Charlotte's Web

December 15, 2006 0 By Fans
1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars (No Ratings Yet)
Loading...

Still of Dakota Fanning in Charlotte's WebStill of John Cleese in Charlotte's WebLori Loughlin at event of Charlotte's WebStill of Kevin Anderson, Gary Basaraba, Essie Davis, Siobhan Fallon, Dakota Fanning and Louis Corbett in Charlotte's WebCharlotte's WebStill of Dakota Fanning in Charlotte's Web

Plot

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.

Release Year: 2006

Rating: 6.5/10 (11,601 voted)

Critic's Score: 68/100

Director:
Gary Winick

Stars: Dakota Fanning, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey

Storyline
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.

Writers: Susannah Grant, Karey Kirkpatrick

Cast:

Julia Roberts

Charlotte the Spider

(voice)


Steve Buscemi

Templeton the Rat

(voice)


John Cleese

Samuel the Sheep

(voice)


Oprah Winfrey

Gussy the Goose

(voice)


Cedric the Entertainer

Golly the Goose

(voice)


Kathy Bates

Bitsy the Cow

(voice)


Reba McEntire

Betsy the Cow

(voice)


Robert Redford

Ike the Horse

(voice)


Thomas Haden Church

Brooks the Crow

(voice)


André Benjamin

Elwyn the Crow

(voice)


Dominic Scott Kay

Wilbur

(voice)


Sam Shepard

Narrator

(voice)


Abraham Benrubi

Uncle the Pig

(voice)


Dakota Fanning

Fern


Kevin Anderson

Mr. Arable

Taglines:
Help Is Coming From Above.



Details

Official Website:
Official site [Spain] |
Paramount Pictures [United States] |

Release Date: 15 December 2006

Filming Locations: Attwood, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Opening Weekend: $11,457,353
(USA)
(17 December 2006)
(3566 Screens)

Gross: $82,506,325
(USA)
(18 March 2007)



Technical Specs

Runtime:



Did You Know?

Trivia:

The animals don't speak until ten minutes into the film.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes:
Wilbur, a boar (male pig) is played by sows (female pigs). This is blatantly obvious in some scenes.

Quotes:

Homer Zuckerman:
How could this have happened? A miracle, in a time when we don't see many miraculious things!



User Review

Radiant!

Rating: 9/10


Bring your Kleenex. Maybe it's just coz I'm female, or maybe it's coz
my mother read this book to me when I was little — but every time a
new word appeared in that web — tears rolled down my cheeks!

It's very charming. They have kept to the time frame of the book — it
looks like the 1930s-1950s. They haven't tried to "modernize" it with
pop culture references and silly jokes like so many kids' movies
nowadays do.

Fern isn't break dancing with the pig. (No, there are no musical
numbers.)

Fart jokes were kept to a minimum. (I think they are required by law
nowadays to put fart jokes in all children's entertainment.)

They didn't dumb down the lovely words E.B. White used — Charlotte
uses her grand language as she speaks to Wilbur and spins her webs.

I kept thinking of "Babe" at the start of the movie. A white runt pig
saved. Similar barnyard companions. Even the voice of Wilbur sounds
like the voice of Babe. (Even tho Babe was voiced by a 32 y.o. woman
and Wilbur by a 9 y.o. boy!) But I think the writers of Babe must have
been fans of the classic "Charlotte's Web".

Steve Buscemi as the voice of Templeton the Rat is just perfect. (Poor
guy even has a rat-like face — is that why they cast him?) And the CGI
animation is flawless. You can't tell the animated animals from the
real ones. Flawlessly blended.

That little pig is SO cute at the beginning — I just wanted to watch
him play in the mud for 10 minutes. (But no, they kept the story moving
along.) They even tried to make the spider cute, but that's quite a
challenge. Still Julia Roberts' soothing motherly voice helps.
(Nevertheless, the little girl next to me climbed into her grandma's
lap when the spider appeared.)

And Dakota Fanning, as always, is a darling.

So go — and if you loved the book as a child, bring plenty of Kleenex!