Terrific, radiant and humble those are the three words Charlotte uses to describe Wilbur and also happen to express exactly how I feel about this delightful family film. We all know E.B. White’s charming story and we all have pretty much seen the movie cartoon but Gary Winick’s version of Charlotte’s Web completely brings each character to life and really brings out the heart, soul and magic of this timeless classic. Wilbur voiced flawlessly by Dominic Scott Ray was born the runt of the litter, the odd one out unable to get milk from his mother and is about to be immediately turned into bacon when Fern, Dakota Fanning (always dazzling) takes it upon herself to convince her father he is being unjust to the poor little piglet. Dakota is amazing she has so much passion in her expressions as she speaks the words “He can’t help that he was born small, would you have killed me if I was born small” you can hear the determination in her voice and see the pain in her eyes. When he gets too big for Fern to take of, Wilbur is put into a small barn on Fern’s Uncle Homer’s farm and is in desperate need of a friend to help cure his loneliness; however, the resident animals want nothing to do with a pig! Enter Charlotte, a spider, (the always charming Julia Roberts) who does all she can to save Wilbur from becoming the Christmas ham and proves to be the greatest friend anyone could ever have. Charlotte’s Web is a story about friendship, trust, love, promises and everyday miracles. I know you are thinking “Yes Sarah I know! I have read the book and seen the cartoon a million times!” but there is something new to be seen here I promise you with the amazing additional voice talents of Steve Buscemi as Templeton “the rat”, John Cleese as Samuel the leader of the sheep, Kathy Bates as Bitsy the cow, Reba McEntire as Betsy the cow, Oprah Winfrey as Gussy the Goose, Cedric the Entertainer as Golly the Goose, and Robert Redford as Ike the Horse then throw in a marvelous script, a wonderful director and then add the musical genius of Danny Elfman and what you have is a heart-warming, beautiful woven masterpiece! I laughed, I cried, and I was deeply touched by what an outstanding film this turned out to be! It is not currently available in MoPix but there is plenty of dialogue and narration it is not needed here. If you can only see one family film this year, this story of Wilbur and his friends is definitely the one, he sure is Some Pig!
(Paramount)
Starring: Dakota Fanning, Julia Roberts, Dominic Scott Kay, Steve Buscemi, Kathy Bates, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Redford, John Cleese, Cedric the Entertainer, Thomas Hayden Church… the list goes on and on…
Rated: G
Running Time: 97 mins
This film is currently not available in MoPix descriptions.
