April 20, 1998 -- "The Borrowers" is one of the few films, along with "Anastasia" to come to Laramie recently that is really made with children in mind. While "Anastasia" was a little intense, with its rotting corpse of a villain, "The Borrowers" has no such hard edge.

The villain in "The Borrowers" is a lawyer named Ocious P. Potter (John Goodman) who is cheating a family, the Lenders out of their inheritance, consisting of a house and the money to maintain it. The house in question is also inhabited by a family of tiny people, called Borrowers (Didn't the makers of this movie ever hear the old saying "Never a borrower nor a lender be"). The Borrowers are Pod Clock (Jim Broadbent), Homily Clock (Celia Imrie), Arrietty Clock (Flora Newbigin) and Peagreen Clock (Tom Felton)

When Potter evicts the Lenders from their home, the Clocks have to leave too, before it is demolished. Fortunately, they have found an ally, the Lender's son has discovered them and agrees to help them move to their new house. After an accident, two of the Borrowers are left behind, where they discover Potter trying to destroy the will, which was hidden in the house. They try to rescue the will and return it to the Lenders.

This leads to a chase which consumes most of the movie as Potter tries to catch the Borrowers. The special effects are quite good, and it is amusing how the Borrowers are able to move around in a world that is not built in proportion to them. Goodman is quite good as the villain, with just the right comic tone.

The comedy in the movie is very broad, consisting of slapstick, flatulence jokes and other light humor. It doesn't get many laughs, but it should get a lot of smiles. The humor is really aimed at a child's level, as are the simple characterizations. For kids, it would probably rate about a B. For adults, more like a C.

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