Charlotte's Web (2006 film)

During springtime on a farm in Somerset County, Maine, young Fern Arable discovers her father John about to kill a runt of a litter of newborn pigs. She successfully begs her father to spare the piglet's life; Fern names him Wilbur and nurtures him lovingly. The next morning, Fern sneaks Wilbur into her school desk and when the teacher overhears Wilbur, she asks Fern what is in her desk. Fern lies to her that nothing is in her desk and the teacher angrily forces her to open it revealing Wilbur in the desk who then causes commotion by loudly squealing. The teacher then sends them both to the principal.

When Wilbur has matured, Fern is regretfully forced to take him to her uncle Homer Zuckerman's barnyard. Mrs. Arable feels slightly concerned for Fern's behavior and one night, prevails upon Fern to stay home, do her homework and go straight to bed without visiting Wilbur. During this time, Wilbur feels abandoned and is left yearning for companionship, but is refused by the other barn animals - a comedic, mischievous, rebellious, misunderstood, and "potentially dangerous" rat named Templeton; a serious and steadfast sheep named Samuel; a fun-loving and kindly goose couple named Gussy and Golly; two beautiful and laid-back cow sisters named Bitsy and Betsy; and a cowardly and humorous horse named Ike - until he is befriended by Charlotte A. Cavatica, a beautiful barn spider who lives in the space above Wilbur's sty in the Zuckermans' barn.

When the other animals reveal to Wilbur that he will be prepared for dinner by Christmas, Charlotte promises to hatch a plan guaranteed to save Wilbur's life. With the help of Templeton, Charlotte convinces the Zuckerman family that Wilbur is actually quite special by spelling out descriptions of him in her web such as "Some pig", "Terrific", "Radiant" and "Humble" in the opening to the barn for the Zuckermans to see. These descriptions are even posted in newspapers that the whole town read and came out to see.

Eventually, the Arables, Zuckermans, Wilbur, Charlotte and Templeton go to a fair where Wilbur is entered in a contest. While there, Charlotte produces an egg sac containing her unborn offspring while Wilbur, despite winning no prizes, is later celebrated by the fair's staff and visitors, making him too prestigious to justify killing him. Exhausted from laying eggs, Charlotte cannot return home because she is dying. Wilbur sadly bids farewell to her as she remains at the fair and dies shortly after his departure, but he manages to take her egg sac home with the help of Templeton.

Wilbur then lives to witness his first Christmas and by the next spring, hundreds of Charlotte's offspring emerge; most of the young spiders soon leave, but three named Joy, Aranea and Nellie stay and become Wilbur's friends.

• Dakota Fanning as Fern Arable
• Kevin Anderson as John Arable
• Essie Davis as Phyllis Arable
• Louis Corbett as Avery Arable
• Beau Bridges as Dr. Dorian
• Gary Basaraba as Homer L. Zuckerman
• Siobhan Fallon Hogan as Edith Zuckerman
• Nate Mooney as Lurvy, the Zuckermans' farmhand
• Julian O'Donnell as Henry Fussy

Charlotte's Web was produced without any involvement from E. B. White's estate.[3] It was the first film based on a book by E. B. White since 2001's The Trumpet of the Swan.

Major shooting was completed in May 2005. It was filmed on location in Ballan, Victoria and suburbs in Melbourne, Australia. The fair scene in the story was filmed in Heidelberg in Melbourne, Australia at Heidelberg West Football Club's football ground. The school scenes were filmed at Spotswood Primary School.

The talking-animal visual effects were done by various visual effect studios such as Rising Sun Pictures, Fuel International, Proof, Rhythm and Hues Studios (which also animated 1999's Stuart Little, another film based on an E. B. White book, as well as its 2002 sequel Stuart Little 2), Digital Pictures Iloura and Tippett Studio. The visual effects supervisor for the film was John Berton, who noted that a live-action version of Charlotte's Web has become much more practical in recent years due to advances in technology.[4] Winick "was adamant" that Charlotte and Templeton (the film's two entirely computer-generated characters) should be realistic and not stylized, although they did give Charlotte almond-shaped eyes.[5] John Dietz, visual effects supervisor for Rising Sun Pictures, notes that there was a debate over whether to give her a mouth and that in the end, they decided to have her chelicerae move in what he describes as being almost like a veil as if there were a mouth behind it.[6]

The three geese which appeared in the movie were procured local to the Nillumbik Shire, Victoria from the Burford Family Farm in Hurstbridge. These were hand raised by the Burford Family, before being sold to the producers for the sum of $50AUD and euthanized in order to allow the movie's taxidermist to prepare the geese for filming. This arrangement led to controversy following the release of the film after one of the breeders was accused of deliberately conducting a "ram-raid" of the local ANZ.

The film was scheduled for a June 2006 release, but was pushed back to December 15, 2006 to avoid competition with two other films from Nickelodeon Movies - Nacho Libre and Barnyard - as well as Over the Hedge (which also featured Thomas Haden Church in the cast) and Cars among other films.

Charlotte's Web: Music from the Motion Picture was released by Sony Classical on December 5, 2006.[15] In addition to the instrumental score by Danny Elfman (composing his second film for Nickelodeon Movies, following Nacho Libre, which released the same year), the soundtrack includes the song "Ordinary Miracle" by Sarah McLachlan, which she herself performed during the opening ceremonies of her hometown Vancouver Winter Olympics.[16] A CD compilation of "Music Inspired by the Motion Picture" was issued on December 12, 2006.

A video game based on the movie, developed by Backbone Entertainment and published by Sega, was released on December 12, 2006, for the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, and PC.

Another game based on the film was released in Europe for the PlayStation 2 by Blast Entertainment on April 5, 2007.[17]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Charlotte's Web (2006 film).

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Charlotte's Web (2006 film).

• Official website archived at Wayback Machine
• Official website at Nick.com, archived at Wayback Machine
• Official website at Walden Media, archived at Wayback Machine
• Charlotte's Web at IMDb
• Charlotte's Web at the TCM Movie Database
• Charlotte's Web at AllMovie