Charlotte's Web (1973)

A gentle and wise grey spider with a flair for promotion pledges to save a young pig from slaughter for dinner food.

Directors:

Charles A. Nichols (as Charles Nichols), Iwao Takamoto

Writers:

E.B. White (book), Earl Hamner Jr. (story)

Stars:

Debbie Reynolds, Henry Gibson, Paul Lynde

1 win.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Debbie Reynolds	...	Charlotte (voice)
Paul Lynde	...	Templeton (voice)
Henry Gibson	...	Wilbur (voice)
Rex Allen	...	Narrator (voice)
Martha Scott	...	Mrs. Arable (voice)
Dave Madden	...	Ram (voice)
Danny Bonaduce	...	Avery Arable (voice)
Don Messick	...	Jeffrey (voice)
Herb Vigran	...	Lurvy (voice)
Agnes Moorehead	...	The Goose (voice)
Pamelyn Ferdin	...	Fern Arable (voice) (as Pam Ferdin)
Joan Gerber	...	Edith Zuckerman / Mrs. Fussy (voice)
Bob Holt	...	Homer Zuckerman (voice) (as Robert Holt)
John Stephenson	...	Mr. Arable / Parking Officer (voice)
William B. White	...	Henry Fussy (voice)

Storyline

Based on the beloved children's novel by E.B. White, this is the story of a little pig named Wilbur who was born a runt. Mr. Arable decides to kill him for dinner food but his daughter Fern begs him to let him live. On greater maturity, Wilbur is sold to Fern's uncle, Homer L. Zuckerman, in whose barnyard he's left yearning for friendship, but is snubbed by other barn animals. Wilbur is scared of the end of the season, because he knows that come that time, he will end up on the dinner table. He hatches a plan with Charlotte, a gentle and wise grey spider that lives in his pen, to ensure that this will never happen.

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Plot Keywords:

pig | spider | runt | children | barn | 

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Taglines:

That humble radiant terrific book is now a humble radiant terrific movie.

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Genres:

Animation | Family | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

1 March 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

E.B. White's Charlotte's Web

Box Office

Gross USA:

$5,232,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Sagittarius Productions, Paramount Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

94 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording) Mono (MovieTone) Mono Mono (Mono)

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, Debbie Reynolds volunteered to perform the voice of Charlotte the spider for no salary, because of her love for the E.B. White book the movie is based on.

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Goofs

Shortly after Avery's frog leaps over the pancakes, one of them slips out from under him. When the pancake lands on Wilbur's head, there is butter on it. In the very next shot, however, the butter has changed to syrup.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: This old world is filled with wonders, but to me there is no place more wonderful than a farm in springtime, when the sun is just lifting from the sky line. The air is so sweet and everywhere you look, little miracles are happening. Buds swell into blossoms, eggs hatch, young are born. Everything's off to a fresh start, and life is good and busy and brand new... Around the barnyard, big families are a blessing. The more the merrier. Root and grunt, push and shove, room for everyone...
[...]

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Crazy Credits

The closing credits feature concept art sketches for the film, displayed against multi-colored backgrounds.

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Alternate Versions

The Swedish dub on VHS cuts out several scenes, including: Fern and Henry visiting Wilbur at the farm where a fly wrecks the "Some Pig" lettering on the web, John, Lurvy and Homer trying to get Wilbur into the crate while Avery pretends to be a pig, Fern and Henry riding the Ferris Wheel, Wilbur and Charlotte's conversation before Templeton's feast at the Fair, the entire barbershop quartet performance of "Zuckerman's Famous Pig", the scene after Charlotte dies where the people return to find Wilbur in tears and assume he's homesick, and Wilbur naming Charlotte's daughters and his speech about Charlotte.

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Connections

Featured in Nostalgia Critic: Top 11 Saddest Nostalgic Moments (2008)

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Soundtracks

Deep In the Dark
Music and Lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman
Performed by Debbie Reynolds

User Reviews

It's not that bad...

So far, I've seen two completely different points of view in the comments for this movie. One was so-so, the other thought it was completely awful. Well, I would like to add a third: I thought it was charming.

"Charlotte's Web" is my absolutely favourite story, and one of the most treasured books in my personal library. This movie, while far from perfect, does stay very true to the original story (which, in case Negative Nellie may have missed, Disney does NOT do -- even though I love Disney, too).

It's true the animation isn't the best, but you have to realize that "Charlotte's Web" was made in 1973, WAAAAAY before the computer-animated wonders of the '80's and '90's. The animation in the '70's was still stuck in the Saturday-morning-cartoon format, where, instead of animating every single cel, the animators would animate every third or fifth cel. It saved time, money, and you still got animation -- just not very sophisticated animation. Disney and Max Fleischer were really the only ones that were trying to push animation beyond the extremely confined limits it was once stuck in. So you can't really fault the movie for that, it was a common fault 20 years ago to get stuck in a rut. (It's still happening today, or hasn't anyone watched "Godzilla", "Armageddon", or "Starship Troopers"? Just because the animation is more advanced doesn't mean that it isn't becoming redundant).

Other than the animation, "Charlotte's Web", taken from a purely entertainment level, is really not that bad. I still enjoy watching this movie, and the voice actors actually closely match the voices I've made in my head for the characters in the book over the years. Especially Templeton. His scene when he comes back from his night of gorging at the fair cracks me up. "In case you haven't noticed, there are over 8,000 eggs in that tiny little sac." "This HAS been a night!" HA!

The songs seem a little out of place at times, but on the whole, I still find this movie very enjoyable. It's not deep, it's not profound, it's a piece of mindless fluff, with some very nice performances from the voice actors and a lot of very cute moments. It's children's fare, folks, so just take it as such, and it's a lot easier to take. I liked it. So there.