- Music video "Ordinary Miracle" by Sarah McLachlan
- Deleted scenes
- Hilarious gag reel
- Winner of BEST FAMILY FILM OF THE YEAR
- 7 Exciting featurettes including "How Do They Do That?"
In his classic and beloved novel, E. B. White tells the memorable story of Wilbur, a little pig who becomes famous with the help of his clever friend Charlotte and their chatty animal neighbors. As the runt of the litter, Wilbur struggles to survive from the very beginning. Fern fights her father, Mr. Arable, to raise Wilbur and nurse him to health. Fern succeeds and Wilbur moves to the Zuckerman farm, where he learns the true meaning of friendship from the wise grey spider Charlotte. When it becomes apparent that Wilbur is being well fed for a reason, Charlotte and Wilbur are determined to foil Mr. Zuckerman's plans. With the help of Charlotte and her "terrific" webs, Templeton th! e rat, and other colorful barnyard friends, Wilbur becomes the prizewinning pig of the County Fair and the most famous pig ever.
Lessons of friendship, loyalty, and truth bind this story together and show readers that friends come in all shapes and sizes.
Illustrations by the artist Garth Williams bring to life these lovable characters. He is also the illustrator of E. B. White's Stuart Little.
An affectionate, sometimes bashful pig named Wilbur befriends a spider named Charlotte, who lives in the rafters above his pen. A prancing, playful bloke, Wilbur is devastated when he learns of the destiny that befalls all those of porcine persuasion. Determined to save her friend, Charlotte spins a web that reads "Some Pig," convincing the farmer and surrounding community that Wilbur is no ordinary animal and should be saved. In this story of friendship, hardship, and the passing on into time, E.B. White reminds us to open our eyes to the wonder an! d miracle often found in the simplest of things.
A Washin gton Post Notable Nonfiction Book for 2011
As he was composing what was to become his most enduring and popular book, E. B. White was obeying that oft-repeated maxim: "Write what you know." Helpless pigs, silly geese, clever spiders, greedy rats-White knew all of these characters in the barns and stables where he spent his favorite hours. Painfully shy his entire life, "this boy," White once wrote of himself, "felt for animals a kinship he never felt for people." It's all the more impressive, therefore, how many people have felt a kinship with E. B. White. With Charlotte's Web, which has gone on to sell more than 45 million copies, the man William Shawn called "the most companionable of writers" lodged his own character, the avuncular author, into the hearts of generations of readers.
In The Story of Charlotte's Web, Michael Sims shows how White solved what critic Clifton Fadiman once called "the standing problem of the juvenile-f! antasy writer: how to find, not another Alice, but another rabbit hole" by mining the raw ore of his childhood friendship with animals in Mount Vernon, New York. translating his own passions and contradictions, delights and fears, into an al-time classic. Blending White's correspondence with the likes of Ursula Nordstrom, James Thurber, and Harold Ross, the E. B. White papers at Cornell, and the archives of HarperCollins and the New Yorker into his own elegant narrative, Sims brings to life the shy boy whose animal stories--real and imaginery--made him famous around the world.
The classic story of loyalty, trust, and sacrifice comes to life in this live-action adaptation. Fern (Dakota Fanning) is one of only two living beings who sees that Wilbur is a special animal as she raises him, the runt of the litter, into a terrific and radiant pig. As Wilbur moves into a new barn, he begins a second profound friendship with the most unlikely of creatures â€" a spider na! med Charlotte â€" and their bond inspires the animals around t! hem to c ome together as a family. When the word gets out that Wilbur's days are numbered, it seems that only a miracle will save his life. A determined Charlotte â€" who sees miracles in the ordinary â€" spins words into her web in an effort to convince the farmer that Wilbur is "some pig" and worth saving.E.B. White's classic tale gets a
Babe-like makeover in
Charlotte's Web, a delightful and well-made film that is sure to become a family classic. Directed by Gary Winick (
13 Going on 30), the new version eschews the musical numbers of the 1973 cartoon and mixes CGI with live-action animals. Dakota Fanning brings the right amount of chutzpah to Fern, the young farm girl who rescues a runt, Wilbur, from death and visits him every day at her Uncle Homer's farm. But it's Wilbur's friendship with Charlotte the spider (voiced by Julia Roberts) that ultimately saves him from the "smoke house" (a kid-friendly alternative term to the slaughterhouse), for Charlotte's tal! ent for weaving praiseworthy words about Wilbur into her web turns the Zuckerman farm into a tourist attraction. The more tragic elements of the book are handled sensitively by Winick, working from a script by Susannah Grant (
Erin Brockovich), and Roberts' soothing, maternal voice (who knew it would work so well?) makes it all go down easy. It turns out to be just one of many perfect celebrity voice-casting choices, for the farm animals, voiced by an all-star cast including Oprah Winfrey (the goose), Robert Redford (the horse), Steve Buscemi (Templeton the rat), and John Cleese (the sheep), lend plenty of sharp humor. But it's two corn-hungry crows, voiced by Thomas Haden Church (
Sideways) and OutKast's Andre "3000" Benjamin who steal the show. (Ages 4 and older)
-- Ellen A. Kim
Beyond Charlotte’s Web
Other Children's Book Adaptations on DVD | 
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White | 
The Original 1973 Charlotte’s Web Cartoon |
Stills from Charlotte’s Web (click for larger image) 
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