Charlotte's Web is a 1973 American animated musical drama film based on the 1952 book of the same name by E. B. White. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Like the book, it centers on a pig named Wilbur who befriends an intelligent spider named Charlotte who saves him from being slaughtered.
Directed by Charles A. Nichols and Iwao Takamoto from a story by Earl Hamner Jr., it stars the voices of Debbie Reynolds, Paul Lynde, and Henry Gibson, alongside narration by Rex Allen. It features a score of music and lyrics written by the Sherman Brothers, who had previously written music for family films like Mary Poppins in 1964, The Jungle Book in 1967, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1968.
The film premiered at Radio City Music Hall on February 22, 1973, and was released on March 1 to moderate critical and commercial success. It is the first of only four Hanna-Barbera films not to be based upon one of their famous television cartoons, the other three being C.H.O.M.P.S. in 1979, Heidi's Song in 1982, and Once Upon a Forest in 1993.
Plot
After Fern Arable convinces her father, John, not to slaughter the runt of a litter of piglets, John allows her to raise him as a pet, and she names him Wilbur. Six weeks later, Wilbur, now mature due to being a spring pig, is sold down the street to Fern's uncle, Homer Zuckerman. At Homer's farm, a goose coaxes a sullen Wilbur to speak his first words. Although delighted at this new ability, he still yearns for companionship. The other animals at the barn reject him, and a ram informs him that Homer is planning to slaughter him for food. A horrified Wilbur sobs before being comforted by a barn spider, who later introduces herself as Charlotte A. Cavatica and promises to come up with a plan to spare his life.
One morning, Homer's farmhand, Lurvy, sees the words SOME PIG spun within Charlotte's web. The incident attracts publicity among Homer's neighbors, who deem the praise to be a miracle. The publicity eventually dies down, and, after a hornet lands on Charlotte's web and ruins the message, she spins a new message reading TERRIFIC (at the suggestion of the goose). The incident becomes another media sensation, though Homer still desires to slaughter Wilbur. Charlotte then employs a rat named Templeton to pull a word from a magazine clipping at the dump for inspiration, and he returns with the word RADIANT ripped from a soap box to spin within her web. Following this, Homer decides to enter Wilbur in the county fair for the summer. Charlotte and Templeton reluctantly decide to accompany him. Charlotte sends Templeton to the trash pile to retrieve another word for her next message, and he returns with the word HUMBLE. The next morning, Wilbur awakens to find Charlotte has spun an egg sac containing her unborn offspring, and the following afternoon, the word HUMBLE is spun into her web. Though another pig named Uncle wins first prize, the county fair staff decides to hold a celebration in honor of Wilbur, and rewards him $25 and an engraved, bronze medal. Homer then announces that he will allow Wilbur to "live to a ripe old age".
Charlotte later informs Wilbur that she is dying and resolves to remain at the fairgrounds to do so, exhausted from laying eggs and writing words. Unwilling to abandon her children, Wilbur instructs Templeton to retrieve her egg sac to take back to the farm. Wilbur guards the egg sac through the winter, Wilbur overcame his fear of being slaughtered by Homer because he learned from Charlotte that death is just a natural part of life. The next spring, Charlotte's 514 children hatch, but fly away. Wilbur is saddened to the point of wanting to flee, but just as he is about to do so, the ram points out that three of them have stayed. Pleased at finding new friends, Wilbur names two of them Joy and Nellie; when Wilbur tells the third that Charlotte's middle initial was A, the third spider names herself Aranea. In a voiceover, a narrator explains that though Wilbur loves her children dearly, none of them could ever replace the memory of Charlotte.
Voice cast Henry Gibson as Wilbur, a pig who was almost killed due to being the runt of the litter. Debbie Reynolds as Charlotte A. Cavatica, a spider who lives on a web in a corner of Homer's barn above Wilbur's pigpen. Paul Lynde as Templeton, a gluttonous rat who lives at Homer's farm. Agnes Moorehead as the Goose, an unnamed goose who is the one that encourages Wilbur to speak for the first time. Don Messick as: Jeffrey, a young, undersized gosling whom Wilbur befriends shortly after his birth. He initially lives, eats, and sleeps with Wilbur rather than his mother and siblings. Uncle (impersonating Candy Candido), a county fair pig who wins first prize. Lamb Herb Vigran as Lurvy, Homer's farmhand who is the first to notice the messages in Charlotte's webs. Pamelyn Ferdin as Fern Arable, John's daughter who convinces him to spare Wilbur's life. Martha Scott as Mrs. Arable, Fern's mother Bob Holt as Homer Zuckerman, Mrs. Arable's brother and Fern's uncle. John Stephenson as: John Arable, Fern's father. Parking Officer Mayor Bandleader Danny Bonaduce as Avery Arable, Fern's older brother. William B. White as Henry Fussy, a boy of about Fern's age, whom she soon starts spending time with while Wilbur is at the fair. Dave Madden as: The Ram, one of the first animals Wilbur meets at Homer's farm. Additional Voices Joan Gerber as: Edith Zuckerman, Homer's wife. She comes up with the idea of giving Wilbur a buttermilk bath. Mrs. Fussy, Henry's stern mother who never lets him have fun.
