Charlotte’s Web (2006)

Directed by Gary Winick. Starring Dakota Fanning, Kevin Anderson, Essie Davis, Beau Bridges, Gary Bassaraba, Louis Corbett, (voices) Dominic Scott Kay, Steve Buscemi, Julia Roberts, Sam Shepard, John Cleese, Cedric the Entertainer, Oprah Winfrey, Thomas Haden Church, André Benjamin, Kathy Bates, Reba McEntire, Robert Redford. [G]

(Mostly) live-action adaptation of E. B. White’s beloved children’s book is a pleasant way to teach the little ones about growth, death, friendship, and the loss of innocence, but older viewers will probably be wondering why it’s not nearly as charming as Babe. Little runt pig Wilbur is spared the blade by farmer’s daughter Fern (Fanning), but the playful piglet has trouble making friends with the other barnyard occupants—cows, sheep, a horse, etc.—until he meets a kind and gentle barn spider named Charlotte, who promises she’ll see to it that he survives the winter (ham is a delicious treat around Christmastime, after all). A cute and compassionate story with basics that align pretty well with the source material, but it’s never quite magical, and lest the filmmakers risk alienating crowds by being too genteel, there are also belching rats, farting cows, a crowd of celebrities giving the animals their voices, and so forth. The computer graphics and puppetry that help bring the animals to life are uneven, but could’ve been much worse. Danny Elfman composed the music.

63/100