The children's book Charlotte's Web by E. B. White was first adapted as an animated film in 1973. It was produced by Hanna-Barbera and Sagittarius Productions and released by Paramount. Its screenplay was written by Earl Hamner, Jr. (The Waltons) and music by The Sherman Brothers (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mary Poppins), and it featured the voices of Debbie Reynolds as Charlotte, Paul Lynde as Templeton, Henry Gibson as Wilbur, and Agnes Moorehead as the Goose. The film was reasonably well-reviewed by critics (74% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes), though endured some complaints regarding the quality of the animation and the music. Notably, E. B. White himself was disappointed by the film, scrutinizing its "jolly songs" as detrimental to his narrative's tone and pacing. This did not stop it from becoming a popular success, enjoying strong popularity on VHS and television.

A noticeably Lighter and Softer Direct-to-Video sequel titled Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure was released in 2003 by Paramount and Universal, with animation production handled by the latter. Set a year after the original film's conclusion, the film features Wilbur (now a surrogate father figure to Charlotte's daughters Joy, Nellie and Arania) befriending Cardigan, a literal Black Sheep who is ostracized by his herd.

Some tropes weaved into this Charlotte's Web:

• Adaptation Expansion:
  • The 1973 film adds scenes that flesh out Henry Fussy as a nerd with an overbearing mother, who eventually loosens up and starts acting and dressing his age (and even loses his glasses) after a visit to his grandfather, leading Fern to "suddenly see him with new eyes." It also gives Wilbur another inseparable friend, Jeffrey the gosling, though he disappears without explanation after Wilbur leaves for the fair.
  • The 1973 film also adds in a few scenes that were not in the book, such as the goose encouraging Wilbur to talk for the first time the night he arrives at the barn, and Wilbur almost running away after Charlotte's daughters leave.
• Adaptational Heroism: Templeton is more of a likable Jerk with a Heart of Gold in this film adaptation, especially given that he's voiced by Paul Lynde, whereas in the original book he is utterly self-centered and amoral.
• Adaptation Deviation:
  • The scene where the baby spiders are given their names is slightly altered from the story. In the book, Joy gets her name because Wilbur was "trembling with joy"; in the movie, Wilbur sees Joy dangling and trembling on her dragline and she says she's "trembling with joy", and Wilbur gives Joy her name.
  • An extra scene was added to Wilbur's depression in the end after the baby spiders fly away: he attempts to run away because he's had enough, but then the ram tells him three of the spiders have stayed, when in the book, he finds out three of the spiders have stayed himself.
  • In the book, Charlotte dies alone after Wilbur leaves the fair. In the movie, Wilbur witnesses her death prior to leaving, albeit Charlotte intentionally hides herself out of sight so Wilbur can't see her die.
• Adaptation Explanation Extrication: In the book, it's explicitly stated that Fern can hear the animals speaking in English. In the film, while Fern does seem to understand what the animals are going through, it's hard to tell if Fern understands what the animal noises mean, or if she can hear them talking.
• Adapted Out:
  • The book has a scene where Fern's mother Nancy visits a psychiatrist named Dr. Dorian, having been concerned about her daughter frequently visiting Homer's barn, and how Fern claims that she can hear the animals talking. The scene with the psychiatrist is nowhere to be found in the animated film, and it's left ambiguous if Fern can understand the animals or not.
  • Another scene from the book that didn't make it into the animated adaptation is when Wilbur busts out of his pen with the geese urging him to be free. Though it did eventually end up in the live-action adaptation (along with the Dorian scene).
  • Among the characters, the Gander, the Goose's mate and father of her goslings, is omitted.
• Ambiguous Situation: Are Wilbur and his friends Nearly Normal Animals that only Fern can hear talking, or Talking Animals that Masquerade as normal animals around everyone except Fern?
• Animation Bump: While still not quite Disney animation, the film's more expressive and fluid animation is otherwise a testament to what Hanna-Barbera's artists could do with the budget and schedule of a feature film, and easily distinguished from the kind of Limited Animation often found in the TV shows they were producing at the same time.