Rex Allen narrates this film.
Production In 1967, animators John and Faith Hubley were interested in purchasing the film rights of Charlotte's Web in hopes of producing a feature-length animated adaptation. E. B. White, who had liked the Hubleys, sold the film rights, but the Hubleys were unable to acquire financial backing and the project languished. In September 1970, the Los Angeles Times reported that White had sold the film rights to Charlotte's Web to Edgar Bronfman Sr.'s Sagittarius Productions, which intended to produce a feature-length animated adaptation of the book. Director-producer Michael Campus was hired to supervise the project. Later, in November, Henry White, president of Sagittarius Pictures, and Campus approached director Gene Deitch to direct Charlotte's Web. Deitch agreed and personally met with E.B. White to discuss how the book should be adapted. As part of the contract deal with E.B. White, he would have the final approval of the character design and the casting of the spider character, Charlotte. However, Campus left the project to direct Z.P.G. (1972), and Deitch later learned he was forbidden to show his storyboards to E.B. White.
Development on the film still continued at Deitch's animation studio in Prague with Czech painter Mirko Hanák producing artwork of the film before dying of leukemia in November 1971. However, Bronfman Sr. began to grow dissatisfied with the European-influenced conceptual artwork. By May 1971, Deitch shipped his storyboards in a package to Sagittarius Productions in New York City, which notified him that his package had gone unopened and would be returned to him. On June 3, 1971, Deitch, in a mailed letter to E.B. White, stated that Sagittarius had refused to look his storyboards following six months of work on the project. That same month, it was reported that Sagittarius Productions had signed a two-picture production deal with Hanna-Barbera Productions in which both films would be distributed by Paramount Pictures, one of the films being Charlotte's Web. Around that same time, Joe Barbera had visited White at his residence in Maine, and the author had highlighted parts of the book he did not want to change, and parts that were "subject to discussion."
Casting In January 1972, it was reported that Henry Gibson, Debbie Reynolds, and Tony Randall had signed on to provide the voices of Wilbur, Charlotte, and Templeton. Writing in his autobiography, Barbera wrote that Reynolds had called him and said that she was willing to join the project even without being paid. Although Randall had completed all of his voicework, co-director Iwao Takamoto wrote that "his readings just went flat, which surprised all of us. Tony's delivery was a bit too sophisticated and his singing was too operatic. He did not have enough of that raunchy feeling that the character required." Barbera felt Randall had to be replaced, and approached Paul Lynde, who was voicing characters in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop and other Hanna-Barbera TV shows at the time, to do a reading. Lynde was officially cast in the following spring, which was followed by Agnes Moorehead, Rex Allen, Pamelyn Ferdin, and Martha Scott who had joined the cast.
Release The film was originally slated to be released during the summer of 1972, but by September 1972, its release was pushed back to early 1973. It premiered at Radio City Music Hall on February 22, 1973,"'Charlotte's Web' Opens at Music Hall". The New York Times. February 23, 1973. p. 18."Charlotte's Web A Musical Bows Into Music Hall". New York Amsterdam News. February 24, 1973. p. D3. which was followed with its general release on March 1, 1973, by Paramount Pictures in the United States. It was accompanied in theaters by the animated short The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow. It was 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.
The film was first released on VHS in 1979, followed by three more re-releases in 1988, 1993, and 1996. It made its DVD debut on June 19, 2001.Maughan, Shannon (February 5, 2001). "Children's audio/video for Spring". Publishers Weekly (New York, New York). Vol. 248. Iss. 6. February 5, 2001. p. 55–59.Kirkwood, Kyra (May 27, 2001). "A Columbia to 'Trumpet' E.B. White title". Video Store Magazine (Duluth, Minnesota). Vol. 23. Iss. 22. p. 12. A second DVD release of it was released in 2006.
Reception Vincent Canby of The New York Times described the music and visuals as "exceedingly uninteresting," but noted that the screenplay "has followed the original so closely that it's still possible to be moved by the story." Variety called the film "heartwarming entertainment" with "imaginative and clever" animation. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three stars out of four, writing that although "the animation style is television-quickie (bland, static backgrounds), White's story is so blessed nice it is doubtful that anyone or anything could ruin it." Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "No one, I think, could ask for a more respectful treatment of a classic ... The grownups will miss some of the artful appeal the book has, but can settle gladly enough for a cheerful and enthusiastic piece of children's fare."Champlin, Charles (April 11, 1973). "'Web' Spins Tale for Children, Adults". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 1, 16. In a negative review for The Monthly Film Bulletin, Clyde Jeavons criticized the animation as "stiff, basic and two-dimensional" and the music as lacking "that instant catchiness which has always been a successful feature of Walt Disney's cartoon melodies. But the saddest thing of all is to see E. B. White's celebrated fantasy reduced to such plodding blandness in defiance of its rich potential."