Susan Granger’s review of “Charlotte’s Web” (Paramount Pictures)
In E.B. White’s novel, a tiny pig discovers that the most precious gift in the world is the bond of friendship. Now this beloved, quintessentially American children’s tale – which was previously made into a 1973 Hanna-Barbera cartoon – is on the screen in live-action, combining barnyard animals with “Babe”-like CG-assisted animatronics.
Set in New England, the fantasy begins when strong-willed, young Fern Arable (Dakota Fanning) realizes that her father (Kevin Anderson) is going to dispose of a runt-of-the-litter spring piglet. Determined to save his life, she rescues him, naming him Wilbur. When Wilbur (voice of Dominic Scott Kay) grows too big to be a house pet, he’s placed across the street in farmer Zuckerman’s barn where he’s befriended by Charlotte (maternal-sounding Julia Roberts), a very wise and gracious spider who lives high up in the rafters. Her devotion to na•ve Wilbur is boundless and, with the reluctant help of the selfish rat Templeton (voice of Steve Buscemi), she devises an ingenious way to try to save him from a porker’s inevitable fate in the smokehouse – much to the amazement of their comical barnyard companions (voices of John Cleese, Cedric the Entertainer, Oprah Winfrey, Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire and Robert Redford)
In addition to E.B. White’s whimsical characters, writers Susannah Grant and Kery Kirkpatrick, along with director Gary Winick (“13 Going on 30”) have added two dimwitted crows (voices of Thomas Hayden Church and Andre Benjamin), a rotten goose egg and the inevitable flatulence jokes. Visually, the film is glorious – and it all works, capturing not only every subtle nuance but the transcendent essence of E.B. White cycle-of-life theme. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Charlotte’s Web” weaves a magical 10, becoming the best family film of the year.
