Film Reviews

Charlotte's Web

• Rating:
• Director: Gary Winick.
• Starring: Dakota Fanning. Voices Of: Julia Roberts, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese.
• Details: US / 97mins (G).

Adapted from E.B White's novel, the story revolves around Wilbur, a runt piglet whose life expectancy won't stretch beyond his first Christmas. Raised by the perky Fern (Fanning), Wilbur spends his time in the farm barnyard with the other animals. Because Wilbur is the only one to befriend Charlotte (Roberts), a lonely spider, she repays his kindness by spinning a web with the words 'some pig' woven through it, making Wilbur a local legend and thus saving him from the farmer's axe. Charlotte's Web has to be celebrated for the way it approaches its hard message that death reaches us all, and yet being soft enough in its delivery for kids to accept it without the tears flowing. However, it's not without its problems, as it's not the most exciting movie a child will see. Kids have been spoilt these days with top-notch animation (Flushed Away, Happy Feet et al), fun movies that get the blood rushing and the feet tapping while dolling out the life lessons; but there isn't a lot of excitement going on here. All the animals do is stand around in the same location and talk, and because of this, the writers try to up the comic relief with the antics of Steve Buscemi's selfish rat, and move the 'action' outside to the crow's (Thomas Hayden Church and Andre Benjamin) attempts to acquire corn and their distrust of the scarecrow. However, the jokes aren't the movie's strong point - it's almost as if the writers just assumed that a cute talking pig is good enough to hold a child's attention. Maybe for a while it will; but kids are smart and bore easily, and since Babe nailed the talking pig sub-genre in its first outing, there's not a lot here they haven't seen before. It's a nice, old-fashioned homely movie for all the family, but the kids won't gush over it the way they have with recent movies.

Review by Gavin Burke