Charlotte’s Web: A Masterpiece
This classic children’s story turned movie won best family film of the year last year. InSITE editor Naomi Allaway went to see if it lived up to all the hype…
Charlotte’s Web, by E.B White, as a book has sold millions of copies since it was released in the 1950s and it has now been wonderfully transformed into a feature length film that combines both real-life action and computer animation to create a warm and comforting film.
Dakota Fanning stars as Fern Arable, who saves a runt piglet from being killed by her father (Kevin Anderson) on their farm. She names the pig Wilbur (voiced by Dominic Scott Anderson) and looks after him, giving him baths, pushing him around in a pram and also reading to him. However, Fern’s mother becomes worried because of the amount of time that Fern spends with Wilbur which she considers to be only Fern’s fantasy.
As Wilbur grows, he ends up living in a barn, with other farm animals, where he becomes very lonely. However, he makes friends with a spider called Charlotte (voiced by Julia Roberts) who ends up spinning words about Wilbur in her web to help him survive the winter and not being killed for his meat.
Charlotte’s Web is a film that deals with the basics of life, namely: friendship, belief, life and death, and other emotions that are both joyous and difficult to feel. The film shows that with friendship and belief miracles can happen. It also shows the endless cycle of life and death and how life is always something to cherish.
Sticking quite closely to the original novel, the film has achieved a sincerity that most films for adults try to accomplish but never really achieve, which has been truly brought out in this moving children’s film. Altogether this film is a masterpiece!
