"Charlotte's Web" Animated Film Review

Charlotte's Web on VHS (Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

Not long ago, I dug out my DVD's of both the original animated film of Charlotte's Web and its sequel (yes, there was a Charlotte's Web sequel). It was the first time I'd seen it in 10 years, as I hadn't seen it since I first bought the two-pack DVD set that had it and its direct-to-video sequel. It brought back a lot of memories of watching this movie over and over on the VHS tape that we had of it when I was little. I'm pretty sure I wore that out, and I'm not sure we even still have that tape in our possession after all of these years - unless it's shoved into some closet somewhere. The DVD is obviously better quality, though, so I'm not complaining.

The songs are as catchy and fun as I remember, and although I know they can be a bit cheesy, remember that it was a children's film made in the early seventies. The Shermans did a fantastic job with both the musical arrangements and lyrics. It still greatly amuses me that when Wilbur first learns to talk to the other animals that his vocabulary is some how college-level. Yet he doesn't understand what the words "salutations" or "versatile" mean. The film follows the classic E.B. White story very closely, and although Hanna-Barbera took some artistic license, as usual, they did a great job.

Debbie Reynolds was  amazing  as the voice of Charlotte. Julia Roberts in the live-action version, which I think is far inferior to this film, was nowhere as good as Charlotte, in my opinion. Henry Gibson did a fine job as Wilbur, as did Paul Lynde with Templeton. All of the voice acting was excellent. The story was well put together and the animation was beautiful. I love old-school animation.

Watching the sequel with its much updated animation (as nice as it looks) was incredibly weird. Also, before I get to it, the sequel is not based on anything that E.B. White himself actually wrote. I don't think he ever really saw a need for a sequel.

In any case, the second animated film, which was a direct-to-video film, cannot ever compare to this one. Maybe this one is dated in the eyes of some, but it's still a treasure, just like the original book. I wish the live-action film had lived up to its predecessor. Some people really loved that version, whereas I thought it was actually kind of boring. But as is the case with many remakes, the original is almost always simply far better.