Daytripper

Did a search and found nothing on this movie. Took my nieces to see it today enjoyed it a great deal. It's really well made and not insufferable for adults to sit through like most family and/or G-rated films. I wanted to see it because it was the first book I read as a kid. I personally think it's one of the best films this season. I hope it gets the attention it deserves. Thumbs way up here.

Filmmaker

Saw it tonight with my wife and we both loved it. Still not sure how to explain to my peers that, as a 34 year-old male, I was the one who wanted to see it, but I'm glad I did. You know a movie is doing something right if it can get you to tear up for a CGI spider...

breadlymoore

Someone please explain the need to put farting gags in this film?

For many reasons beside that, I hated the thing...

Daytripper

Because almost every film geared towards kids these days has them (?) Not advocating it by any means. And yes, this film certainly didn't need it. But how on earth could you hate this movie? Please explain.

mllefoo

My only problem with the film is Dakota Fanning. She is a soulless-eyed freak and I cannot stand her.

Apart from that, I'd probably see the movie.

Daytripper

I didn't hate Fanning until "War of the Worlds". Now? I can't stand to watch anything with her. But oddly enough, she's turns in a very un-Fanning performance in this. Which I did read in several reviews. I didn't believe it at the time. But she was actually not painful in this. Also very effective in this film was Julia Roberts. Who is also hit or miss with me.

Cameron

I love Dakota. I love the story. Wasn't a big fan of the movie. I saw it on Christmas day with my wife and daughter. it isn't awful, just didn't have a lot of heart about it. None of the charachters seemed to develop, it was of a "look at the star voices we have" as opposed to any of the farm animals stealing the show (Buscemi excluded, as his part was wonderful).

Filmmaker

You know, cows fart. A fair amount. If anything, CHARLOTTE'S WEB should be given a begrudging nod for having a more realistic reason for its fart gags than most kids' fare (there aren't many other ways that cows could teach a dirty rat a lesson). Oh, and conversely from Cameron, I appreciated how the character of Fern was tied throughout the narrative much more in this film than in the original book. If the farm animals were (arguably) not given enough development (which I'd probably only agree with in terms of the horse), the trade out is that Fern and her family are given far more, and I think that made for a solid trade.

breadlymoore

That's an interesting rationalization of a terrible kid flick trend that usually denotes laziness in scripting and direction.

We'll agree to disagree.

But thank you for the new sig.

Filmmaker

I'm not rationalizing the trend of fart jokes (most human-based) in most of the fodder that passes for childrens' movies these days, just the light use of it in CHARLOTTE'S WEB by a creature that has been considered in the real world as a threat to the f---in' environment because of their flatulence. So I say again: cows fart. A lot. It would arguably be bad scriptwriting to act like they don't.

breadlymoore

Real world? You do understand that animals don't speak english, right?

I think this is the last film we should be discussing real world concerns about.

Filmmaker

Wow. Just...wow.

Cameron

I thought the human charachters were off the mark. While they did try to flesh out her mother, with the doctor...I never saw that she was concerned about her child as much, as she was worried she was a weirdo. The Father in the barn with a knife isn't nearly as concerning as Fern asking her mother at the breakfast table "Where’s Papa going with that ax?” . Both of the parents seemed younger than I had imagined, and it honestly reminded me of Smallville (as thats the same feeling I have always had about those parents) even though i do not regularly watch the show.

They didn't go into how Luvry made the crate and painted it green and gold. Instead they used him to frame the words in the web with a dropped bucket of pig slop... While I understand that it is not needed storytelling to get Wilbur from the farm to the fair, it would have given them a little more time to show us that charachter doing something and explain his relation to the family.

We spend more time with Alec Baldwin as the doctor than we do with the uncle...

Also, I couldn't tell what era they were shooting for...while I understand that the story is somewhat timeless, the 70's trucks, and little nit pick things about the set design at the fair rubbed a bit wrong. The book was released in 1952. E.B. White had moved to the farm in 1938 (at the age of 39) until his death in 1985. In 1948 he wrote "Death of a Pig" which appeared in Atlantic Monthly. This became the basis for his childrens book Charllotes Web, meaning that his thoughts were pre-52. And his recollection of farm living was 1938 and on. Seems that was the time frame used in the books, but the movie blurred that...


all in all, I don't hate the movie...and I have never been one to pass on something just because the book is diffrent. (I prefer Kubrick's version of the shining to the book.) Just seemed mediocre at best, and I prefer the 1973 Hanna Barbera tale more than this one.

Filmmaker

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe we may have the first time in history where Alec Baldwin and Beau Bridges were confused with one another. Cameron, is it possible you didn't like the film because you weren't really paying attention to it?

Cameron

haha forgive me... glengary glenn ross was on while i was typing...must have had Baldwin on the mind