Charlotte's Web: Making Some Movie

Everyone gives their opinion on what this story means. You hear a lot of descriptions and who is to say any of them are incorrect? They are opinions, such as " The story is about love and true friendship" or "not judging people by how they look," "an underdog (pig) beating the odds" or "how all life matters," etc. The two main screenwriters, Karey Kirkpatrick and Susannah Grant, and others have such awe for E.B. White, who wrote the story in 1952, labeling him a "genius."

The film's director, "Gary Winick," said he combined "animaltronics, live-action, CG animation and sometimes all of them at the same time." However, he tried for as much realism, with no gimmicks, as he humanly could.

What's really amazing was that the four houses or structures in this film were all done from scratch and the house really does look like it's a hundred years old. Even some of the surrounding scenery, like trees and leaves had to be put in. The weather was horrible during shooting and fall came a month earlier than normal. Thus, they shipped in leaves from New Zealand and other places and glued them to branches!! Whatever, it's a magnificent-looking film and rural spot: fake or not. By the way, even though the story takes place in Maine, this movie was shot in Melbourne, Australia.

Despite setbacks, it was obvious it also was a "fun set" with everyone having a good time with themselves and all the animals.

We also get a few profiles such as one of young Dakota Fanning. I've never heard any actor do anything but rave about this young lady, and this cast is no different. I will be sorry to see her grow up because she is an incredible child actress as her fellow actors will attest.

As this behind-the-scenes feature goes on, you really get an appreciate of the patience of the filmmakers. It took almost 50 pigs to play "Wilbur," and the training that went into trying to get a pig to do what you want him to do, is amazing. Pigs are smart, but they are still animals who will do what they want to do! It was interesting to hear how difficult it was because they were using animals that everyone is very familiar with, so it had to look real. Visual effects were extremely hard to do. (You could fake a dinosaur, and who would know?) "Charlotte" was a wolf spider, the only barn spider they found could look somewhat feminine.

With the humans interviewed here, you hear three words all the time: "amazing" (which seems to be a very popular word at this time with celebrities), "incredibly" and - with this story, "timeless."