Kids will be entertained by the straightforward plot and cute animals, and adults will be charmed by how quiet and humble the production is, a fine translation of E.B. White's genteel prose.
Kids will be entertained by the straightforward plot and cute animals, and adults will be charmed by how quiet and humble the production is, a fine translation of E.B. White's genteel prose.
audience
67
liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 359,553
E.B. White's classic children's story comes to the screen in this live-action adaptation with an all-star voice cast. Fern Arable (Dakota Fanning) is a young girl growing up on her family's farm. When a sow gives birth to some piglets, Fern's father (Kevin Anderson) intends to do away with the runt of litter, but Fern has become attached to the little pig and persuades her father to let him live. The pig, named Wilbur (voice of Dominic Scott Kay), becomes Fern's pet, but when he grows larger,
he's put in the care of Homer Zuckerman (Gary Basaraba), a farmer down the road. Fern is still able to visit Wilbur regularly, and it soon occurs to both of them that pigs tend to have a limited life expectancy on a farm, and that unless something unusual happens, Wilbur will eventually becomes someone's dinner. Charlotte, a friendly spider, hatches a plan to make Wilbur seem special enough to save by weaving messages about the "terrific" pig into her web, and she soon persuades her barnyard friends to join in her plan. Charlotte is voiced by Julia Roberts, while the other actors who provide the voices of the animals on Zuckerman's farm include Robert Redford, John Cleese, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Buscemi, Kathy Bates, Cedric the Entertainer. Thomas Haden Church, and André Benjamin. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
I think what's most valuable here is the gentle reminder that lives are short, friendship is priceless and words can make a difference. The movie Charlotte's Web isn't a classic, but the message is.
There's too much talent and too strong a story to mess it up. There was potential for more here, but this incarnation is nothing to be ashamed of, and some of the actors answer the bell.
Woe be to the child who doesn't mist up at this movie, since it's been made if not with zip, wit, or imagination, then at least with sweetness. But I hope no one will think the film is an adequate replacement for White's book. That would be a crime.
Charlotte's Web has all the requisite elements that a family film needs to succeed and endure: humor, drama, pathos, and an emotionally satisfying ending.
Best of all may be the narration, by Sam Shepard: His voice, the kind of voice God might have if he'd ever smoked Camels, frames this gentle but potent little story with good-natured authority, making it feel modern and ageless at once.
This Charlotte's Web is a live-action remake, ŕ la Babe. And while the live action distinguishes it from its cartoon predecessor of 1973, it makes it bear entirely too much resemblance to the Babe series.
Cute and sweet, and if it lacks great wit or magic, at least it has the courage to remain faithful to the gentle sadness and 'realism' of the original material.
Steve Buscemi's invigorating vocal characterization of Templeton the rat is the only high point in this sleep-inducing live action-animated revamp of the 1973 animated classic based on E.B White's 1952 children's book.
In this live action movie, with talking animals and a good deal of clever computer-generated imagery, Julia Roberts does the talking for Charlotte and only confirmed arachnophobes such as myself will resist her charms.
This film does what all children's films should do: not just offer lots of entertaining things to look at, but teach children how to look at the world with curiosity, attentiveness and joy.
Adult audiences tend to find [Dakota Fanning] rather shrill - witnessing [her] at full shriek is like being attacked by a colony of bats. For this reason, Charlotte's Web is probably one for youngsters only.
This was one of my favourite children's story. Wilbur is the runt of the litter who befriends Charlotte the spider who tries to convince the farmer to spare him by spinning words to describe Wilbur in her web. Funny characters. If you lived Babe you will love Wilbur.
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