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Charlotte's Web

E.B. White's classic 1952 novel, Charlotte's Web comes to the big screen in live action form for the first time in history. White's timeless tale about life and death on a farm is a wonderful piece of fiction that regularly makes the rounds on elementary schools' required reading lists and is often snapped up by parents enchanted by White's beautiful prose as well. The source material makes perfect fodder for a family holiday film but unfortunately, in this post-Babe cinematic society that we live in, this screen adaptation of Charlotte's Web produces little to remark over.

Set on Mr. Zuckerman's farm, the inhabitants of this pastoral idyll consist primarily of Fern (Dakota Fanning) and her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Arable (Kevin Anderson and Essie Davis). In the film's opening scene, the introverted Fern saves the runt of the pig litter from being slaughtered. Her father offers logical reasoning that with eleven pigs and only ten nipples on the mother, the runt will inevitably die anyway but Fern insists that she take care of the little piggy instead.

Fern names the pig Wilbur (voiced by Dominic Scott Kay) and sends him to live with the other animals in the barn. When left alone by the humans, the animals on Zuckerman's farm freely interact between species and Wilbur meets an array of interesting characters. Most meaningful is Charlotte (voiced by Julia Roberts), the kindly old spider who creeps around the barn on her own. The naïve Wilbur does not understand the politics of the animal kingdom and is eager to befriend Charlotte despite the other animals having warned him against it.

His friendship with Charlotte proves nurturing in that she becomes a surrogate mother and also essential in that she helps stave off his final resting place inside the bellies of humans. When message starts spreading through the barn that Wilbur is being prepared to be sent to the smoke house to meet his demise along with the rest of the pigs on the farm, Charlotte takes it upon herself to spin words of inspiration onto her web so that the humans will realize they can't possibly send him off to be slaughtered.

The tale of Charlotte's Web possesses a message of great importance and one that is difficult to swallow for audience members of any ages. As Charlotte herself explains, "We're born, we live, and when our time comes, we die. It's just our natural way." It's the kind of message people spend their whole lives trying to understand but E.B. White managed to teach the lesson succinctly and heart wrenchingly in a mere 192 pages of fiction. However, the film is not able to capture the same understanding of mortality in its brisk 97 minutes and thus the great tragedy that transpires in the film's third act

isn't milked for all its worth and ends up feeling almost frivolous.

While the brief running time will be a welcome relief for parents unwillingly dragged to the theater by their children, the limited story time also means less attachment to the characters. The one who suffers the most from this is the ostensible protagonist, Wilbur. He never really comes off as a 'very special pig,' no matter how many times Charlotte emblazons it on her web. In this capacity, he just becomes Babe with the middle man (or spider).

Although, the scenes in which Charlotte weaves her web are truly enchanting. Aided by the rich melody of Danny Elfman's haunting musical score and her royal highness, Ms. Roberts' comfortingly familiar vocal chords rendering the spider decidedly less creepy and crawly, these sequences achieve an ephemeral beauty that outshines the rest of the film. On the whole, there isn't anything that parents will find offensive and young children will definitely be entertained by the plights of Wilbur and his furry friends but experienced viewers will quickly realize that Charlotte's literal web weaving is far more enthralling than the film's figurative web weaving.

Movie Grade: B-

Synopsis:

Wilbur the pig is scared of the end of the season, because he knows that come that time, he will end up on the dinner table. He hatches a plan with Charlotte, a spider that lives in his pen, to ensure that this will never happen.