Charlotte's Web (2006)

O An excellent must-see
X Good rental choice
O Mediocre
O Rent something else

Review by Jason Pyles / April 3, 2007

Based on the popular children’s book by E.B. White, “Charlotte’s Web” spins its enchanting web on a farm in Somerset County, Maine, where a little girl named Fern (Dakota Fanning) saves a runty pig that she calls Wilbur. But Wilbur has a serious problem: Spring pigs like him don’t live past winter.

Wilbur becomes friends with the other animals in his barn: a horse, cows, sheep, geese, a rat and his unlikely best friend, Charlotte, the spider. Charlotte (Julia Roberts) makes a promise to Wilbur that she will figure out a way to prevent him from becoming Christmas dinner.

“Charlotte’s Web” is a live-action movie with lots of computer-animated, talking animals that look real. It doesn’t have the underlying sexual innuendo that many recent, so-called “family movies” have had. “Charlotte’s Web” does confront the issue of death of a major character and has its share of animals’ intestinal gas jokes. All in all, “Charlotte’s Web” is a quality choice for a family rental.

Directed by Gary Winick
Dakota Fanning / Julia Roberts / Dominic Scott Kay
97 min. Family / Fantasy
(Original MPAA rating: G)
Edited version age recommendation: 7 and up

DVD release date: April 3, 2007
Copyright 2007.
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