Charlotte's Web (1973)

Charlotte's Web is a 1973 American animated musical film produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions and Sagittarius Productions based on the children's book of the same name by E.B. White in the year 1952. This film, like a book, is about the pig named Wilbur who befriends the spider named Charlotte who saves him from being slaughtered and was distributed to theatres by Paramount Pictures on March 1, 1973. It is the first of only three Hanna-Barbera features not based upon one of their famous television cartoons — Heidi's Song (1982) and Once Upon a Forest (1993) being the other two — and was the moderate critical and commercial success.
The song score of lyrics and music was written by the Sherman Brothers, who had previously written music for family feature films like Mary Poppins (1964), The Jungle Book (1967), and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968).
This film has found the devoted following over the years due to television and VHS; in 1994 it surprised the marketplace by becoming one of the best-selling titles of the year, 21 years after its first premiere. No other non-Disney musical animated feature film has enjoyed such the remarkable comeback in popularity, prompting the sequel, Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure, which Paramount released in the US on March 18, 2003 (Universal released this film internationally), followed by the live-action feature film version of the original story, which was released on December 15, 2006.
==Plot==
Early one morning, Fern Arable prevents her father John from slaughtering a piglet as the runt of the litter. Deciding to let Fern deal with nurturing the piglet, John allows Fern to raise it as a pet. She nurtures it lovingly, naming it Wilbur. Six weeks later, Wilbur, due to being a spring pig, has matured, and John tells Fern that Wilbur has to be sold (his siblings were already sold). Fern sadly says good-bye to Wilbur as he is sold down the street to her uncle, Homer Zuckerman. At Homer's farm, a goose coaxes a sullen Wilbur to speak his first words. Although delighted at this new ability, Wilbur still yearns for companionship. He attempts to get the goose to play with him, but she declines on the condition that she has to hatch her eggs. Wilbur also tries asking a rat named Templeton to play with him, but Templeton's only interests are spying, hiding, and eating. Wilbur then wants to play with a lamb, but the lamb's father says sheep do not play with pigs because it is only a matter of time before pigs are slaughtered and turned into smoked bacon and ham. Horrified at this depressing discovery, Wilbur reduces himself to tears until a mysterious voice tells him to "chin up", and waits until morning to reveal herself to him. The following morning, she reveals herself to be a spider named Charlotte A. Cavatica, living on a web on a corner of Homer's barn overlooking Wilbur's pig pen. She tells him that she will come up with a plan guaranteed to spare his life.
Later, the goose's goslings hatch. One of them, named Jeffrey, befriends Wilbur. Eventually, Charlotte reveals her plan to "play a trick on Zuckerman", and consoles Wilbur to sleep. Fern and Avery visit the barn that same day. Avery tries to capture Charlotte, but is foiled by the stench of a rotten egg. The next 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 in Charlotte's web and ruins the SOME PIG message, Charlotte requests the barn animals to devise a new word to spin within her web. After several suggestions, the goose suggests the phrase, TERRIFIC! TERRIFIC! TERRIFIC!, though Charlotte decides to shorten it to one TERRIFIC. The incident becomes another media sensation, though Homer still desires to slaughter Wilbur. For the next message, Charlotte then employs Templeton to pull a word from a magazine clipping at the dump for inspiration, in which he returns 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 reluctantly decides to accompany him, though Templeton at first has no interest in doing so until the goose tells him about all the food there. 
After one night there, Charlotte sends Templeton to the trash pile on another errand to gather another word for her next message, in which 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. However, Fern's brother, Avery, discovers another pig named Uncle has won first place, though the county fair staff decides to hold a celebration in honor of Homer's miraculous pig, and rewards him $25 and an engraved, bronze medal. He then announces that he will allow Wilbur to "live to a ripe old age".
Exhausted from laying eggs and writing words, Charlotte tells Wilbur she will remain at the fair to die. Not willing to let her children be abandoned, Wilbur has Templeton retrieve her egg sac to take back to the farm, just before she dies. Once he returns to Homer's farm, he guards the egg sac through the winter. The next spring, Charlotte's 514 children are hatched, but leave the farm, causing Wilbur to become saddened to the point of wanting to run away. Just as he is about to do so, the ram points out that three of them did not fly away. Pleased at finding new friends, he names them Joy, Nellie, and Aranea, but as much as he loves them, they will never replace the memory of Charlotte.
==Voice cast==
* Debbie Reynolds as Charlotte
* Henry Gibson as Wilbur
* Paul Lynde as Templeton
* Rex Allen as the Narrator
* Herb Vigran as Lurvy
* Don Messick as Jeffrey
* Martha Scott as Mrs. Arable
* Bob Holt as Homer Zuckerman
* Pamelyn Ferdin as Fern Arable
* John Stephenson as Mr. Arable
* William B. White as Henry Fussy
* Agnes Moorehead as the Goose
* Danny Bonaduce as Avery Arable
* Dave Madden as the Ram and others
* Joan Gerber as Edith Zuckerman and Mrs. Fussy
Category:Paramount Pictures Films
Category:Musical films
Category:Hanna-Barbera films
Category:Sagittarius Productions films
Category:1973 films
Category:Films based on novels
Category:Animated films
Category:Films with opening credits
Category:Films with one vocal credit song
Category:Blockbusters
Category:Charlotte's Web
Category:Warner Bros. films
Category:Films about pigs
Category:Films about spiders
Category:Fictional mice and rats
Category:Farm animals
Category:Warner Bros. Family Entertainment films
Category:1973 animated films
Category:1970s children's animated films
Category:Rated G
Category:Films with narration
Category:Paramount Pictures films
Category:Films on VHS
Category:Films on Laserdiscs
Category:Films on DVD
Category:Articles with red links
Category:Films starring Don Messick
Category:Films starring John Stephenson
Category:Films starring Bob Holt
Category:Films starring Joan Gerber
Category:Films starring Paul Lynde
Category:Films on Blu-Ray
Category:Films starring Debbie Reynolds
Category:Films starring Henry Gibson
Category:Films starring Rex Allen
Category:Films starring Herb Vigran
Category:Films starring Martha Scott
Category:Films starring William B. White
Category:Films starring Agnes Moorehead
Category:Films starring Danny Bonaduce
Category:Films starring Dave Madden