Charlotte's Web (DVD)

...project on E.B White's book, Charlotte's Web. We made clay animals and the teacher read a chapter each day. As a child it was one of my favourite books and I was shocked and disappointed when my partner refused to go and watch it with me. The other day however he came back from the shop with the DVD and I finally got round to watching it…what a film!

PLOT
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The film opens on John Arable's farm. Fern (Dakota Fanning) ...
...This section basically explains why Charlotte's Web is a classic and how the book was inspired. Its so interesting to see a bit of history behind the story I so loved as a child.

Where are they now?
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A lovely little documentary style section on the animals, caring for the animals, and how they were rescued for the film, after having a hard start in life. This section basically shows how well ... more

I love animals; I carried out my year 10 work experience in a veterinary surgery, but decided it wasn't for me when the staff tried to comfort me after a puppy died...I cried for over an hour. I am one of those weird people who would much rather give my money to an animal charity than a human charity.

I trust animals more than I trust more humans. I know that they will not tell my secrets to others, tell me I am getting fat or that I can't do this or that properly. In a way I could be compared a lot to Fern in the film.

When I saw this film advertised in the cinema I knew it was going to be a sad one. As a child at school we did a project on E.B White's book, Charlotte's Web. We made clay animals and the teacher read a chapter each day. As a child it was one of my favourite books and I was shocked and disappointed when my partner refused to go and watch it with me. The other day however he came back from the shop with the DVD and I finally got round to watching it…what a film!

PLOT
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The film opens on John Arable's farm. Fern (Dakota Fanning) wakes up and sees the light on in the barn, she rushes downstairs to see that the sow has given birth to a litter of piglets. There is one little piglet however that is left without a teat and as the runt of the litter Mr Arable (Kevin Anderson) decides it is best to kills it. Fern however seeing everything begs her father to leave him alone and let her rear it. The emotional plea by fern was one of my best quotes "If I had been born small would you have killed me". Fern is determined that she will rear little Wilbur as her pet.

Wilbur is rather energetic and starts to grow into a larger pig. Fern's father explains that as Wilbur is getting bigger he will have to be sold but Fern refuses to back down, and is sold to Fern's Uncle, Homer Zuckerman (Gary Basaraba) who lives down the road on a larger farm.

Fern visits Wilbur everyday but the poor pig is so sad and lonely. Wilbur is not the only who feels lonely and left out, in fact Charlotte the spider has been rejected by all of the animals in the barn. They describe her as scary and ugly and even Ike the Horse faints at the sight of her.

All is great until Templeton the Rat manages to drop a bombshell on Wilbur informing him that he will never see the first snow of winter and that he will be slaughtered. Charlotte touched by Wilbur's kind friendship promises him that she will not let that happen and that he will live.

During the night Charlotte works her magic and writes the message "SOME PIG" in the web, the excitement of this attracts flocks of visitors to the farm and huge publicity. The attention soon dies down and Christmas is fast approaching. Charlotte needs to act fast to save Wilbur from the slaughter house.

MY OPINION
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I thought this film was one of the best films I have seen in months. I loved the animals and thought they made the film a success. I thought that the clever use of real animals instead of animation made this film so pleasing to watch. I laughed and cried during several parts of this film, especially at the end. I normally despise films with 'voice-over' or 'dubbed' footage.

The warm friendly voice of Julia Roberts makes the film so endearing. In fact her characterisation of spiders has dispelled my fear and hatred of spiders, this may have a lot to do with the fact that Charlotte was a computerized spider and did not look as scary as real spiders.

The cute, lovable voice of Wilbur was great. It really made him seem adorably sweet. In fact I would suggest that the mixture of 'voice-over' and the pigs acting helped me feel so 'sad' or 'happy' in places. Had the voice been less expressive I would not have felt the way I did in places so really the effectiveness of the voice-over was great and a very highly successful touch. The characterisation of a naïve, immature pig makes Wilbur very lovable, I giggled at some of his quotes and can imagine kids loving him as I did.

