Charlotte's Web

Charlotte's Web is a classic children's novel written by E.B. White, known also for works such as Stuart Little and The Trumpet of the Swan and illustrated by Garth Williams. The work is focused on a young pig named Wilbur, who, being the runt of the litter, is about to be slaughtered. However, his "owners" daughter, Fern, manages to save him and she raises him to be a strong healthy pig. However this means that he is sent down to a different farm, where he is being grown to be slaughtered for food. Determined to help, his spider friend Charlotte launches a campaign to save him. Reading the words brought to her on scraps from the rat Templeton, she begins weaving a series of words and phrases into her web, including "Radiant," "Terrific" and "Some Pig." Word spreads of these miraculous messages, but will it be enough to save Wilbur?

The novel, first published in 1952, has gained widespread acclaim and fame. It earned a Newbery Honor award, the Laura Ingall Wilders Medal (in conjunction with Stuart Little and has sold more than 45 million copies.

The story was first adapted as a cartoon in 1973. It was released by by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions and featured music by the Sherman Brothers (Winnie the Pooh, Mary Poppins). The film was reasonably well-reviewed by critics (74% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), though endured some complaints regarding the quality of the animation and the music. Notably, E.B. White himself was disappointed by the film. This did not stop it from becoming a popular success, enjoying strong popularity on VHS and television.

A follow-up to the cartoon, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, was released in 2003, Direct to Video, to celebrate the 30th anniversary.

In 2006, another adaptation was made, this time live-action. This one was Certified Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes, thanks in part to remaining largely faithful to the source material and also, in part, due to a moving score by Danny Elfman. A video game based on this film was released for computer, Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS and was reasonably well-reviewed, avoiding The Problem with Licensed Games.

Not to be confused with Babe, which also features a pig in a prominent role and many of the same themes, but has no spider character.

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Some tropes seen in either the books or the films include:

• Acrofatic: Despite how big and wide Wilbur gets throughout the film he can still perform backflips with ease when he sees Charlotte's eggs hatch.
• Babies Ever After: Although Charlotte dies and most of her offspring leave the farm, three of her daughters remain. And (in the 2000s film) found a whole dynasty of barn spiders.
  • Also, the ending of the 1973 film brings a host of new babies to the farm animals — even Templeton.
• Balloon Belly: Templeton, seen in both the original novel's Garth Williams illustrations, and (to even greater excess) in the animated version.
• Big Eater: Templeton, again! Man, oh, man!
  • Especially since a fair is a veritable smorgasbord-orgasbord-orgasbord.
  • Strongly played down in the movie with times Wilbur doesn't eat at all but the book said Wilbur ate 3 GIANT meals per day to fatten him up nicely, and when he first was waiting for Charlotte he ate one of the giant meals quickly and licked the trough. The book also stated that Wilbur was willing to eat and digest almost anything except the stinky egg Templeton set off.
• Bittersweet Ending: While Wilbur lives, Charlotte dies soon after the fair, yet her children live on.
• Casting Gag: Templeton is voiced by openly gay Paul Lynde. It's an In Joke that he makes an embarrassed giggle when he's followed by a troupe of baby rats.
• Death by Newbery Medal: Or Newbery Honor, anyway. Charlotte
• Death Song: The second version of "Mother Earth and Father Time", from the 1973 animated film.
• Disappeared Dad: Charlotte has 514 children and their father is neither mentioned nor seen. Given the courtship habits of barn spiders, this is probably for the best.
• Disney Acid Sequence: The scene where Templeton sneaks around the fairgrounds at night in the '73 film. This isn't actually too far off the mark from what actually happens.
• Disneyfication: This is what the original author felt the 1973 movie had subjected his story to.
• Down on the Farm
• Dying Alone: Charlotte, although in the 1973 film Wilbur, who lives, was there with her.
• Food as Bribe: Wilbur and Templeton
  • Templeton moreso in the book but still somewhat shown in the movie, especially with the solemn promise near the end is often offered by Wilbur to have more of his slop when Lurvy slops him. The solemn promise to get Templeton to get Charlotte's eggs was WIlbur promising to let Templeton eat first and as much of what he wanted.
  • In the book and live action movie when Wilbur got loose and the farm animals knowing what happens to pigs telling WIlbur to run to the forest Zuckerman and Lurvy lured him back to his pen with warm slops, his pig nose being said to be unable to resist the leftovers.
• Freudian Slip: Fern accidentally says "Wilbur" when the teacher asks her what the capital of Pennsylvania state is.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Children learn in the book that people will believe anything they see in print. A subtle satirical Author Tract from Charlotte.
• Hair of Gold: Fern as played by Dakota Fanning in the 2006 film.
• Messy Pig: Type 2--Sanitary Swine. Or as sanitary as he can be, considering he sleeps on an enormous pile of manure.
  • Played with when Wilbur has to go to the fair. The goose advises Wilbur to struggle with being put in a crate. Wilbur's objection that it'll make him messy (after he'd just had a buttermilk bath by Mrs. Zuckerman) is overruled by the goose warning him if he doesn't struggle, they'll assume something is wrong with him and leave him behind. In the book one of the sheep when Wilbur was talking about smells mentions Wilbur is the smelliest being in the farm, in fact sometimes Wilbur is the only thing it could smell.
• Pink Girl, Blue Boy: Fern often wore pink while Henry blue.
• The Power of Friendship
• The Runt At the End: Wilbur, also Jeffry the gosling and Charlotte's three daughters are the end count.
• Say My Name: In the 1973 film version, after Charlotte passes away:

Wilbur: Charlotte? Charlotte?? CHARLOTTE!!!

• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Charlotte (at least from Wilbur's perspective). Likely as not, her vocabulary introduced a lot of young readers to words like "languishing", "radiant", "versatile", and "salutations."
• Speaks Fluent Animal: Fern is able to understand what the animals are saying when they talk to each other, although she is not shown speaking to them.
• Speech Impediment: The g-g-goose has a rather pronounced stutter-utter-utter.
• Spiders Are Scary: Averted. Charlotte is really friendly, the only time she almost caused a life to be taken was from was pranking Templeton to come out when a cat was nearby. Also her children are noteworthy as even the ones who left were very polite and even said goodbye to everyone they met before leaving. The three runts that stayed also continued this trend.
• Tough Love: In the book, Charlotte is much stricter on Wilbur than either of the movies, and isn't above snapping at him or scolding him — or anyone else in the barnyard, for that matter.
• Truth in Television: While it may be a little bit of a stretch Wilbur's fainting at sudden worry can be considered somewhat accurate. Pigs are notoriously bad when it comes to dealing with stress and in higher loads pigs could literally "shut down" where they refuse to do anything including moving or even die due to their hearts being unable to work in stronger loads. Though they are unaware the open talk of Zuckerman wanting to kill Wilbur for the meat he will produce can also degrade the quality of said meat as stress can even cause the internals of pigs to degrade in quality even to the point of being unusable which is why keeping a pig happy up until the point of death is considered important for slaughter.
• Verbal Tic: The geese tend to repeat their own words as they talk.

Gander: It's my idio-idio-idiosyncracy.

• What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to the gosling that wanted to be a pig?
• What's in It For Me?: It's a continued theme in at least the animated movie that Templeton repeatedly asks this question, and is repeatedly answered with very strong incentives. One has to wonder why Templeton hasn't learned to expect it.
  • Only once is Templeton not threatened - and that's the final time with promises of miles of food at the fair.
• You Dirty Rat: Templeton is a dirty, gluttonous, selfish Jerkass. However, he's basically a good guy.