• Anti-Villain: The Zuckermans, who intend to kill Wilbur for food. But they're farmers that are just doing their jobs, and they don't know that Wilbur is sentient. It's also shown that they're a loving family who care about each other, and it only takes a few "miracles" and a first-place ribbon at a fair to convince them to spare Wilbur.
• Artistic License – Animal Care: In both the 1973 version and the book (both set just a few years after the end of World War II), Wilbur's refusal to eat earns him a spoonful of sulfur and molasses shoved down his throat. An old mountain cure, this "spring tonic" was believed to wake up the blood after the long winter while also serving as a laxative. Later medical science would confirm that while sulfur does have a number of medicinal uses, it isn't something humans or animals should be ingesting. Eating sulfur can cause diarrhea rather than work as a laxative, and it can also cause burning in the lower intestine.
• Artistic License – Arachnids: Charlotte has antennae, two eyes, and a mouth like that of a vertebrate. Spiders don't have antennae, typically have eight eyes (though this varies by species), and their mouths look and act nothing like that of a vertebrate animal.
• Award-Bait Song: "Mother Earth and Father Time", sung twice by Charlotte, once to Wilbur as a lullaby and once by getting a Dark Reprise when she dies. The song is about both how The World Is Just Awesome and how time is always marching forward. The lyrics of the song also say that life is a blessing and a gift, even though it may be far too short to be fully enjoyed. It's portrayed as far more poignant with the final lyric, "how very special are we for just a moment to be part of life's eternal rhyme", also being the last thing that Charlotte says before she dies.
• Babies Ever After: Although Charlotte dies and most of her offspring leave the farm, three of her daughters remain. Also, the ending of the 1973 film brings a host of new babies to the farm animals.
• Baby's First Words: Though not a baby, Wilbur is encouraged to talk for the first time by the goose (his first word was his own name), and he eventually sings about it. Note that this was not in the book itself, where Wilbur could already talk upon arrival.
• Balloon Belly: Templeton after eating at the fair on the "smorgasboard" of food when the crowds leave. He's so big that he can hardly move, and maintains this belly even after the fair is over.
• Big Brother Bully: Fern's brother Avery, though not exactly a bully, is just rather obnoxious and mischievous. He tries to catch Charlotte for his collection, only to be stopped by the rotten egg breaking. Though Avery still has a good heart.
• Birth-Death Juxtaposition: Just like in the book, Charlotte passes away, but Templeton saves her egg sac with 514 baby spiders which hatches the following spring; only three of them (Joy, Arania, and Nellie) stick with Wilbur in the final scene.
• Bittersweet Ending: Charlotte dies soon after the fair, with Wilbur able to hear her Final Speech and say his goodbyes to her before she dies. Thus, the "miracles" of the messages in her webs also stop coming. Also, Fern doesn't visit Wilbur as often as she used to as she grows up. However, Charlotte's children live on because Wilbur saved her egg sac, along with generations of Charlotte's descendants. Also, Wilbur wins first prize at the fair, ensuring that the Zuckermans allow Wilbur to "live to a ripe old age" without the threat of being slaughtered for food hanging over his head.
• Bribed With Food: Usually the only way to get Templeton to agree to anything is to bribe him with food. Even when Templeton is told that Charlotte is about to die at the fair and that saving her egg sac is the last thing they can do for her, Templeton still doesn't care. It takes Wilbur promising to let Templeton eat first before the rat agrees to retrieve the egg sac.
  • Overlaps with Shared Fate Ultimatum in the case of finding additional words for Charlotte to put in her web - he has to be reminded that no more Wilbur means no more food in the pig trough, which would mean he almost certainly starves to death.
