Television animation studio Hanna-Barbera (The Flintstones, The Jetsons) made the big-screen jump with this adaptation of the E.B. White children’s classic. It’s fair to say that the best stuff — including an honest consideration of mortality — comes directly from White’s plot and prose, while the additions (plaintive songs, an annoying gosling named Jeffrey) fail to add much. Even as a kid I wasn’t a fan of Hanna-Barbera’s coloring-book style of character animation, which is carried over here in the depictions of Wilbur, Charlotte, Fern and the rest of the barnyard gang. But the background scenery, especially during the lovely opening credits, has a pencil-sketch impressionism that’s more in line with Garth Williams’ original illustrations. Ultimately, Charlotte’s Web is too potent a tale of life and death, as first learned by observing life on a farm, to keep even this so-so effort from ringing true.
