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"You Need a
Raincoat Until They're
Potty Trained..." |
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Directed by Gary Winick
- Written by Susannah
Grant, Karey Kirkpatrick
Starring Dakota Fanning,
Julia Roberts, Steve
Buscemi, John Cleese
Oprah Winfrey, Cedric
the Entertainer, André
Benjamin
Thomas Haden Church,
Robert Redford, Reba
McEntire, Kathy Bates
Distributed by Paramount -
2006 - 90m - Rated G |
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Richard Propes'
Review
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B+ |
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A family film that Hollywood hardly touches anymore. |
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In weaving together a
web of childhood innocence long missing from contemporary children's
cinema, director Gary Winick has fashioned one of 2006's strongest
American-made children's films sure to lead a legion of young fans
to their local bookstore to purchase the even more innocent, magical
and sweet book by E.B. White (who also penned "Stuart Little").
Reminiscent of the "Babe" films, "Charlotte's Web" is a marvelous
blend of CGI farm animals with their human counterparts in the
familiar story of a young girl named Fern (Dakota Fanning), a pig
named Wilbur (voiced by Dominic Scott Kay), the spider named
Charlotte (Julia Roberts) and a host of other friendly and festive
farm animals including a rat (Steve Buscemi), a sheep (John Cleese),
a pair of geese (Oprah Winfrey and Cedric the Entertainer), two cows
(Kathy Bates and Reba McEntire), Ike the Horse (Robert Redford), two
crows (Thomas Haden Church and Andre Benjamin) and Uncle the Pig
(Abraham Benrubi).
The proceedings are narrated by the remarkably appropriate Sam
Shephard and a host of mostly unknown humans (with the exception of
Kevin Anderson and Beau Bridges) round out the cast.
Without significant embellishment of the basic story of "Charlotte's
Web," director Gary Winick ("Tadpole" and "13 Going on 30") has
fashioned a family friendly, heartwarming and fairly retro film that
often feels like a family film from the 1960's or 1970's even when
one considers the remarkable technical advances that make such a
film now possible.
The CGI animals are created realistically, with the exception of
Charlotte. In the case of this potentially frightening spider, an
effort seems to have been made to soften her appearance and, as
voiced by Julia Roberts, Charlotte turns into a mighty friendly,
soothing spider rather than a stereotypical ugly, frightening one.
"Charlotte's Web" is at its most magical in the barn and in its CGI
world. While the human encounters don't really detract from the
action, they also don't enhance it and, ultimately, the human
characters are drawn too thinly to really add much to the film.
Fanning, an actress already proven to possess vast emotional range
for a child actress, is really called upon only to be, well, a
child. If given a bit more freedom, Fanning could have easily
developed a character who truly showed her love for Wilbur and, on
the flip side, Winick alludes briefly to the fact that Fern is
maturing and, perhaps, could outgrow her fondness for Wilbur.
Fanning, easily, could have portrayed this conflict convincingly.
This, in turn, would have added a degree of depth to a very basic
story that would have greatly enhanced the character development.
This, again, could be an intentional effort to produce a true family
film or it could be a lacking in the film. To a certain degree, both
points appear to be true.
The voice-over work is strong across the board, most notably Buscemi,
Kay, Benjamin and Haden Church. Roberts does a nice job conveying
Charlotte's compassionate, caring nature but, at times, plays the
character large enough that it feels like "Julia" and not
"Charlotte." I will add, however, that Roberts and the young Kay
have a marvelous chemistry and their later scenes are quite
touching.
I found myself a tad troubled by the fairly stereotypical casting of
the voiceover work. Buscemi as Templeton the rat? Kathy Bates as a
cow? Of course, this could just me doing a Rosie O'Donnell and
making an issue out of nothing.
Among the human cast, only Fanning and Beau Bridges really are given
much chance at all to shine and, to their credit, both do shine
during their time onscreen.
Beautifully photographed, wonderfully scored by Danny Elfman and the
kind of warm and fuzzy, non-distracting family film that Hollywood
hardly touches anymore, "Charlotte's Web" is an entertaining and
sweet film that also opens the door to many valuable family
discussions about friendship, love, life and death.
Charlotte's web is sure to captivate your children and bring fond
memories back to you, as well. |
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© Written by Richard Propes -
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TC Candler's Comment
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Comment
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