• Brutal Honesty: The Central Theme of both the book and its adaptations is that being honest may be harsh, but it's still better than lying to people, even if the lie has good intentions. Charlotte says she sees no point in withholding unpleasant information from a friend, representing an especially noble variety of honesty. Templeton, while also honest, is rather overt about his selfish motives for what he does, representing a rather less-than-noble variety of At Least I Admit It. In the book and animated adaptation, the sheep represents a sort of middle ground, telling Wilbur about what farms do to pigs — slaughter them for human food. And Wilbur is going to meet the same fate.
• Bullet Seed: After Templeton crashed into a watermelon, he spits out the seeds before he eats it from the inside.
• Butt-Monkey: Lurvy, the Zuckermans' farm assistant, is very clumsy, frequently spilling some of Wilbur's slop before he gets anywhere near the pig pen.
• Canon Foreigner: Jeffery the gosling was created for this version of the film, and did not appear in the book.
• Central Theme: The importance of honesty. The book and the film argue that it's better to tell an unpleasant truth rather than let people live with a comforting lie. Charlotte and the sheep are brutally honest that Wilbur is going to be put to slaughter for his meat, and Charlotte says she sees no point in withholding such important information from a friend. Meanwhile, the people who lie to themselves (Wilbur included at the start of the book) keep Moving the Goalposts in order to try and maintain their self-delusions, which just keeps getting them into more trouble.
• Chekhov's Gun: The rotten egg which Templeton has been hoarding saves Charlotte's life when Avery accidentally breaks it while trying to catch her.
• Children Are Tender-Hearted: Mr. Arable is about to kill the newborn Wilbur because he's the runt of the litter. The sobbing Fern implores him not to go through with it, claiming that even though Wilbur's a piglet, he shouldn't be slaughtered just for being smaller than the others. Mr. Arable relents and lets her keep Wilbur.
• Comically Missing the Point: Mr. Zuckerman describes how a message praising his pig has mysteriously appeared in the middle of a spider web, and concludes that they have "no ordinary pig." His wife disagrees:
  Edith Zuckerman: It seems to me you're a little off. It seems to me we have no ordinary spider.
  Homer Zuckerman: Oh, no, it's the pig that's unusual. It says so, right there in the middle of the web.
• Dark Reprise: In the 1973 film, "Mother Earth and Father Time" returns in a more somber manner as Charlotte faces her imminent death. The final lyric, "how very special are we for just a moment to be part of life's eternal rhyme", is also the last thing that Charlotte says before she dies, with the film having Charlotte fade from view as this happens to make it more poignant — her moment as part of life's eternal rhyme is up.
• Deadpan Snarker: Paul Lynde makes Templeton this in the 1973 film by making him constantly try to undermine things that Charlotte says. Whereas Charlotte is straightforward with her honesty (sometimes bluntly so), Templeton couches his words in sarcasm and snark. This is because Templeton views the world much more cynically than Charlotte does — both are pests, but Templeton is treated as such by both the humans and the animals, so he figures that he may as well lean into it.
• Death Glare: During the meeting, Charlotte shoots a disinterested Templeton several of these. He unwisely ignores them.
• Death Song: The second version of "Mother Earth and Father Time", from the 1973 animated film, is a Dark Reprise which Charlotte sings as she dies. The last line is framed as poignant, as Charlotte's final words are "how very special are we for just a moment to be part of life's eternal rhyme" before she fades from view of both Wilbur and the viewer.
• Disappeared Dad: Charlotte has 514 children and their father is neither mentioned nor seen. Given the courtship habits of Araneus cavaticus, this is probably for the best.
• Disney Acid Sequence: The scene where Templeton sneaks around the fairgrounds at night in the '73 film. This isn't actually too far off the mark from what actually happens.
• Disneyfication: This is what the original author felt the 1973 movie had subjected his story to. While Charlotte's death still happens and the themes of life being too short are still present, it's also got a Disney Acid Sequence at the fairgrounds and a song about how "we've got lots in common where it really counts" between the farm animals.
• Down on the Farm: A lot of action is set on two different farms, the Arable's and Zuckerman's. Wilbur also manages to avoid being killed for his meat by winning first prize at a state fair.
