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Charlotte's Web (Full Screen Edition) by Gary Winick
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DVD Cover InformationActor: Dakota Fanning, John Cleese, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey, Steve Buscemi Director: Gary Winick Brand: ROBERTS,JULIA Producer: Bernard Williams Producer: Edgar M. Bronfman Producer: Jordan Kerner Writer: E.B. White Writer: Earl Hamner Jr. Writer: Karey Kirkpatrick Writer: Susannah Grant DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Full Screen, NTSC Picture Format: 1.33:1 Running Time: 97 minutes Published: 2007-04-01 DVD Release Date: 2007-04-03 Audience Rating: G (General Audience) Studio: Paramount Product features: - Charlotte's Web (Full Screen Edition)
- animal movie
- comedy fantasy
- adventure
- childrens books
Movie Reviews of Charlotte's Web (Full Screen Edition)Movie Review: Breaking the Routine of Life with a Little Love Summary: 5 Stars
There is an objectivity and predictability about farm life that would seem to be a source of comfort: the cycle of life, the cycle of time, the food chain, the survival of the fittest. There is a connection to the earth that reminds us all life begins and ends with and in the earth--yet, when someone comes along to inject that world with a dose of passion, of sincere and open-faced love for all life--wherever it links to the food chain and however fit or unfit--the objective and predictable give way to delightful chaos.
Such is the world of E.B. White's children's book Charlotte's Web, and now a Paramount movie directed by Gary Winick. Many of us met Fern, who befriends a runt pig, names him Wilbur, and fights for his life against the slow-moving, monotonous machinery of the family farm.
Fern is a fighter and just a little sassy to her parents. Her parents are wonderful because they let her lead the way on this one, and they don't put out the fire of her passion. They let her learn, and they learn with and from her.
The beloved Wilbur in his turn breathes life into the barn, and the critters there find a new heart and soul inside themselves. Notably, Templeton the Rat and Charlotte the Spider--by most accounts two scourges on the pastoral landscape of our sleepy imaginations--conspire despite themselves to find the right words and spin a web that causes a community to stop and see the wonder in Wilbur.
Among the words that help to save Wilbur's life are some pig, and radiant, but the most important one is humble. Humility is at the heart of this story. It is the awareness that we can learn from each other. If we are all teachers, we are all deserving of respect. That respect transforms life as much as the learning does. You can't help noticing that the world is beautiful.
This is the stuff of the third grade, the age at which most of us first encountered White's chapter book. Years later in high school or college we might also have come across Strunk & White's Elements of Style, which White created with his college professor and for which he wrote the introduction. It's the simplest, cleanest, most direct text on how to write well. It's a lesson that's easy to take from the man who taught you as a child that every word counts, that words can make or break a soul, that the kingdom belongs to the least of these--to you and to me.
Summary of Charlotte's Web (Full Screen Edition)The classic story of loyalty, trust, and sacrifice comes to life in this live-action adaptation. Fern (Dakota Fanning) is one of only two living beings who sees that Wilbur is a special animal as she raises him, the runt of the litter, into a terrific and radiant pig. As Wilbur moves into a new barn, he begins a second profound friendship with the most unlikely of creatures ? a spider named Charlotte ? and their bond inspires the animals around them to come together as a family. When the word gets out that Wilbur's days are numbered, it seems that only a miracle will save his life. A determined Charlotte ? who sees miracles in the ordinary ? spins words into her web in an effort to convince the farmer that Wilbur is "some pig" and worth saving. E.B. White's classic tale gets a Babe-like makeover in Charlotte's Web, a delightful and well-made film that is sure to become a family classic. Directed by Gary Winick (13 Going on 30), the new version eschews the musical numbers of the 1973 cartoon and mixes CGI with live-action animals. Dakota Fanning brings the right amount of chutzpah to Fern, the young farm girl who rescues a runt, Wilbur, from death and visits him every day at her Uncle Homer's farm. But it's Wilbur's friendship with Charlotte the spider (voiced by Julia Roberts) that ultimately saves him from the "smoke house" (a kid-friendly alternative term to the slaughterhouse), for Charlotte's talent for weaving praiseworthy words about Wilbur into her web turns the Zuckerman farm into a tourist attraction. The more tragic elements of the book are handled sensitively by Winick, working from a script by Susannah Grant (Erin Brockovich), and Roberts' soothing, maternal voice (who knew it would work so well?) makes it all go down easy. It turns out to be just one of many perfect celebrity voice-casting choices, for the farm animals, voiced by an all-star cast including Oprah Winfrey (the goose), Robert Redford (the horse), Steve Buscemi (Templeton the rat), and John Cleese (the sheep), lend plenty of sharp humor. But it's two corn-hungry crows, voiced by Thomas Haden Church (Sideways) and OutKast's Andre "3000" Benjamin who steal the show. (Ages 4 and older) -- Ellen A. Kim Beyond Charlotte?s Web  Other Children's Book Adaptations on DVD |  Charlotte?s Web by E. B. White |  The Original 1973 Charlotte?s Web Cartoon | Stills from Charlotte?s Web (click for larger image)
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