Charlotte's Web: Critic Reviews

It's a movie that might just inspire E.B. White, up in literary heaven, to wipe away a tear of gratitude.

Gary Winick's film may not be perfect, but it honors its source and captures the key elements that have made E. B. White's book a classic.

It's hard to go wrong with a cute liddle piggy.

A whimsical and warmly appealing adaptation of the children's classic.

Remember the peaceful atmosphere of bedtime storytelling? The kind that allows parent and child to take satisfaction in the story, not the teller? That's how Charlotte draws you into its web.

Woe be to the child who doesn't mist up at this movie, since it's been made if not with zip, wit, or imagination, then at least with sweetness. But I hope no one will think the film is an adequate replacement for White's book. That would be a crime.

Breathe easy: Gary Winick's new, live-action Charlotte's Web pic does not screw up one of the seminal works of American children's literature.

Like its porcine protagonist, E.B. White's classic 1952 story Charlotte's Web manages to be both radiant and humble. If only the same could be said for Gary Winick's live-action adaptation, which is neither.

Charlotte's Web adapts a classic, which is not to say it is one.

Children of all ages, even those not old enough to read, can enjoy the journey.

Some will bristle at liberties taken. Cows do indeed break wind. Yet the movie's use of flatulence is less a nod to rural truths than a reliance on what has become a go-to gag in movie's made for the booster-seat set.

Director Gary Winick keeps the film's modesty of scale and generosity of spirit in mind throughout. The story has a pull like few others, and Sam Shepard's narration keeps everything easy and unpretentious, in sync with White's prose.

[The film] relies heavily on the voices, though the actors are sometimes miscast (Julia Roberts as the spider) or chosen more for their on-screen personas than their pipes (Steve Buscemi as the rat).

The movie may not be perfect, but it beautifully distills White's simple message. We are all born to die. But we are also born to befriend.

This is one case where the special effects do what they are supposed to do: enhance the movie instead of taking it over.

How could Charlotte's Web go wrong? It doesn't. It's a perfectly respectful, take-the-kids, down-home but enchanting-enough adaptation of the story of a pig who learns about life from a spider. Take the kids, especially the young, unsullied ones.

There's too much talent and too strong a story to mess it up. There was potential for more here, but this incarnation is nothing to be ashamed of, and some of the actors answer the bell.

This highly polished picture is superficially faithful, even reverential to its source, but evinces neither imagination nor a personality of its own.

Charlotte's Web, with its insistently 'magical' theme music, an overbearing climax and a trough full of bad jokes, is merely adequate.

"Some pig?" Sure. Some spider. And some book. Some movie, too.

It's a movie so modest and gentle, you'll hear your neighbour's popcorn crunch. But you may also hear your heart beating. And there's nothing wrong with that.

What do you say about a mediocre movie adaptation of a literary masterpiece? Could have been worse? Or, it could have been much, much better, but even then it probably wouldn't measure up to the original?

Best of all may be the narration, by Sam Shepard: His voice, the kind of voice God might have if he'd ever smoked Camels, frames this gentle but potent little story with good-natured authority, making it feel modern and ageless at once.

To paraphrase the novel's famous last lines, it's not often a story comes along that can make for both a great book and a wonderful movie. Charlotte's Web isn't both.

Charlotte's Web has all the requisite elements that a family film needs to succeed and endure: humor, drama, pathos, and an emotionally satisfying ending.