USCCB’s Review of Charlotte’s Web

Director Gary Winick spins magic with Charlotte's Web (Paramount), a live-action adaptation of E.B. White's beloved children's classic and one of the best family films of the year.

Hewing fairly closely to the book, the tale centers on Wilbur (voiced by Dominic Scott Kay), a runt pig who is saved from slaughter by the love of a young girl, Fern (Dakota Fanning), a barnyard of talking animals, and the fancy web work of a sage spider, Charlotte (voiced by Julia Roberts).

While the 1973 animated version is hard to beat, Winick's use of live action — enhanced by computer effects as in Babe — is charming, and the all-star voice talent, including Oprah Winfrey, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Robert Redford, Reba McEntire, Cedric the Entertainer, Kathy Bates and Sam Shepard as the narrator, is obviously impressive.

Capturing the innocence of White's fable, Winick takes care that the techno-wizardry never overshadows the story with its timeless themes of friendship and the bittersweet cycle of life.

To deter the farm's owner from serving Wilbur as Christmas dinner, Charlotte weaves adulatory adjectives over the pig's stall, which the farmer then interprets as a miraculous sign. "Terrific" is one of them. And the same word most emphatically applies to this delightful film.

The film contains some mildly crude humor. The USCCB Office for Film & Broadcasting classification is A-I — general patronage. The Motion Picture Association of America rating is G — general audiences. All ages admitted.

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