Charlotte's Web (1973)
Henry Gibson: Wilbur
Photos
Quotes
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[at the meeting, Charlotte is looking for a new message to write in her web]
Lamb : How about "Pig Supreme"?
Charlotte : Mmmm... no good. It sounds like a rich dessert.
[Templeton walks past with an apple core towards the trough, and Charlotte glares at Templeton]
Goose : How about terrific, terrific, terrific?
Charlotte : Cut that down to *one* terrific, and it will do nicely. I think "terrific" will impress Zuckerman.
Wilbur : But Charlotte, I'm not terrific.
Charlotte : You're terrific, as far as I am concerned.
[Templeton, while holding an orange peel in his mouth, smacks Wilbur's face with his tail and walks off to the trough]
Charlotte : [after glaring at Templeton] And does anybody know how to spell it?
Goose : I think it's T, double-E, double-R, double-R, double-I, double-F, double-I, double-C, C, C!
Charlotte : [Charlotte's remark, from shock back to the goose] What kind of acrobat do you think I am? It would take me all night to write that.
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Charlotte : The autumn days grow short and cold; / It's Christmas time again. / Then snows of winter slowly melt. / The days grow short, / And then... / He turns the seasons around, / And so she changes... her gown: / Mother Earth... and Father Time.
[words are slowly being reduced to a whisper]
Charlotte : How very special are we... / For just a moment... to be... / Part of life's... eternal... rhyme.
[passes away]
Wilbur : Charlotte? Charlotte?
[realizes]
Wilbur : CHARLOTTE!
[breaks down sobbing]
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[Templeton returns from a night of overeating]
Templeton : [hiccups] I'm back.
[Charlotte and Wilbur glare at him]
Templeton : What a night! Never have I seen such leavings! Everything well ripened, seasoned with the passage of time and the heat of the day... Oh, it was rich, my friends, riiiiiich!
[hiccups]
Charlotte : You ought to be ashamed of yourself. It would serve you right if you had an acute attack of indigestion.
[Templeton hiccups agains and pats his stomach]
Templeton : My stomach can handle anything.
Wilbur : Templeton, if you weren't so dopey, you would have noticed that Charlotte's made an egg sac.
[Templeton gazes toward the ceiling and sees Charlotte's egg sac]
Templeton : [hiccups] Hooray for Charlotte.
Wilbur : She's going to become a mother. For *your* information, there are 514 eggs in that peachy, little sac.
Templeton : [sarcastically] This *has* been a night.
[Templeton crawls over to Wilbur's pen and hiccups again]
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Wilbur : [singing] Isn't it great, that I articulate? / Isn't it grand? That you can understand / I don't honk, I don't *eep*, I don't even squeak or squawk / When I wanna say a-something, I open up and talk, I can talk, I can talk, talk, talk, I can...
Ram : Why don't you keep it down?
Wilbur : I can talk!
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[after the goose's eggs have hatched]
Wilbur : Congratulations! How many are there?
Goose : There are seven.
Charlotte : Seven is a lucky number.
Goose : Luck has nothing to do with it! It was good management and hard work!
Templeton : [looking at a solitary unhatched egg] Why didn't, uh, this one hatch?
Goose : [gloomily] It's a dud, I guess.
Templeton : What are you going to do with it?
Goose : [sternly] You can have it. Roll it away and add it to that nasty collection of yours! Be careful - a rotten egg can be a regular stink bomb!
Templeton : [patting the egg] I know what I'm doing. I handle stuff like this all the time.
[Templeton rolls the egg away and buries it in his hole]
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Wilbur : Are you writers?
Charlotte's daughters : No, but we will be when we grow up.
Wilbur : Then write this in your webs, when you learn: This hallowed doorway was once the home of Charlotte. She was brilliant, beautiful, and loyal to the end. Her memory will be treasured forever.
Joy : Ooh, that would take us a lifetime.
Wilbur : A lifetime. That's what we have.
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Ram : Sheep do not play with pigs.
Wilbur : Why not?
Ram : Oh, it's a matter of status. Sheep, for instance, are highly regarded by Zuckerman, because we furnish him with good quality wool. With pigs, on the other hand, it's just a matter of time.
Wilbur : Time to what?
Ram : Till you're fat enough to kill.
Wilbur : What did you say?
Ram : Oh, everybody knows it. In the fall, you'll be turned into smoked bacon and ham. Just as soon as cold weather sets in, they'll kill you.
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[a fly lands in Charlotte's web]
Charlotte : Just a minute, Wilbur.
[she climbs up and wraps the fly]
Charlotte : He'll make a perfect breakfast for me.
Wilbur : [shuddering] Ooooh. You mean you eat flies?
Charlotte : Why, certainly. I eat anything that gets caught in my web. I have to live, don't I?
Wilbur : [nervously] Why, yes, of course. Do they taste good?
Charlotte : Delicious.
[Wilbur gags in disgust]
Charlotte : Course, I don't really eat them, I drink their blood. I love blood.
Wilbur : [gasps] Oh, please don't say things like that.
Charlotte : Why not? It's true.
Wilbur : But it's cruel.
Charlotte : Well, you can't talk. You have your meals brought to you in a pail. Nobody feeds me. I live by my wits.
Wilbur : It just seems an odd sort of diet.
Charlotte : Do you realize that if I didn't eat them, bugs would get so numerous, they'd destroy the earth? Spiders are really very useful creatures.
