Charlotte's Web: The Movie (2006)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Audio Commentary-Director Gary Winick Audio Commentary-Jordan Kerner and John Andre Berton, Jr Featurette-Making Of-Making Some Movie Featurette-Some Voices Featurette-Flacka’s Pig Tails Featurette-How Do They Do That? Featurette-What Makes a Classic? Featurette-Where Are They Now? Gallery-A Day At The Fair Gallery-Photo Deleted Scenes Outtakes Main Menu Audio & Animation Music Video-"Make a Wish" by Bob Carlisle and Lucy Kane Music Video-Ordinary Miracle" by Sarah McLachlan
Rating
Year Of Production	2006
Running Time	93:01
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (20:09)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Ads Then Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Gary Winick
Studio Distributor	Nickelodeon Paramount Home Entertainment	Starring	Julia Roberts Steve Buscemi John Cleese Oprah Winfrey Cedric The Entertainer Kathy Bates
Case	Amaray-Opaque
RPI	?	Music	Danny Elfman

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English Audio Commentary English Audio Commentary	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    When Farmer Arable decides to kill the runt of a new litter of pigs, his daughter Fern is horrified and intervenes. Young Fern takes the runt as a pet and names him Wilbur. Wilbur is sold to Fern's uncle Homer Zuckerman shortly afterwards. Despite frequent visits from Fern, Homer intends to make a nice dinner out of Wilbur when he has grown up...

    In the Zuckerman barn, Wilbur makes a host of friends. The most notable of these friends is a wise old spider named Charlotte who sets about helping Wilbur endear himself to the Zuckerman family, so as to avoid landing himself on the dinner table.

    This live action adaptation of Charlotte's Web is the second adaptation of E.B. White's classic children's book of the same name. The original, animated, adaptation is widely considered a high point of animation in the 1970s. Between the book and previous film, Charlotte's Web had high expectations a lot to live up to. Thankfully, it manages to live up to these expectations quite well.

    This version of Charlotte's Web sticks more closely to the book than the previous adaptation and manages to capture a rather timeless feel that makes the film seem neither old-fashioned or contemporary. Parents of primary school aged children would do well investing in this disc as it bears repeat viewing. Anyone trying to teach their kids the facts of life through DVD would do well to pick Charlotte's Web is also an easy way to teach the kids all about the circle of life in an entertaining 90-odd minutes. Just make sure to have plenty of tissues on hand!

Video

    The film is presented in a 1.78:1 aspect ratio, slightly short of the film's original 1.85:1 aspect, and is 16x9 enhanced.

    The film is up to the standard you would expect of a newer release, very good but not of reference standard.

    The image is quite sharp throughout. There is moderate grain visible, particularly in darker scenes, but not so much as to detract from the film. There is a reasonable amount of detail visible in darker areas, although black areas are occasionally a little flat (eg. at 36:55).

    The colours in the film are quite bold and consistent throughout. The colour depth is reasonable, but mild posterization is occasionally noticeable.

    There are no film artefacts visible throughout the film. A handful of mild MPEG compression-related artefacts are noticeable, such as mild macro blocking in backgrounds, though none are terribly distracting.

    The English subtitles are white with a black border. Based on the portion I sampled, they appear to be accurate and easy to read.

    This is a RSDL disc. The layer change occurs mid-scene at 20:09, but was not noticeable on my equipment.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There is one English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kbps) audio track.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand. It appears to be well synchronized throughout.

    The usually bold Danny Elfman has delivered a fairly mundane score for Charlotte's Web. It does fit the film well though and is well mixed throughout the film.

    The surround channels are put to good use for a variety of environmental effect. Nothing really mind-blowing, but enough to enhance the atmosphere of the film. Similarly, there is little subwoofer usage but enough to further enhance this light-hearted family film.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    This disc is loaded with high quality extras that will appeal to all ages.

Audio Commentary with Director Gary Winick

    A moderately interesting commentary, but a tad dry for a kids movie.

Audio Commentary by Producer Jordan Kerner and Effects Supervisor John Andre Berton, Jr.

    Another unnecessary, although occasionally interesting commentary track. This one really begs the question as to why does a family feature need a commentary track, let alone two - especially when it features a decent "Making Of" featurette.

Making Some Movie Making Of Featurette (28:48)

    A fairly thorough, and quite entertaining, "Making Of" featurette. This featurette features interviews with cast and crew as well as narrated explanations of parts of the filmmaking process. There is something in this for viewers of all ages.

Some Voices Making Of Featurette (8:46)

    This featurette really is a continuation of the making of featurette but specifically concentrating on the voice cast.

Flacka’s Pig Tails Featurette (11:29)

    The silhouette of Flacka, one of the pigs that played Wilbur in the movie, talks about what production was like for the animals that worked on the movie.

How Do They Do That? Featurette (4:54)

    A continuation of the "Making Of" featurette that explains how the trainers got the animals to perform various tricks on camera.

What Makes a Classic? Featurette (5:20)

    A continuation of the "Making Of" featurette that discusses the creation of the story, from E.B. White's original novel through to the screen adaptation.

Where Are They Now? Featurette (6:54)

    A featurette that explains the process of finding the animal stars new homes after filming and what they have been up to since then.

A Day At The Fair Featurette (0:55)

    A slideshow of images from the county fair featured in the movie.

"Ordinary Miracle" by Sarah McLachlan Music Video (3:03)

    A music video for the movie's theme song, featuring clips from the movie.

"Make a Wish" by Bob Carlisle and Lucy Kane Music Video (3:15)

    A music video for another song from the movie, featuring clips from the movie.

Farm Photo Album

    65 production stills.

Gag Reel (3:04)

    A stock standard blooper reel, set to wacky music. Some of the animal bloopers are worth a laugh, however.

Deleted Scenes (6:53)

    6 deleted scenes with optional director commentary. Several of the scenes feature a dog character that was cut from the movie.

    The Region 4 edition features an identical set of featurettes (although they are ordered slightly differently) and DVD supplements to the Region 1 edition, but misses out on three DVD-ROM supplements (Charlotte's Web Storybook Creator, Charlotte's Web Original Theatrical Web Site Archive, Charlotte's Web Sega Game Level Demo).

    A classic children's tale that has made a surprisingly good movie that will appeal to both children and adults. Bring plenty of tissues for this classic!

    The DVD features a hefty amount of extras and most are very worthwhile. The video and audio transfers are both very good without being particularly exceptional.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall