Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure

Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure is a 2003 American direct-to-video animated movie. It is the sequel to the 1973 movie Charlotte's Web. The movie was released in the United States on March 18, 2003. It was produced by Nickelodeon and distributed by Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

The movie is about a pig named Wilbur, who lives on a farm and has to take care of three young spiders. They are the daughters of the older spider Charlotte who died in the first movie. He must also save his new friend, a friendly black lamb named Cardigan, from being eaten an evil fox named Farley. The sequel was not received very well. Robert Pardi of TV Guide stating that the movie does not capture the heart and spirit of the original. He also criticized the animation (which he called mediocre, or bad). Mike Long of DVD Talk also said that the animation was mediocre and was like a Saturday morning cartoon, and that the story was lame.

 The story 
The movie starts in spring, about a year after Charlotte has died. Charlotte's three daughters, Nellie, Aranea and Joy, are now teenagers. Wilbur takes care of them. During this time, Wilbur becomes friends with a newborn lamb named Cardigan.  Cardigan is rejected by the other lambs and the younger sheep of his flock because he has black wool. Wilbur takes Cardigan under his wing and shows him the farm, the ways of animal life, and dangers to look out for. However, after only a few weeks, farmer Zuckerman suddenly sells Cardigan to another farmer. Wilbur, along with Charlotte's daughters and Templeton the Rat, set out to visit Cardigan and make sure he is okay.

Wilbur is hungry so he gets some grapes which make him look purple. Some bark from the trees comes and lands on his head. This makes him look like a wild pig. A near hit by a car then reveals that two other guys have now seen the wild pig. This makes it hard for Wilbur to visit Cardigan.

Meanwhile, an evil fox named Farley comes and steals a hen from the barn later who escaped and framed Wilbur. Farley comes and steals Cardigan from the barn, and plans to eat him. Wilbur now must save his friend. He does this  by trapping him in a "pig web". Charlotte's daughters spin the word "fox" in a spider web, and Fern arrives just in time to save Wilbur. The fox, while not shown, is probably disposed of. Aranea and Joy decide to stay with Cardigan, and the movie ends as Wilbur has to babysit Templeton's kids. He had promised to do this earlier when Templeton had to get Wilbur out of some brambles bushes, which also helped make him look like a wild pig.

 Cast 
 Julia Duffy as Charlotte
 David Berón as Wilbur
 Charlie Adler as Templeton, Lurvy
 Amanda Bynes as Nellie
 Anndi McAfee as Joy
 Maria Bamford as Aranea
 Harrison Chad as Cardigan the Lamb
 Rob Paulsen as Farley the Fox
 Debi Derryberry as Fern Arable
 Laraine Newman as Gwen
 Dawnn Lewis as Bessie
 Brenda Vaccaro as Mrs. Hirsch
 Jerry Houser as Mr. Zuckerman
 Valery Pappas as High Strung Chicken
 Nika Futterman as Baby Rats
 Bridget Sienna as Flo
 Bobby Block as Snotty Lamb
 Ashley Edner as Bully Lamb
 Pat Fraley as Donkey
 Frank Welker as Animals' vocal effects

 Reception 
Robert Pardi of TV Guide reviewed the movie saying "This 20-years-later follow-up fails to capture the zest (heart/spirt) of the original cartoon, turning E. B. White's beloved characters into cute sidekicks worthy of Barney." He also said the animation was poor. Mike long, of DVD Talk, reviewed the movie saying "The lame story isn't helped by the mediocre at best animation. The art has no real style and could have come from any Saturday morning cartoon. He continuously called the movie different and humorus names: "Charlotte's Web 2: The Quickening", "Charlotte's Web 2: Dead by Dawn", "Charlotte's Web 2: Island of Lost Dreams", "Charlotte's Web 2: The Nightmare Isn't Over", "Charlotte's Web 2: When Nature Calls", and "Charlotte's Web 2: The Wrath of Khan". He went on to say that "as "Charlotte's Web" is one of my all-time favorite stories, I had a great interest in "Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure". However, what I found was a bargain-basement sequel that does nothing to advance the original stories or characters. The DVD offers a very nice transfer, but the extras are pointless. There will be no spiders claiming that this is "Some DVD"." Out of five stars, he gave the content a one, the video a four, the audio a four, the extras a one, and the overall reply a one, with the advice to skip it. The one reviewer on Rotten Tomatoes that weighed in on the movie, Brian Webster of apolloguide.com, gave it rotten as well. Their summary of their review was "This is the sort of bland adventure that kids will have seen a hundred times before, with not-so-tense near-misses and not-so-exciting chases along the way."

 Songs 
 "It's Not So Hard To Be A Pig"
 "Watch Out Wilbur the Pig!"
 "It's Good To Be Me"
 "Charlotte's Kids"

 Trivia 
 The name of the lamb (Cardigan) is somewhat of a joke as certain characters in the movie want his wool to wear on themselves. This is said because words that mean the same thing as "coat" include jacket, sweater and cardigan.

 References 

 Other websites 





Category:2003 animated movies
Category:American animated movies
Category:American family movies
Category:2000s English-language movies
Category:2003 comedy-drama movies
Category:2003 American fantasy movies
Category:2003 musical movies
Category:2003 American adventure movies
Category:American musical fantasy movies
Category:American road movies
Category:American sequel movies
Category:American comedy-drama movies
Category:2000s buddy comedy movies
Category:American coming-of-age movies
Category:Movies about spiders
Category:Movies based on books
Category:Movies set on farms
Category:Paramount Pictures movies
Category:Universal Pictures movies
Category:2000s fantasy-comedy movies
Category:American fantasy-comedy movies
Category:2000s sequel movies
Category:Direct-to-video movies
Category:2000s coming-of-age movies
Category:Movies about pigs