The other animals such as the Betsy farting cow, Templeton the Rat and the sheep to had the urge to 'follow' everyone else were all amazing. They all made the film funny and added to the humour and to my overall high opinion of the film.

In addition to the animal characters were the few human characters. It is safe to say that the animals dominated the film and 'stole the show'. The human characters were OK but seemed to blend into the background when compared to the animal stars. Out of the human characters I must say that Fern played a huge part and was truly marvellous. She was believable as a 9 year old girl with a love of animals. Her dedication and conviction towards Wilbur and the animals in general is what made the film so beautiful. I am sure there are few people out there who would disagree with her aim to 'save Wilbur'. In fact I could really sympathise with her and relate to her. As an animal lover I myself would act in a similar way.

Lurvey (Nate Mooney) was very funny and reminded me of Dopey the Dwarf. He kept falling over or dropping slop on the floor after spotting the miracle web designs. Although he wasn't a main character he made me laugh and was a great addition to the film.

The soundtrack 'Ordinary Miracle' by Sarah McLachlan was a great addition to the film and created real emotion, it was a beautiful song which related perfectly to the film. Other songs featured in the film were strong and added to the storyline and drama. The song 'A Place in the Sun' and 'Wilbur's Lullaby' were also beautiful, adding to the emotion. Often in films the soundtrack can go unnoticed but I paid a lot of attention to the soundtrack.

FILM INFORMATION
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> Directed by: Gary Winick

> Year of production: 2007

> Duration: 93 minutes

Character voices
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Narrator - Sam Shepard
Charlotte the Spider - Julia Roberts
Wilbur the Pig - Dominic Scott Kay
Templeton the Rat - Steve Buscemi
Samuel the Sheep - John Cleese
Gussy the Goose - Oprah Winfrey
Golly the Goose - Cedrick the Entertainer
Bitsy the Cow - Kathy Bates
Betsy the Cow - Reba McEntire
Ike the Horse - Robert Redford
Brookes the Crow - Thomas Haden Church
Elwyn the Crow - Andre Benjamin

Actors/actresses
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Fern - Dakota Fanning
Mr Arable - Kevin Anderson
Lurvey - Nate Mooney
Homer Zuckerman - Gary Basaraba

NOTE: Only the main cast members have been listed here

DVD INFORMATION (including extras)
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The DVD is available in 5:1 surround sound and I love this feature. In fact listening to it last night with my surround system the film sounded great. It really felt as if I was sat on the farm. I love films that are recorded in surround sound as it adds to the overall effectiveness of the film.

The animated welcome screen shows some often selected scenes whilst playing a gentle but jolly piece of music, a tune that resembles accompanying music on most children's films.

Normally I am not interested in the extras section, I find them boring and cannot be bothered to sit through an hour of deleted scenes, commentaries and pictures. As this film involved animals in the main roles as opposed to humans I was very interested to see how they achieved success.

I was so eager to see how they made the film and I really needed cheering up after the emotional ending. The extras certainly managed to do that so I really should mention them…I warn you however there are so many, it would probably make a review alone!

Commentary
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This section includes interviews with the director, Gary Winick, the producer, Jordan Kerner and the visual effects supervisor, John Andrew Berton Jnr. I found this section a little boring but interesting enough at the same time. It was nice to see the people behind the film and to learn a bit more about their jobs and contributions to the film.

Making Some Movie
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This section is obviously about the making of 'Charlotte's Web' and is a very interesting section although I was fairly bored watching it.

Some Voices
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This section was interesting and is the first time I could see some of the 'voices' behind the animals. I had not heard with many of these 'voices' so it was a very interesting section for me to see what they actually look like. They explained how they created the voice and created expression.

Flacka's Pig Tales?
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This is a very cute section about Flacka the piglet, who played Wilbur. Flacka talks about the set and some of the script such as 'salutations' where Flacka visits parts of the world to learn about other ways of saying hello. I am sure this section would make any child go crazy; it's a great way of showing how the film was made for children to understand. Whilst the other sections are great they do not relate so much to small children...this section however is very effective. Although this section is very long it is very interesting and quite educational for children with many animal facts.

