Charlotte’s Web

E.B. White’s famous children’s story of the spider (voice by Julia Roberts) and her unlikely friendship with a lonely pig (filmed before in 1973 as a wretched animated musical, albeit fondly remembered by many ’70s kids) comes to the screen once again. This time, as directed by Gary Winick and written by Susannah Grant and Karey Kirkpatrick, everything goes miraculously right. Winick and company render White’s gentle tale with the same unaffected whimsy that made Babe such a winner, and the whole movie (including Danny Elfman’s bucolic score) is suffused with the golden warmth of childhood fondly remembered. Live actors include Dakota Fanning, Kevin Anderson, Essie Davis and Beau Bridges, while animal voices are supplied by (among others) Steve Buscemi, Oprah Winfrey, John Cleese and Robert Redford.