What is it with kids' films and making you love creepy crawlies? Its one way of trying to deter children from pulling wings off daddy-long-legs, but at the same time one does not expect to be emotionally devastated when a cartoon spider dies. Charlottes Web is about a runt pig called Wilbur, who finds out from a unnecessarily mean ram that hes doomed to become bacon. Wilbur starts gets upset (fair) until he hears Charlotte telling him to chin up. Charlotte is a spider living in the rafters of the farm where Wilbur lives, and her positive influence helps them a beautiful friendship. However, this friendship is put in peril when they discover the Wilbur is, in fact, fated for the farmhouse roast. Charlotte begins spinning words into her web detailing Wilbur's worth. Her webs attract publicity meaning that Wilbur is no longer destined for the dinner table. In fairness, its not everyday that a spider tells you to not have a ham sandwich, so Id respect her messages too. After this things all seem OK, and its possible that Wilbur is saved from his ketchup-covered fate, hooray! And then Charlotte dies. After all that. She lays her egg sac and she just dies, leaving Wilbur alone with her eggs. If that didnt make you curl into the foetal position and weep for hours then shame on you. However, Wilbur discovers she didn't leave him completely. He followed Charlottes orders to guard her egg sac, because inside there are 514 spiders (shudder), 3 of which stay with Wilbur when they hatch. This just goes to show how great Charlotte was: three of her children had to stay with Wilbur to even come close to replacing her. That's an ending that needs to be remedied by sitting at the bottom of the shower and crying for a few days. Like this list? Who have we missed? Let us know in the comments section below.
