XAVERIAN'S CORNER

Caught in the Web
Francis Dee (H2F), Stallion Correspondent

Posted Wednesday, 21-Feb-2007 12:52 PM

      Our story takes place in simple Somerset Country where the grass is green, the birds chirp, and – oops, this is the same intro you’ve heard a thousand times already, so I’m stopping myself right now.

      In a nutshell, “Charlotte’s Web” is about a pig named Wilbur, who is saved from Darwin ’s law of Survival of the Fittest by a young girl named Fern. However, Fern’s parents deem her unable to care for the pig, so the pig is sold to her uncle who has the noble job of turning all spring pigs in his possession into God’s gift to the culinary world: bacon. Now, Wilbur, along with all the “animal friends” he meets in Fern’s uncle’s barn, must find a way to avert his greasy fate and make him the first spring pig to see the whiteness of winter snow.

      Okay, so with that out of the way, here’s the big question: Where’s Charlotte? Well, if one were to actually bother to look at the movie poster closely, one would notice a spider hanging above Fern and Wilbur. That’s Charlotte; hence, the name “Charlotte ’s Web.” As obvious as this may seem, this was actually quite a revelation to me since I’ve never read the book.

      Now, on with the review!

      Since the story revolves around animals and is also aimed primarily at kids, the animals talk, and if you can get over the natural inability of inferior creatures to speak flawless English and really, really focus, you’d marvel at a more important realization: the voice talents used in the story were exceptional. The minute I heard Charlotte speak, I instantly wondered who the voice was behind that computer-animated spider. I later found out it was Julia Roberts. The actor providing Wilbur’s voice was also very good at portraying the pig’s innocence and child-like qualities, a feat not easily accomplished with the voice alone.

      On the other hand, the human actors/actresses put our species to shame with average performances, though this is excusable since it allowed the audience to focus more on the animals than on their human co-stars. Assuming that this was really the purpose for the aforementioned, it played out very nicely.

      Since I’m not very particular with lighting, camera and whatever, I’ll just say the technical elements of the film were satisfactory, though I was particularly amused with how the animators enlarged two of Charlotte’s eyes to give the spider’s face more of a human “feel.”

      My real issues, however, are with the story. First of which was the decision to include the somewhat distracting sub-plot regarding Fern’s social life and her mother’s incessant worrying over her preference to hang out with animals. It is possible that this issue was really in the original novel, but I think the directors could’ve gotten away with cutting it out for the movie’s sake, or at least intertwining Fern’s social life with the main plot more smoothly.

      Also, the question remains in my head as to how a web can affect so many people so intensely, but then talking about this would be spoiling the movie’s main plot and taking a shot at the novel, which may not be a fair thing for someone who has not read the novel to do. Sufficient to say, I’m a pretty cynical guy, so such an issue may not arise in the minds of other viewers.

      To sum up, Charlotte’s Web was a well-made movie for children, with the performances expressing the character’s emotions well enough to eclipse any plot holes. It makes a great contrast to some of the stale Disney movies that have come out last year and a wonderful first movie to take a kid to watch.

      However, as well put together Charlotte’s Web is, I don’t think high school students – or even latter grade school students, for that matter – would enjoy it as much. Teenagers probably won’t be able to look past the little girl or talking pig to realize that “Charlotte ’s Web” as “a movie for all ages” with a message “for both young and old,” but again, that could be the cynic in me talking.

      I, for one, am glad to have been caught in the web of this movie. Hopefully, whoever decides to watch this will, too. Again, I’m not going to recommend this movie to my high school brothers, but for those of you who want to escape the stereotypes of our society and actually watch a movie because it’s good, go watch Charlotte’s Web. It just might be worth it.

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