• Dreadful Musician: Henry Fussy is shown practicing the violin in his introductory scene. His violin music is shrill and off-key. It's somewhat justified in that Henry is a beginner and does not enjoy playing the violin. Henry feels much better later on after his grandfather accidentally breaks his violin.
• Dying Alone: Averted with this version of Charlotte's death, unlike in the book or the 2006 film. Here, Wilbur is with her as she dies just before the humans take him home. While Charlotte intentionally hides in the barn's rafters so Wilbur only hears her die instead of seeing it, Wilbur knows she's there.
• Face Death with Dignity: Charlotte, naturally. She'd already laid her egg sack, she accomplished her goal of saving Wilbur, and she knew she'd die of old age before ever getting back to the farm. Though she gets a chance to give Wilbur a proper goodbye with a Dark Reprise of "Mother Earth and Father Time" as her Final Speech, fading from view in the rafters as she passes on.
• Faint in Shock: Wilbur is even more prone to this than in the book.
  • He faints when Lurvey force-feeds him a sulphur-and-molasses tonic.
  • When he first learns that the humans are planning to kill him for meat, and then again when he overhears them talking about it.
  • He almost faints again at the mention of "crunchy bacon," but Charlotte stops it by saying, "Wilbur, I forbid you to faint!" causing Wilbur to snap back up.
• Final Speech: Charlotte's last words are at the end of a Dark Reprise of "Mother Earth and Father Time", her voice gradually fading to a whipser just before passing away. Wilbur says her name a few times, but after getting no response, Wilbur realizes that Charlotte is dead, and breaks down crying.
  Charlotte: How very special are we... For just a moment to be... Part of life's eternal rhyme. (Charlotte fades from view on the rafters)
  Wilbur: Charlotte? Charlotte?! CHARLOTTE! (Wilbur breaks down in tears)
• Food Porn: Double Subverted with the discarded food from the county fair. Not appetizing at first glance, but it is if you're a rat. Templeton takes full advantage of it, to the point he gets a Balloon Belly.
• A Friend in Need: Charlotte's only real motivation for helping Wilbur: he's her friend and he's in danger, so she'll do everything she can to save him.
• Friend to All Living Things:
  • Fern, at least until she starts to "grow up" and care more about Henry Fussy than animals. She throws Wilbur a "birthday party" once he turns two weeks old, and comes to visit him after he's taken away to a farm. However, part of the Bittersweet Ending is being told that Fern gradually visits Wilbur less and less as time goes on.
  • Charlotte loves all the animals of the farm, except to the insects she eats. She counts it as just doing what she has to do to survive, and that she needs to eat insects to live. It's part of her charactertization of Brutal Honesty.
  • Wilbur's tenderness to everything that lives is what makes Charlotte like him — he's the only person who didn't immediately assume she was a bad person just because she was a spider.
• Gender Flip: The Old Sheep is a ewe in the book, but a ram in this film.
• Happy Circus Music:
  • Played for Laughs with "A Fair is a Veritable Smorgasbord." The music itself has an elegant carnival waltz tune, but the lyrics are very inelegant. In the song, the Goose convinces Templeton the rat to go to the fair so he can chow down on all the food left behind when the fair closes. "That's where a rat can glut, glut, glut, glut" is not how most people would happily describe a carnival.
  • Later in the movie, the song plays again, this time in a fast-paced madcap style as Templeton raids the fair for leftover food during closing hours, then turns slow and intoxicated towards the end as Templeton gets fat from eating and enters a state of bliss in a Disney Acid Sequence.
• Happy Flashback: Before Charlotte passes away, we get a montage of flashbacks of Wilbur's whole life throughout the movie, from being saved by Fern to his time on the farm and winning a medal, as she thinks of the wonderful times they've had now that nothing can harm him.
• Hiccup Hijinks: Templeton, after his overeating at the fair, gets these mid-musical number and they last him up to the next morning.
• Impact Silhouette: During the Gluttony Montage, Templeton crashed into a watermelon. It leaves a Templeton-shaped hole in it. He spits out the seeds and eats the watermelon from the inside, leaving no trace of the Templeton-shaped hole.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Charlotte's facial features in the animated film seem to vaguely resemble those of Debbie Reynolds, who provided her voice. The same can be said for Templeton and his voice actor Paul Lynde.
• Jerkass Has a Point: When Charlotte is near death, Wilbur orders Templeton to help him get Charlotte's egg sac. When Templeton is slow to comply, Wilbur insults Templeton by accusing him of never thinking of anyone but himself. Templeton is greatly offended by this, feeling that his previous actions — including attempting to find words for Charlotte's web — should have earned him more goodwill from the animals, especially Wilbur since Templeton indirectly saved Wilbur's life. Though Templeton's words are quite harsh, Wilbur concedes that Templeton has a good point.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: It's buried quite deeply in Templeton's gluttonous body in this adaptation. Templeton has to be Bribed With Food just to get Charlotte's egg sack to ensure she has a legacy before she dies. But at the same time, Templeton also hangs his head in sorrow upon learning that Charlotte has passed away.
• Language Barrier: Downplayed. The animals either can't or choose not to talk to anyone except Fern.
• Magnum Opus: Charlotte describes her egg sac as her magnum opus, the finest thing she has ever made. Or, as it turns out, will ever make, as she dies, as spiders do, shortly after producing it.
• Mayfly–December Friendship: Wilbur ends up experiencing this with Charlotte, as she ends up passing away just as he's become a full-grown pig. Spiders only live a short amount of time, especially compared to pigs. Part of the Dark Reprise of "Mother Earth and Father Time" is the fact that while life is short, it's still special for the time one has to live through it.
• Meaningful Name:
  • Fern's surname is Arable, and she lives on a farm. The land on a farm (especially that used in growing crops) is called arable land.
  • Charlotte's full name is Charlotte A. Cavatica. She is also a barn spider, and the scientific name for a barn spider is Araneus cavaticus. When her daughter learns that her mother's middle initial was "A", she decides to name herself Aranea, also part of the Latin term for Charlotte's type.
  • Templeton. When the goose tells him that a fair is a rat's paradise, he says, "What you're saying tempts me."
• Messy Pig: Type 2—Sanitary Swine. Or as sanitary as he can be, considering he sleeps on an enormous pile of manure. Played with when Wilbur has to go to the fair. The sheep advises Wilbur to struggle with being put in a crate. Wilbur's objection that it'll make him messy (after he'd just had a buttermilk bath by Edith Zuckerman) is overruled by the sheep warning him that if he doesn't struggle, they'll assume something is wrong with him and leave him behind.
• Narrator: Rex Allen narrates the film.
• No Body Left Behind: Charlotte edges herself off the top of the roof rafter in her final moments, so that Wilbur (and the audience) doesn't see her pass away.
• Only Sane Man: In the animated version, Edith Zuckerman is the only human to point out that a spiderweb with "SOME PIG" woven into it is more indicative that the spider is special, not the pig. Her husband immediately dismisses the idea.
• Parental Bonus:
  • In the animated film, the "I got lucky" facial expression Templeton has on his face when he and his mate and his offspring walk by. The satisfied chuckle he gives just screams "Behold, the evidence of my conquest!" For those who know who Paul Lynde was, it's more "Who knew?"
  • After Templeton returns from his night of overeating at the fairgrounds, Wilbur informs him that Charlotte has laid 514 eggs. Templeton's response? "This has been a night!"
• The Power of Friendship: Charlotte works hard to save Wilbur's life out of nothing but a desire to help a friend. The other animals on the farm eventually pick up on this, and help Wilbur for the same reason. It also helps Templeton reform from a straight Jerkass to a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, as Templeton does things for Charlotte and Wilbur that go against his self-admitted selfish nature, such as getting Charlotte's egg sac and helping her find new words to help save Wilbur.
• Please Wake Up: Wilbur calls out to Charlotte when she stops singing. He repeats her name three times, goes Oh, Crap! when it sinks in, and starts crying.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: The end of Charlotte's Death Song, as her words are slowly being reduced to a whisper before she succumbs.
  Charlotte: How very special are we... For just a moment... To be... Part of life's... eternal... rhyme. (passes away)
• Puppy Love: Fern starts viewing Henry as a date instead of a playmate, and her interests start to shift away from Wilbur to him. Charlotte tells Wilbur that's how it should be, despite his jealousy.
• Recycled Animation: Owing to the very low animation budget (by feature film standards, anyway), this Hanna-Barbera trope happens here and there. One point of notice is that the footage used for the crowds pulling in is the same for the first two occasions where Charlotte spins a message into her web.
• The Runaway: Wilbur almost does this when Charlotte's daughters take off, before the ram reveals that three of them decided to stay.
• The Runt at the End: Wilbur. This is why Fern takes a shine to him.
• Say My Name: In the 1973 film version, after Charlotte passes away, Wilbur says her name a few times to try and get her talking again. There is no response.
  Wilbur: Charlotte? Charlotte?! CHARLOTTE! (breaks down in tears)
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Charlotte (at least from Wilbur's perspective). Likely as not, her vocabulary introduced a lot of young readers to words like "languishing", "radiant", "versatile", "salutations", and "magnum opus".
• Somewhere, an Entomologist Is Crying: Charlotte has antennae like an insect, which spiders normally do not have.
• Speech Impediment: The g-g-goose has a rather pronounced stutter-utter-utter.
• Spiders Are Scary: Averted. Charlotte is the nicest spider ever, using The Power of Friendship to help save Wilbur from being prematurely slaughtered. That being said, Charlotte does still catch insects for food to drink their blood, but that's because it's what she has to do to survive.
• Sultry Belly Dancer: While an admittedly small detail, the fair that Zuckerman and his family attend to show off Wilbur features a belly dancing exhibit.
• Summoned by Sobbing: When the adults come to take Wilbur back to the farm as he is mourning Charlotte, Fern comes to his side and, knowing why he's sad, kneels aside to comfort him before being loaded into the truck.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Charlotte's message of We Are as Mayflies with the song "Mother Earth and Father Time" doesn't get through to Wilbur until the end of the fair. It takes Charlotte plainly telling Wilbur that she's going to die soon for him to finally get it, which shocks Wilbur into sadness, especially after she passes away in a Dark Reprise.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Templeton, for most of the story, is just an antisocial loner, who really doesn't want to be involved in Charlotte's plan to save Wilbur unless there's something in it for him. However, he delivers an out-of-nowhere Kick the Dog moment towards the end when Wilbur explains to him that Charlotte is dying and asks him to carry her egg sac into the crate. Templeton's response?
  "So it's ol' Templeton to the rescue again, is it? And, what thanks do I get for these services? I would like to know!"
  • It's less out-of-nowhere in the book, where the omniscient narrator tells us early on that "the rat had no morals, no decency, no milk of rodent kindness, no compunctions, no higher feeling, no friendliness, no anything." But in the adaptations, without that passage and with Templeton characterized as more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, it's slightly jarring.
• Translation Convention: In the animals' POV, they speak English, but in the humans' POV, they make realistic animal sounds.
• Triumphant Reprise: "Zuckerman's Famous Pig" returns in a more celebratory manner when Wilbur is offered a medal and Mr. Zuckerman decides to let him live the rest of his life.
• Typewriter Eating: Templeton does this to eat the tiny kernels in the corn on the cob during the second "A Fair Is a Veritable Smorgasbord" musical number.
• Verbal Tic: The geese tend to repeat their own words as they talk.
  Gander: It's my idio-idio-idiosyncrasy.
