Charlotte's Web (1973 film)

Charlotte's Web
Original theatrical release poster
Directed by	Charles A. Nichols Iwao Takamoto
Produced by	Joseph Barbera William Hanna
Story by	Earl Hamner Jr.
Based on	Charlotte's Web  by E. B. White
Narrated by	Rex Allen
Starring	Debbie Reynolds Paul Lynde Henry Gibson
Music by	Richard M. Sherman Robert B. Sherman
Cinematography	Dick Blundell Ralph Migliori Roy Wade Dennis Weaver
Editing by	Larry C. Cowan Pat Foley
Studio	Hanna-Barbera Productions Sagittarius Productions
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date(s)	March 1, 1973 (1973-03-01)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$2,400,000 (US/ Canada rentals)

Charlotte's Web is a 1973 American animated musical film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions and based upon the 1952 children's book of the same name by E. B. White. The film, like the book, is about a pig named Wilbur who befriends an intelligent spider named Charlotte who saves him from being slaughtered and was distributed to theatres by Paramount Pictures on March 1, 1973. It is the first of only three Hanna-Barbera features not based upon one of their famous television cartoons — Heidi's Song (1982) and Once Upon a Forest (1993) being the other two — and was a moderate critical and commercial success.

The song score of lyrics and music was written by the Sherman Brothers, who had previously written music for family films like Mary Poppins (1964), The Jungle Book (1967), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968).

The film has found a devoted following over the years due to television and VHS; in 1994 it surprised the marketplace by becoming one of the best-selling titles of the year, 21 years after its first premiere. No other non-Disney musical animated film has enjoyed such a remarkable comeback in popularity, prompting a direct-to-video sequel, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, which Paramount released in the US on March 18, 2003 (Universal released the film internationally), followed by a live-action film version of the original story, which was released on December 15, 2006.

Plot

A litter of pigs are born to the Arable farm. One is a runt so John Arable decides to "do away with it". However, when his daughter, Fern, hears of the pig's fate, she rescues him and tells her dad that it is absurd to kill it just because it is smaller than the others. She gets to raise him and names him Wilbur. However, after only six weeks of raising him, John tells Fern that it is time for him to be sold (all his siblings were already sold). She sadly says good-bye as Wilbur is sold down the street to her uncle, Homer Zuckerman. When Wilbur wants to play with a lamb, his father (known as a ram) says that sheep do not play with pigs because it is only a matter of time before they are turned into smoked bacon and ham. Wilbur starts crying, saying that he does not want to die, but a voice from above tells him to "chin up". The next day, she sings a song about "chinning up", and reveals herself to be a spider named Charlotte. She saves him by writing messages in her web, hence the title. She eventually dies, and although 511 of her children leave the barn (she had 514), three of them, whom Wilbur names Joy, Aranea and Nellie, stay. But as much as Wilbur loves them, they will never replace her memory.

Voice cast

• Debbie Reynolds as Charlotte A. Cavatica
• Henry Gibson as Wilbur
• Paul Lynde as Templeton
• Rex Allen as the Narrator
• Herb Vigran as Lurvy
• Don Messick as Jeffrey
• Martha Scott as Mrs. Arable
• Bob Holt as Homer Zuckerman
• Pamelyn Ferdin as Fern Arable
• John Stephenson as John Arable
• William B. White as Henry Fussy
• Agnes Moorehead as the Goose
• Danny Bonaduce as Avery Arable
• Dave Madden as the Ram and others
• Joan Gerber as Edith Zuckerman and Mrs. Fussy

Five members of the cast (Henry Gibson, Paul Lynde, Agnes Moorehead, Danny Bonaduce, and Dave Madden) had previously appeared on the ABC television situation comedy Bewitched (1964-1972). Hanna-Barbera also animated the opening credits of the show. However, Bonaduce and Madden are more well known for their roles on another ABC-TV sitcom, The Partridge Family (1970-1974), which was still in production when this film was made.

Production

After the studio decided to make the film, Joe Barbera visited E. B. White in Maine. White highlighted parts of the book he did not want changed, and parts "subject to discussion."

Barbera wrote that Debbie Reynolds called him and said that she was willing to join the project even without being paid.

Release

The film was released to theaters on March 1, 1973 by Paramount Pictures in the United States. It had a limited release on February 22, 1973 in New York City, and also released in West Germany on March 30, 1973, as well as August 11 in Sweden, August 25 in Japan, and September 4, 1981 in Australia.

Home media

The film was released on DVD on June 19, 2001.

Reception

Charlotte's Web received generally positive reviews. Review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes reported that the film has a 75% fresh rating. Craig Butler of All-Movie Guide criticized the animation and the musical score, but called it a faithful adaptation, noting that, “no attempt has been made to soften the existential sadness at the story's core”. Dan Jardine criticized the songs and the “Saturday morning cartoon quality” of the animation, but also says that Hamner “retains just enough of White’s elegant prose in the dialogue and narration to keep the film from being simply a painfully well-intended experiment.” Christopher Null of Filmcritic.com stated that the animation is sometimes “downright bad,” but that E.B. White's classic fable needs little to make it come to life. When it was reissued on DVD the film was awarded an Oppenheim Toy Portfolio Gold Award.

The film was nominated for AFI's 10 Top 10 in the "Animation" genre.

E.B. White's reaction

According to Gene Deitch, a director of animation and friend of E. B. White, Mrs. White wrote the following words in a 1977 letter: "We have never ceased to regret that your version of "Charlotte's Web" never got made. The Hanna-Barbera version has never pleased either of us...a travesty..." E. B. White himself wrote of the film: "The story is interrupted every few minutes so that somebody can sing a jolly song. I don't care much for jolly songs. The Blue Hill Fair, which I tried to report faithfully in the book, has become a Disney World, with 76 trombones. But that's what you get for getting embroiled in Hollywood." White had previously turned down Disney when they offered to make a film based on Charlotte's Web. According to the film's writer Earl Hamner Jr., Mrs. White (who sometimes offered advice and suggestions to the filmmakers) would have preferred Mozart in the film, rather than the music of the Sherman Brothers.

Soundtrack

1. "Chin Up"
2. "I Can Talk!"
3. "A Veritable Smorgasbord"
4. "Zuckerman's Famous Pig"
5. "We've Got Lots In Common"
6. "Mother Earth and Father Time"
7. "There Must Be Something More"
8. "Deep In The Dark/Charlotte's Web"

"Zuckerman's Famous Pig"

"Zuckerman's Famous Pig" is the title that saves Wilbur, the pig hero, from being slaughtered in the story. It is the theme of the finale song in the film. It was composed and arranged in a barbershop quartet style by the Sherman Brothers, in keeping with the time and place of the story. It was covered by the Brady Kids and was chosen for release on their first single taken from The Brady Bunch Phonographic Album by producer Jackie Mills.

External links

• Charlotte's Web at the Internet Movie Database
• Charlotte's Web at AllRovi
• Charlotte's Web at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Charlotte's Web at Rotten Tomatoes