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Charlotte's Web
It was only a matter of time before Elwyn Brooks White's early reading favourite was hauled out for a computer generated / live action makeover. Evidently modeled on the familiar 1973 animated film (with Debbie Reynolds and Henry Gibson vocalizing Charlotte and Wilbur), but sensibly dispensing with the eminently forgettable songs, this new live action version is pleasant enough in its way, but it's no Babe. With sales estimated at 45 million, the story of an unassuming pig called Wilbur and his arachnid literary friend Charlotte A Cavitica is one of the best-selling children's novels ever written. (Five years ago, Publishers Weekly claimed it was in fact the best-seller) though I suspect Mr. H Potter may have overhauled it in the interim. In case you've forgotten, Wilbur is the runt of the litter, adopted as her own by farmer's daughter Fern Arable (Dakota Fanning). Her parents assume she'll grow out of it, but in fact Wilbur grows faster, and they insist he move out of the house and into Uncle Homer Zuckerman's barn. That's where the lonely pig is befriended by Charlotte, a spider who must have been a book worm in another life. When it seems that Wilbur's for the chop, Charlotte intercedes to save his bacon by spinning an encomium in a web above his pen. 'Some pig,' she writes. And the humans conclude that he must be. 
It's always bothered me that they overlook the obvious here - surely anyone can appreciate it's the arachnid who deserves the credit? But just as we go to movies on the basis of the stars, not the screenwriter, it is Charlotte's lot to be taken for granted. (For the record, the script is by Karey Kirkpatrick, who has Over the Hedge, The Little Vampire and Chicken Run to his credit, and Susannah Grant, of Erin Brockovich fame.) At least the spider gets top billing, by way of the mellifluous Julia Roberts. Talk about six degrees of (Kevin) Bacon! The star associations here include Robert Redford voicing a horse, Oprah as Gussy the Goose, Kathy Bates and Reba McEntire as cows, John Cleese as a sheep, and Steve Buscemi, typecast as always, as Templeton, the rat. None of these worthies makes much of an impression to tell you the truth, though the double act of Thomas Haden Church and Andre Benjamin as a couple of crows does scare up a couple of guffaws. The (uncredited) narrator is playwright Sam Shepard. Oh, and Wilbur himself is incarnated by 47 increasingly succulent porkers. 
As for Dakota Fanning, after seeing her impression of a kitten on a hot tin roof in Hounddog at Sundance last month, I have to report it's a relief to find this talented performer acting her age. It's good, too, to see a kid's movie with a female heroine, and which isn't chock full of snarky adult humour or product placement. It's a drawback that the central character is a bit of a sloth. Save for one early attempted prison break, thwarted within seconds by hunger pangs, Wilbur doesn't actually do very much. Mostly he just lies there. That goes for Gary Winick's movie too, which is sweet-natured, humble even, but hardly radiant. What's valuable here is EB White's gentle reminder that lives are short, friendship is priceless, and words really can make a difference. Tom Charity 
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