Lets not forget Earl Hamner wrote the adaptation for the animated movie of Charlottes Web. Another Family Favorite! (Below from Earl Hamners website earlhamner) High on my list of literary heroes is E. B. White. I had revered him from the first time I read his tribute to my favorite city in the world, New York. It was called Here Is New York, and it is a loving celebration of the city as a former citizen views it from a room at the Algonquin Hotel on a hot summer weekend. I had always loved the city from afar, but when I moved there in 1949 I saw it through Mr. Whites eyes and it enriched my perception of the city giving it depth, color, substance, and reference. Being a fan of E. B. White, I had also read his books for children. High on my list was his classic Charlottes Web, with its imaginative story of love, friendship, sacrifice, and regeneration. Charlotte is a spider, and she saves the life of Wilbur the pig by writing a description of Wilbur in her web. She tells the world that he is humble, radiant, and terrific -- and her ploy works. When my agent called and said I had been nominated to write the adaptation for the animated movie, I said, Ill write it for nothing! This notion did not appeal to my agent, Lee Rosenberg, so he negotiated a suitable fee and I went to work on the script. I have written adaptations of prose work to film in radio, television, and feature film; and my one guiding principle has always been to keep the integrity of the original writers work. More so than with any other project, I felt this obligation to E. B. White. Paramount Studios had bought the film rights to the book and they farmed the actual work of producing the animated film to Hanna-Barbera, a production company known best for such animated television staples as Scooby-Doo, The Flintstones, and Huckleberry Hound. Most of the companys work featured limited animation rather than the richer, more sophisticated animation being done by Disney. Still Joe Barbera and Bill Hanna extended themselves for Charlottes Web, and the animation is on par with the work of any of the other animation studios. I was told years later that Mr. White and his wife wanted the score to be based on music by Mozart. The studio made a choice that was probably wiser and selected Bob and Dick Sherman, who had recently written the memorable score for Mary Poppins. The brothers created unforgettable songs for Charlotte, from the catchy A Fair is a Veritable Schmorgasboard-orgasboard-orgasboard to the joyous I Can Talk! and the nostalgic Mother Earth and Father Time. If the gods had been kind in the selection of the Sherman Brothers, they were equally generous in the casting of the actors to give voice to the animated characters. Debbie Reynolds was Charlotte. She gave depth and compassion even to a creature that declares in the script that she loves blood. Yet the final act in her life is to save the life of her friend, a pig. Paul Lynde gave a performance that was outrageous in its invention and daring, totally illustrative of the craven character of Templeton the rat. Henry Gibson brought a naivety and sweetness to Wilbur the pig, who learns to his horror that his destiny is to be slaughtered. The casting of the distinguished actress Agnes Moorehead was inspired, and no one who has seen the movie will ever forget her multi-syllable versions of Mr. Whites dialogue devised for the Goose. And so director Iwao Takamoto assembled a good script, some fine music, some excellent actors, and a group of dedicated artists together and the humble, radiant, terrific book became a humble, radiant, and terrific movie!
Posted on: Mon, 06 Oct 2014 19:13:15 +0000
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