Spinning a Web of Truth

Charlotte’s Web

(G)

originally published December 20, 2006

E.B. White’s classic is arguably the greatest children’s story ever told. Moral but not preachy, educational but not didactic, Charlotte’s Web should be baby’s first lesson on death and growing up. The lessons I learned from Wilbur, Fern and Charlotte (in both the book and the 1973 cartoon) have never been forgotten. White erected several of the moral guideposts - the value of all life, the beauty of all creatures, the essentiality of friendship, and the merit of an extended vocabulary (Charlotte’s Web taught me the meaning of runt, salutations, radiant, humble and magnum opus) - by which I have navigated life’s grand maze. This beautiful new blending of live animals and computer-generated effects possesses the quintessence of White’s 1952 novel, the best-selling children’s paperback of all-time.

Updating a beloved children’s book is tricky. The media-indulged kids of today have less patience and are quick to change their mind’s channel when bored. Typically, filmmakers overcompensate, speeding up the story or beefing up the action or dumbing down the humor. Fortunately, the new Charlotte’s Web, spun by director Gary Winick (13 Going on 30) and writers Susannah Grant (Oscar-nominated for Erin Brockovich) and Karey Kirkpatrick (his Over the Hedge was the year’s second biggest animated surprise), doesn’t pervert White’s timeless tale. Fern (Dakota Fanning, modern Hollywood’s biggest potential talent, male or female, young or old) still saves Wilbur (v. Dominic Scott Kay, The Wild). Charlotte (v. Julia Roberts) and her erudite webs still enable Wilbur to see December’s snow. The barnyard menagerie - selfish rat Templeton (v. Steve Buscemi); the goose and the gander, Gussie (v. Oprah Winfrey) and Golly (v. Cedric the Entertainer); dictatorial sheep Samuel (v. John Cleese); sarcastic cows Bitsy and Betsy (v. Kathy Bates and Reba McEntire); and arachnophobic workhorse Ike (v. Robert Redford) - are played for character-driven laughs. Even White would’ve chuckled at the cows’ deployment of their methane bombs and the silliness of Thomas Haden Church and André Benjamin as the crows.

The idyllic film, set in the Maine of yesteryear, balances humor, heart and cinematic beauty. Charlotte spinning her dew-dropped web is as pretty a picture as I’ve seen this year, and Templeton is a marvel of anthropomorphization. White’s vocabulary of values speaks louder than ever through the film’s superstar voice cast, each actor properly matched with his or her character. Only now that Roberts is without her megawatt smile and braying laugh do I realize what a lovely voice she has. Even more surprising, Buscemi almost makes me forget Paul Lynde’s conniving, trash-loving Templeton from the original film… almost. Apparently, a love of this tender story is the childhood phase that never passes. Charlotte’s Web, some terrific, radiant, humble family film, wins the blue ribbon.