman, Jim Broadbent, Mark Williams, Celia Imrie, Flora Newbigin, and Tom Felton. This is the version I think of first tied with The Secret World of Arietty (2010) because 1997 was the first Borrowers film I watched. It deviates greatly from the novel, but I love the sense of humor and changes with Arietty having a little brother and of course, the cheese factory. It's like a pre-Harry Potter film with several actors who are in Harry Potter films.

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The Secret World of Arietty (2010) is tied with The Borrowers (1997) as my favorites. I love all of the Studio Ghibli films, and The Secret World of Arietty does not disappoint. It is close to the novel version with some twists like Eggletina being Arietty's aunt when in the novel Eggletina is Arietty's cousin. 

There are many draws to the story, of being a Borrower or living with Borrowers, how the "bean" reacts to seeing a Borrower, how the Borrower reacts to seeing a Bean, and the friendships that are possible even though taught to fear or avoid the other (in Borrower's case) or unaware of the other's existence or it's only a story (in Bean's case). Overall, the 3 versions discussed here are worth a watch and are fairly faithful to the original novel, with the exception of more significant changes in The Borrowers (1997) (and I absolutely adore the changes. Not such a purist after all.) 

I shall keep an eye out for the Blue Spirit series and try to watch the remaining Borrower stories.

Do you have a favorite version of The Borrowers? What is your number one choice? Have you seen the 1992 BBC TV series, the 1993 sequel The Return of the Borrowers, and/or the 2011 BBC production?