Charlotte’s Web

Starring: Julia Roberts, Dakota Fanning, Steve Buscemi, John Cleese, Dominic Scott Kay, Oprah Winfrey, Thomas Haden Church, Robert Redford

Written by: Susannah Grant, Karey Kirkpatrick and Earl Hammer Jr. Based on the book by E.B. White

Directed by: Gary Winick

Distributor: Paramount Pictures

Rated: G

Occasionally in the movies, animals must talk. Regardless of whether or not they actually have anything to say, special effects departments all over Hollywood have allowed animals to speak more often than they probably should for many, many years. In fact, Hollywood special effects types have made animals talk so often that they’ve gotten quite good at it. With modern technology being what it is, startlingly real animals can be made to appear as though they are speaking with the voices of major celebrities. This is precisely what Paramount Pictures has done with its glossy adaptation of the classic E.B. White book, Charlotte’s Web.

Child actor Dominic Scott Kay (who played Tom Cruise’s son in Minority Report) lends his voice to the beloved pig Wilbur. Wilbur is a runt who was spared from slaughter by a farmer’s daughter with the unlikely name of Fern (Dakota Fanning). Free to live, Wilbur gets to know a number of the residents of the barn that has become his home. Cue the celebrity-voiced animals. Oprah Winfrey plays the goose; Reba McEntire plays a Holstein; Robert Redford plays the horse; Thomas Haden Church plays a crow. In a particularly clever turn, John Cleese plays a sheep, which allows him to revisit the sort of herd mentality jokes he’d explored in films like The Life Of Brian. The ever-rodent-like Steve Buscemi plays the rat Templeton. Buscemi’s performance here is a potent reminder of just what kind of a stellar actor he is. His personality fuses remarkably well with the tiny, CGI rat. Julia Roberts lends her voice to Charlotte, the spider who befriends Wilbur. Roberts’ voice is very reassuringly maternal in the role.

For many of the animals, pig included, the filmmakers mixed actual livestock with animatronic and CGI work to complete what turns out to be a very realistic look to most of the non-human characters. In a way, this works against the film. Most of the main characters in the film aren’t human and it’s a bit difficult to relate to them without facial emotion. The face of a pig isn’t very expressive. We see some range of emotion in Wilbur’s face, but we’re relying more on the voice of Dominic Scott Kay to deliver the emotion here. There’s a solid discrepancy between what we’re hearing and what we’re seeing, which means that the film actually ends up feeling less authentic because of its own realism.

While the dialogue can be incongruous with the visual reality of the film, the sound does an admirable job of bringing the film together. For what its worth, the sound design on this film is fantastic. With animals getting more face time than humans, the soundscape that the story exists in has to be expressive in the way the animals can’t be. The film was scored by Danny Elfman who is in top form here. Much of the scoring is subtle and understated, but the cue that he scored for Charlotte’s first web writing is beautiful and evocative. The music and sound mix with some rather lush cinematography to deliver an emotional impact that should satisfy just about everyone who fondly remembers the book from childhood. VS