E.B. White hoped that Charlotte’s Web on film would celebrate life. Above is Mother Pig and Baby Wilbur from the storyboards that were prepared for Gene Deitch’s planned production. All images by Mirko Hanák.

An excerpt from Gene Deitch’s How to Succeed in Animation (Don’t Let a Little Thing Like Failure Stop You!).

Read the beginning of the correspondence between Gene Deitch and legendary author E. B. White. The exchange continues…

Answering this, Andy both agrees with and skillfully tempers my probings. I am learning the basics from him!

E.B. WHITE
NORTH BROOKLIN, MAINE

January 12, 1971

Dear Gene:

It was generous of you to send me such a detailed report of your scheme for the picture. This afternoon I sent you a few more photographs — they were taken in Canada, but they are close to New England in form and spirit.

You said in your letter (about my script) “how I wish I had the whole thing.” You have everything I wrote; there wasn’t any more.

I’ve studied your letter very carefully and find myself in sympathy, or agreement, with most of it. I do hope, though, that you are not planning to turn Charlotte’s Web into a moral tale. It is not that at all. It is, I think, an appreciative story, and there is quite a difference. It celebrates life, the seasons, the goodness of the barn, the beauty of the world, the glory of everything. But it is essentially amoral, because animals are essentially amoral, and I respect them, and I think this respect is implicit in the tale. I discovered, quite by accident, that reality and fantasy make good bedfellows. I discovered that there was no need to tamper in any way with the habits and characteristics of spiders, pigs, geese and rats. No “motivation” is needed if you remain true to life and true to the spirit of fantasy.

I would hate to see Charlotte turned into a “dedicated” spider: she is, if anything, more the Mehitabel type-toujours gai. She is also a New Englander, precise and disciplined. She does what she does. Perhaps she is magnifying herself by her devotion to another, but essentially she is just a trapper....

As for Templeton, he’s an old acquaintance and I know him well. He starts as a rat and he ends as a rat — the perfect opportunist and a great gourmand. I devoutly hope that you are not planning to elevate Templeton to sainthood....