• We All Die Someday: The message of "Mother Earth and Father Time". While celebrating the fact that The World Is Just Awesome, it also says that Earth and Time "go on dancing their dance" unto eternity. Indeed, Charlotte herself dies in a Dark Reprise of the song after Wilbur wins at the fair.
• We Are as Mayflies: The unspoken reason Charlotte helps Wilbur. She lives only a year, and values the friendship for what little life she will enjoy.
• Wham Line: As the fair is winding down and Wilbur talks about returning to the farm with his medal, Charlotte tells Wilbur this...
  Charlotte: I will not be going back to the barn. [...] I'm done for, Wilbur. In a while, I'll be dead.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After Wilbur returns home from the fair, what happened to Jeffrey, the gosling that wanted to be a pig? Jeffrey's siblings aren't seen either and the Goose is shown hatching a new set of eggs.
• What's In It For Me?: It's a continued theme that Templeton repeatedly asks this question, and is repeatedly answered with very strong incentives. One has to wonder why Templeton hasn't learned to expect it. Only twice is Templeton not threatened— and those are the two final times, first with promises of miles of food at the fair, and last of all when Wilbur promises to let him eat first from his trough for the rest of his life in return for bringing him Charlotte's egg sac.
• White-and-Grey Morality: The heroes are the unambiguously good animals, who say that they've "got lots in common where it really counts" and try to live together. The closest thing this work has to villains are the Zuckermans, and that's only because they don't know that the animals are sentient. They're just doing what they're supposed to do as farmers, and it's shown that they're reasonable people who love and care about each other, meaning that each of them is an Anti-Villain at worst. They're still the central opposing force that Wilbur and the animals have to overcome, since they'll slaughter Wilbur for his meat unless Charlotte and the other animals can find a way to convince the humans that the "miracles" around Wilbur are worth keeping him alive for. Even Templeton, while a Jerkass at times, can still be convinced to be helpful such as being Bribed With Food (or, on two occasions, reminded that if Wilbur dies, then he himself will die from starvation, because he depends on Wilbur's leftovers for most of his food).
• Writers Suck: Averted. The last lines of the book and adaptations are "It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both."
• You Can Talk?: A variation occurs where the talker themselves have the reaction. Wilbur expresses such joy at the idea that he can talk after being taught to do it that he goes into a song afterwards about being able to speak, starting with a cold opening where he states "I can talk. I can talk! I can actually, factually talk!"
• You Dirty Rat!: Templeton is a dirty, gluttonous, selfish Jerkass.
• Your Days Are Numbered: As the Ram explained, Wilbur is going to be killed and turned into a meal at Christmastime, and it's up to Charlotte to save him.

Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure has the following tropes:

• All of the Other Reindeer: Cardigan, a black sheep among white sheep, is made fun of by his herd simply for being different. Cardigan is happy to be a friend of Wilbur since he really means it when he asks if Cardigan would like to play, something the other sheep don't bother with.
• Cock-a-Doodle Dawn: The rooster crows in the morning shortly before Fern wakes up for the county fair.
• Nice, Mean, and In-Between: Nellie, Joy, and Aranea respectively. Nellie is always cutesy and excitable, Joy is bossy and selfish, and Aranea is also caring but more assertive than Nellie.
• Non-Mammalian Hair: Joy, Aranea, and Nellie, all of whom are spiders, have heads of human hair.
• Numbered Sequels: Charlotte's Web 2: Wilbur's Great Adventure clearly says in its title that it's the second Charlotte's Web story.
• Flashback Effects: There are two flashbacks to Wilbur's friendship with Charlotte, both of which are presented in an entirely blue color scheme.
• Tender Tomboyishness, Foul Femininity: Nellie is visibly the tomboy who has a big heart, while Joy is the most feminine who is aloof and bossy.
• Villain Song: Farley the fox, who likes to break into the hen house in Hirsch's farm, sings a song for himself called "It's Good to Be Me" that claims he's glad to be an intellectual with a high IQ.