Hey, everyone. Sniff, sniff. Capone (sniff) in the sniffle city here.
This is just one of those stories that gets me right in the tear ducts. In any form (the E.B. White book, the 1973 animated feature, or this live-action/CGI-enhanced version), Charlotte’s Web is the sweetest, cutest story of self-reliance, big hearts, manners, and self-confidence of all time. I have no idea why, but the friendship between a runt pig and a spider makes me emotional. I’m not trying to appear manly by saying this, but I honestly can’t remember the last time I cried in a movie theater. But I came awfully close at the end of this faithful telling.
Dakota Fanning is Fern, the little farm girl who saves the life of the runt of a pig litter, whom she names Wilbur (voiced by Dominic Scott Kay). She cares for the pig, which is living in Fern’s uncle’s barn with a collection of barn animals, and what a collection of voices the filmmakers have assembled. John Cleese plays Samuel the sheep, who is always urging his fellow sheep to stop being followers. Kathy Bates and Reba McEntire play a couple of cows. The stately Ike the horse appropriately enough features Robert Redford’s vocal talents. Cedric the Entertainer and Oprah Winfrey play squabbling geese. No one goes out of the way to be overly jokey, or go beyond the source material. Pleasantry is the order of the day. The one exception is Steve Buscemi’s devious take on Templeton the rat, who reluctantly helps Charlotte the Spider (majestically voiced by Julia Roberts) in acquiring the means to keep Wilbur from getting slaughtered.
It’s all here. The miracle messages in Charlotte’s web (“Some Pig” still gets me), the fair, Charlotte’s egg sack, and all the interaction and life lessons passed on from the spider to the pig. The film manages to be sweet and timeless without resorting to cutesy behavior. Even elements like the two crows (the hilarious Andre Benjamin and Thomas Haden Church) who are scared to go into any cornfield because of a mysterious figure who seems to reside in every such filed, is funny without being simple or condescending. And director Gary Winick (13 Going on 30) thankfully does make some of the more traditionally scary characters (like Templeton and Charlotte) cute and cuddly. When I first saw Charlotte, I was a bit started how lifelike she was; even her mouth opens and closes sideways.
It’s a simple fact that without Wilbur, the Babe movies simply would never have existed. But there’s a delicacy and grace to Charlotte’s Web that doesn’t exist in most children’s stories, and they make the transition to this movie quite nicely. If a film puts that little tickle in the back of my throat, I have to give it credit for getting to me. Charlotte’s Web is just such a film. Kids will adore it, but adults will be reminded of a time when such simple stories moved them and shaped their outlook and lives.
Capone