How do they do that
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As an animal lover it was great to see that the animals were treated so well during the film and that the trainers worked so hard to create the effects. Usually with films staring animals we forget about the stars behind the scenes who work so hard to create a successful end product. I loved to see that the sheep could respond to their own names obviously making it a lot easier for the trainers. I also really enjoyed seeing the 'off days' where the animals just would not co-operate at all…it really gave a meaning to the saying "never work with children or animals".

What Makes a Classic
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This section basically explains why Charlotte's Web is a classic and how the book was inspired. Its so interesting to see a bit of history behind the story I so loved as a child.

Where are they now?
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A lovely little documentary style section on the animals, caring for the animals, and how they were rescued for the film, after having a hard start in life. This section basically shows how well the animals were cared for and looked after by the people on set. It also shows where the animals are now within the sanctuary -Edgars Mission.

It was interesting to see Wilbur as a fully grown sow and to learn that Wilbur was played by two sows. Its impossible to imagine that the two huge sows were once a tiny piglet.

Music Videos
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It was quite nice to see some of the music videos features in the film. The song 'Make a Wish' by Bob Carlisle and Lucy Kane was very beautiful song. The lyrics were amazing and very thought provoking. It basically sums up the whole film about making a wish and believing in them coming true.

The other music video by Sarah McLachlan, Ordinary Miracle was another beautiful song with real meaning. McLachlan's voice was quite enchanting. The video with clips from the film was fantastic, making the lyrics more believable and thought provoking.

A day at the fair
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No points for guessing what this one is about but even I couldn't guess what format the 'extra' would be and I was quite surprised to see a traditional slideshow effect showing some scenes from the fairground.

Farm Photo Album
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So as the title would suggest, this feature shows some photos throughout the filming process. They are displayed in an easy to use gallery which was easily controlled by the use of a remote control. The pictures made me go 'awww' a few times but still they were lovely.

Gag reel
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For anyone who loves those programmes with take 1, 2, 3 and so on with mistakes, forgotten lines or humorous accidents then this is the best thing to watch. It certainly cheered me up at the end of the film, in fact I was still giggling at some of them this morning, especially the sheep falling over and the one where Ferns brother got his shirt jammed in a table and the whole crew had to stop and cut him free.

Deleted Scenes
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The deleted scene menu was very easy to use allowing the option of playing each scene individually or to 'play all'. The first scene was rather cute and introduced a new character 'Suzy the Dog'. Compared to the rest of the film I can see why it was deleted as it did seem quite weak but still made good viewing. The second scene was also rather boring and seemed pointless. I'd managed to dry my tears until the fifth scene, but it was so sad and started me off again.

PRICE AND AVAILABILITY
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The DVD is now available for £5-£10 in most shops. It can be bought in Tesco for £8 or Asda for £7. It is also available on Play.com for £8.99 and Amazon for £5.98. My partner managed to get my DVD from Somerfield for only £5.99.

SUMMARY
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The film is described is most poignant because it gives a message on loneliness, insignificance. Many people at some point have felt that they are like a 'runt' of a workplace, family or even in the classroom. Many children watching the film will see the transformation from the runt almost slaughtered to the hero at the fair.

The way Charlotte makes a promise and comforts Wilbur throughout is amazing it shows that selflessness and friendship pays and that by being a kind, selfless and friendly person, good things can happen.

The story/film has such a simple but strong message to children which can provide them with a lot of confidence. Many children can relate to the story which is probably why it makes it such a popular story, its one of the only books I remember in such detail from school.

The film however will not appeal to everyone, as I realised with my other half…it didn't have guns, murder or blood in it with gangsters and high speed chases, so if you the type of person that hates cute, fluffy films that will have you saying 'aah', 'ooh' or 'aww' in harmony with everyone else then this is not the film for you. I on the other hand will be watching it again…and again. I highly recommend this film! 

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