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Between Then We Came to the End and The Magicians, I read the #13 book on the Radcliffe 100, E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web
The story is probably familiar to most of you – a spider and a pig form an unlikely friendship where the spider, Charlotte, comes up with an amazing plan to save the pig, Wilbur, from ending up the entree at Christmas dinner. Charlotte’s actions attract plenty of human interest, but it isn’t until her final web that she knows she’s saved Wilbur’s live, after which he has an opportunity to return the favor in some way by saving her egg sac.
What disturbed me most about the book was the discovery that the screenwriters behind the live-action movie had changed so much of the dialogue and story. In the book, the animals play a much smaller role, and there’s no horse or crows. Fern’s younger brother has more dialogue and is less of a brat, while Fern herself actually turns away from Wilbur when she develops a crush on a boy in her class – a fickle friendship that serves as a counterpoint to the friendship between Wilbur and Charlotte. When it’s clear that Charlotte’s plan has succeeded, Fern is more interested in getting more money to go on another ride with her new boy-toy. Templeton, the rat, isn’t quite so Steve Buscemi-like, with a little more personality and a little more interest in helping Charlotte. (A little, but not much.) And Wilbur is a lot less childlike in the book, with even a touch of sarcasm was wiped out in the film version.
But most of all, I was shocked by the book’s ending – Charlotte lives! How the hell could they change that?
I remember enjoying the 1973 animated version a great deal as a kid, when I read the book I was surprised the the differences but at least that version retained the intended ending.
Don’t know if your daughter has seen the animated version but I recall watching it with my sister (who is 20 years younger than me)several years ago and she was unhappy with the ending.
You’ve ruined the movie for me now. (OK, I never would have seen it.) A horse? Crows?
I thought Fern’s interest in — Henry? was it Henry? — at the end was a sign that she was growing up.
Sweet book. Completely suitable for reading aloud to children of all ages, even before they have a clue what you’re saying.
If your daughter has an interest to still “watch the pig” show her the much superior Babe and Babe Pig in the City, which the first one being the best.
In the book, Charlotte lives on in WIlbur’s memory and as long as he tells stories about her. I haven’t seen the movie but I doubt it says Charlotte was forgotten by Wilbur. So, you could argue she ‘lives’ in both the book and the movie.
It was a joke. Charlotte dies in the book and both film versions. I was telling my wife how different the 2006 film was from the book, and she joked, “You mean Charlotte lives?”
“Templeton, the rat, isn’t quite so Steve Buscemi-like…”
Wait, you mean that in the book Templeton isn’t run through a woodchipper?
I feel very silly for believing that Charlotte lived at the end of the 2006 movie. It seemed reasonable when I read it yesterday.