Synopsis
A family of four-inch Borrowers secretly lives beneath the floorboards of a suburban house, surviving by taking small items from the humans upstairs. When a crooked lawyer schemes to demolish the home and replace it with luxury apartments, the Borrowers join forces with the family's young son. Together, they must recover a hidden will and expose the lawyer's plan.
Factoids & Trivia
- The film is loosely based on Mary Norton's 1952 children's novel and was produced by Working Title Films and PolyGram Filmed Entertainment.
- Its miniature world was created through oversized sets, blue-screen compositing, and visual effects that combined live-action performers with carefully constructed environments. The production began before computer-generated imagery had become the standard solution for this kind of scale illusion.
- Some exterior scenes were filmed on Theale High Street in Berkshire. The buildings and shopfronts were painted dark green for the production and restored afterward.
- Other filming locations included Ealing Town Hall, Glasgow, McVitie's in Harlesden, and Shepperton Studios, where many of the large-scale interior sets were built.
- The film opened in the United Kingdom on December 5, 1997, and later received BAFTA recognition, including nominations in the British Film and Children's Film categories.