Charlotte’s Web:

No mere piggy back ride

Ruwini JAYAWARDANA

EB White’s 1952 classic children’s novel Charlotte’s Web rotates around a story packed with emotions. It is tough to imagine how a filmmaker could possibly come close to making a productions that embodies the essence of the book.

Luckily the story had fallen into the right hands because director Gary Winick has done a splendid job in capturing the heartwarming aura of the tale. Winick’s film of the same title does not relate the entire story scene by scene. Rather it had captured the core of the classic. It is more than a movie about the life of a pig, but a production about friendship, finding hope in the most impossible situations and excelling in life.

Revolving around Wilbur, a runty spring pig who narrowly escapes death from the axe at birth, Charlotte’s Web traces the growing friendship between two unlikely friends, a pig and a spider. Wilbur meets Charlotte, the spider, once he is sent to live in the barn of the farm across the street. Apart from brief afternoon visits from his mistress, a little girl named Fern, Wilbur is enveloped in loneliness. Though he tries to befriend the other animals in the barn, he fails because they are each engaged in their own matters. His sadness comes to an end when he discovers Charlotte who had spun a web at the corner of the doorway of the barn.

Then the real tragedy strikes. Wilbur discovers that he is destined for the slaughterhouse before winter. Charlotte promises to save him. Her plan is to voice her impression of Wilbur to the world. She spins letters relating that Wilbur is ‘some pig’ and that he is ‘terrific’ and ‘humble’ on her web as an attempt to convince the farmer that Wilbur is worth saving.

Not only would Charlotte’s Web keep children engrossed with suspense about Wilbur’s fate, but it will also broaden young minds. Grown ups too will not findwit a bore as it plays at your emotions with its visual beauty and array of touching moments. Humour too is embedded into the tale in just the right moments and in correct doses.

Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi, Dominic Scott Kay, Robert Redford and Oprah Winfrey voice the animals beautifully. Dakota Fanning portrays Fern’s character well. The usage of computer animations on the animals too had worked well. For instance though the spider seems creepy on introduction, zooming in on her profile, the director had added soft touches to her features and eyes to make her seem more human. Robert’s soothing tones too help to humanize Charlotte and make us at ease with the spider.

Winick handles the camera beautifully. One such instance is the close ups of Charlotte spinning her web in the early part of the tale.

The camera follows her dizzily, swinging from one thread to the other and voicing her concentrations aloud. Later the same technique is used to draw a parallel between the energetic spinning techniques of the spider and the slow and painful toil of a struggle to fulfilling a duty even when death is lurking nearby.

The emotional impact is amazing in the film. The facts that Charlotte becomes more than a friend and Fern gradually maturing into a young lady is heartbreaking. The purpose and energy of the film will no doubt leave you in tears.

Charlotte’s Web is one rare piece of genuine children’s literature which leaves a permanent mark in one’s heart.

This is what children’s movies are made of.