>>REVIEW
CHARLOTTE’S WEB
STARRING: Julia Roberts, Dakota Fanning and Steve Buschemi
DIRECTED BY: Gary Winick
Opens Friday, December 15
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Based on E.B. White’s classic 1952 novel, Charlotte’s Web, the film has all of the magic, warmth and heart of the original story. The sometimes cute (and creepy) Dakota Fanning plays Fern, the daughter of a farmer. Fern forbids her father from killing the runt of the new piggy litter and takes him for herself. From then on, Fern and the piglet, Wilbur, are inseparable. She cuddles him, plays with him, pushes him around in her stroller and reads to him. Unfortunately, as room for Wilbur in her father’s barn grows slight, Fern is forced to hand her precious pig over to her Uncle Zuckerman, who has a barn full of animals. This is where the fun begins.
Ten-year-old Dominic Scott Kay voices Wilbur with enough energy, emotion and spunk to make any child believe that pigs really do have feelings. It is in Zuckerman’s barn that Wilbur meets an array of quirky animals, all voiced by Hollywood’s elite. John Cleese plays a snotty sheep, Kathy Bates and Reba McEntire play chatty cows, Oprah and Cedric the Entertainer are squabbling geese and Robert Redford is an arachnophobic horse. Undoubtedly though, the best vocals of the bunch belong to the gentle, melodic whisper of Julia Roberts as the motherly spider Charlotte and Steve Buschemi’s nasal drawl as Templeton, the very rat-like rat. Real-life animals were used, along with computer animation, and the result is seamless.
Wilbur is alone and sad upon his arrival at the barn and becomes friends with Charlotte, the barn spider, even though the rest of the animals think she’s icky. The relationship that blooms between the two is nothing short of beautiful, and when Wilbur finds out that spring-born pigs are usually slaughtered before the winter, it is Charlotte who promises him that he will not be killed and will indeed see the winter. She then gets to work spinning intricate and lovely webs with words strewn throughout. The effects used to make the webs appear real are outstanding and you would swear you were watching a real spider at work.
If you don’t know how Charlotte’s Web ends, be prepared for some emotion – I’m getting verklempt just thinking about it. True to the heart of the original story, director Gary Winick used the enchanting combination of stunning visuals and perfect vocals to make Charlotte’s Web and all its delightful sweetness, come to life. |
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