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Page to Screen by Melinda R. Cordell The story line and characters in Charlotte’s Web were laid out for the filmmakers like fresh linen. In White’s classic (as we know), Fern saves a runty pig from the ax and names him Wilbur. Wilbur is still doomed to be butchered at Christmas until spider/excellent writer Charlotte saves his life with the words she writes in her web. The filmmakers do stick to the main story but chose to cut much of White’s text, replacing it with whiz-bang Hollywood elements for emotion and laughs. In the movie, the animals can’t just be uncivil (as they are in the book), they must be downright rude so Wilbur has something to struggle against; Fern can’t just love Wilbur, she must be obsessed. The movie stays true to Charlotte’s character and to Wilbur’s, with good vocal performances by Julia Roberts and a gentle Dominic Scott Kay. Dakota Fanning’s Fern is a strong, determined child, who, once in a while, talks back to her dad, underscoring her unflinching devotion to Wilbur (if not the movie’s unflinching devotion to the book, wherein Fern is more respectful). The movie’s special effects do justice to Charlotte’s nature, focusing on realistic spider behaviors. The web-building scenes from Charlotte’s point of view are very effective: in certain moments, you feel as if you are a spider. Yet for all the excellent computer animation, many of the animal characters lack heart — until close to the end, of course, when Charlotte’s kindness to Wilbur gets them to see the light. The writers could have used White’s beautifully written text, but they rely on an annoyingly folksy narrator spouting platitudes. Instead of quoting White’s paean to the barn (“It smelled of the perspiration of tired horses and the wonderful sweet breath of patient cows. It often had a sort of peaceful smell — as though nothing bad could happen ever again in the world”), the narrator says the barn is “just a big red barn full of typical stuff” and that “just because it was a barn didn’t mean it was full of life.” White disagreed, with far more grace. When Charlotte dies, the narrator (thankfully) says not a word (though White’s eulogy would have been perfect). In the next scene, however, the narrator states, “Now, that isn’t to say that Charlotte was gone forever.” Actually, she was. That is the point of the book: death is a true, active part of the world. Don’t gloss over that. The movie maintains some of the elements of White’s book, especially the loving bond between Charlotte and Wilbur. The screenwriters and animators give spiders and their work a lot of respect. When the movie departs from the book, however, the writing is derivative and trite, featuring the standard chase scenes (between crows and Templeton) and obligatory fart jokes (four of them). The cheap goods are disappointing because this movie could have been great if the filmmakers had trusted the story and its author the way Wilbur trusts Charlotte. Sadly, it seems that White’s belief in the beauty and community of the barn and his humane vision of life were deemed too slow and quiet for the kind of amped-up entertainment the filmmakers thought would sell.
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