Is Wilbur the Pig About to Become Bacon?
In the movie Charlotte’s Web (based on the book by E.B. White), the porker is slated for the chopping block—until a barn spider named Charlotte comes to his rescue. Secretly spinning messages such as “Some Pig!” and “Terrific” into her web, Charlotte outsmarts the humans and keeps Wilbur off the breakfast table. National Geographic Kids uncovers what really would be going on at Charlotte’s web site.

Web Master
Charlotte is a graceful acrobat: Attached to her spider silk, she drops onto Wilbur’s snout and later swings across the barn to Ike the horse. Real spiders are just as athletic. Releasing a silk dragline from their spinnerets to keep them attached to their webs, some spiders can bungee jump up to 40 times their body length, then climb right back up the thin, strong-as-steel silk cord.

The Boss of Them
Golly the goose barks orders to help Wilbur escape through a fence and chases Templeton the rat when he steals an egg. Golly is just trying to help, but he sure seems bossy! In real life, geese are bossy beasts. They pinch, honk, stretch out their necks, and flap around. “A dominant male wants to be the boss of everything,” says Don Schrider of the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. “He doesn’t think that even a horse is that much bigger than he is.”

Moo-vie Drool
When Bitsy the cow wakes up from a nap with drool hanging from her mouth, her cow sister, Betsy, tells her to “suck it up,” and Bitsy slurps up the slimy goo. Real cows are big-time slobberers, too. Cows have four compartments in their stomachs. They cough up and rechew their partially digested grass dinner, called cud, before they move it into the next compartment. This creates lots of saliva to help them swallow. Sounds like the ladies could use some extra napkins!

Pig Smarts
When Wilbur discovers a loose board in his fence, he pushes it open with his snout and makes a break for freedom. Would a pig really be smart enough to escape? Yep. Schrider says pigs are as brainy as dogs and often use their snouts as tools to nudge open latches or dig under fences. And though pigs may have a reputation for being lazy, they’re fast runners. So once they’re out, they’re great at avoiding recapture.

'Fraidy Horse
When Ike the horse first sees Charlotte, he screams in terror. When she tells him she drinks her victims’ blood, he passes out! On a real farm, a horse might be scared of a tiny spider, but only if it’s the first time it has seen one. “When horses see anything new, they’re often afraid of it,” Schrider says. “Their first instinct is to run.” And it’s not just spiders—a camera flash or a parked car can also freak out a horse at first.

 Fast Facts:

• Director Gary Winick had to shoot some of the scenes in slow motion because the pig actors were moving too fast. When the slo-mo film was replayed, it looked like the pigs were moving at regular speed.

• A single piglet would grow too fast for the director to film all the scenes needed. That’s why 46 pigs were bred just for the movie. (All the Wilburs “retired” to good homes after filming ended.)