Charlotte's Web: That's Some...Unbalanced Friendship!

We are feeling terrific about this episode! This week we discuss Hanna-Barbera's most un-Hanna-Barbera-like movie: Charlotte's Web from 1973.

Aly talks about the lives of both the author and illustrator of Charlotte's Web: E.B. White and Garth Williams. We manage to get through both of their lives without anything too tragic happening - progress!

Sarrah talks about the road to adapting this movie from the beloved children's book, and how White wasn't super keen on it. He even turned down Disney from doing this picture! This sparks a discussion on adaptation and how to give up your work to other people's ideas.

Our walk-through touches on farm life and people's complicated relationship with meat (please don't send us e-mails, we know), Debbie Reynold's being perfection, and how some friendships just aren't very equal.

So come on down to the farm and check out Zukerman's Famous Pig and his much nicer, more talented, more selfless friend named Charlotte!
Podcast Music By: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

Get ready to feel terrific (or dare we say…radiant?) with today’s episode on Hanna-Barbera’s 1973 movie Charlotte’s Web. It’s a Hanna-Barbera movie that somehow doesn’t feel like a Hanna-Barbera movie.

Aly starts us off once again with two biographies of the author and illustrator that created Charlotte’s Web: E.B. White and Garth Williams. E.B. White was the well known children’s author of books such as Stuart Little and The Trumpeter Swan. Garth Williams did the illustrations for White’s books as well as the art for the Little House on the Prairie series.  Once again, it’s nice to discuss some people whose lives weren’t completely marred by tragedy.

Sarrah comes in with some details on how the adaptation got started, and how White felt about it (spoiler: not great). This then sparked a pretty lengthy discussion between the two of us on adaptation, purists, and how the concept of “not being precious” with work affects both of us in our respective artistic fields.

Our recap has us discussing farm life and people’s complicated relationship to animals and meat (don’t come at us, we live in the Pacific Northwest…we know the drill), debating the potential one-sided-ness of Charlotte and Wilbur’s friendship, and swooning over Debbie Reynolds.

This episode is sweet and to the point, much like the character’s we meet on the farm (except that stupid Goose). So come on down ter the farm and join us as we take a look at Zuckerman’s Famous Pig (and his much more talented and interesting friend who actually does all the work in this story ).

*NOTE: We do recognize that Debbie Reynolds is much more than Carrie Fisher’s mother. She’s had a long and important career of her own, but we felt that some of our audience may not be familiar with said career, and may be more familiar with her name as it was connected to Fisher’s in the more recent, and tragic occurrence of their deaths.

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 Our Sources:

Podcast Music By: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music

IMDb for Charlotte’s Web
Wikipedia Article for Charlotte’s Web
Wikipedia Article for E.B. White
Wikipedia Article for Garth Williams

Biography.com page for E.B. White
Brittanica.com page for E.B. White
Notablebiographies.com page for E.B. White

Mentalfloss.com article on E.B. White

The Annotated Charlotte’s Web. E.B. White. Ilus. Garth Williams. Intro and Notes by Peter F. Neumeyer. HarperCollins. 1994