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Western Animation / Spider's Web: A Pig's Tale

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Spider's Web: A Pig's Tale is a 2006 (very low-budget) All-CGI Cartoon by Spark Plug Entertainment, better known as the creators of the infamous A Car's Life series. Ostensibly an ersatz of Charlotte's Web (as the DVD cover seemingly implies), the film's actual narrative is almost entirely different, save for the shared species and broad roles of its two main protagonists (a naïve young male pig and a maternal, advice-dispensing female spider). The story revolves around the misadventures of Walt, an impressionable and troublemaking piglet from a dynasty of prize boars who constantly tells lies (often in the form of rap numbers) to get himself out of trouble, much to his mother and his friend Tiffany the Spider's dismay. One day, a snake by the name of Noiman Ja Rahr comes to the barn, and takes Walt (accompanied by Tiffany, fellow spider Crystal and Gilbert, an ambiguously French wasp wishing to be a bee) to Viperwood, a.k.a Hollywood, claiming he has big plans for Walt. Following a tumultuous journey (in which the group is attacked by both an inexplicably animate and predatory TV and silverfish with missile-launching motorcycles), Walt, his insect acquaintances and Ja Rahr arrive in Viperwood. Walt subsequently undergoes a series of disastrous auditions (due to Ja Rahr fabricating his abilities in documentation), leading Ja Rahr to shift tactics and transport an unknowing Walt to the slaughterhouse with the intention of processing him into sausages. The plan backfires, when Tiffany, Crystal and Gilbert arrive, incapacitate Ja Rahr (via the latter's sting) and save Walt from the meat grinder.

Yeah, It's one of those films.


Tropes:

  • Bad Liar: Walt is this with a capital B, which drives the plot.
  • Big Damn Heroes / Just in Time: Tiffany the spider, her friend Crystal (also a spider), and Gilbert the Wasp all arrive and save Walt just as he is about to meet his demise.
  • Disney Death: Both Gilbert the Wasp and Walt.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: After Walt and Noiman do a pump-and-run, the gas station attendant tries to have them killed.
  • The Ditz: Venom, who thinks two triangles make a circle.
  • A Dog Ate My Homework: Inverted; Walt claims that his homework ate the dog.
  • Drives Like Crazy: Noiman. Though since he's a snake, it's surprising he has the manual dexterity to drive at all.
  • Everything Trying to Kill You: Don't you dare try and change the channel on a motel TV, or it will go mad!
  • Explosion Propulsion: When Walt is on an action movie set, a building explodes before he can get out of the way, sending him flying into the air.
  • Fantastic Racism: The horses hate spiders.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: Walt tells his mom the cherry pie was destroyed by aliens. She misses a pie, but she never said it was cherry pie.
  • Informed Ability: Tiffany describes Walt as "talented." But we're never shown what he's talented in.
  • In Name Only: Despite its title, the film bares virtually no resemblance to Charlotte's Web narratively.
  • Mind Screw: Once Walt and his friends leave the farm, a lot of flat-out bizarre events and mishaps unfold.
  • The Mockbuster: Of Charlotte's Web, though the glaring similarities mostly end at the title, protagonists, and initial farm setting.
  • Mood Whiplash: Near the end of the movie, Walt talks about what he’ll do for his next performance. Then we see Ja Rahr turning into the slaughterhouse.
  • Negate Your Own Sacrifice: Gilbert thinks he's giving his life to save Walt by stinging Noiman, only for it to turn out he's actually a wasp, so the sting didn't kill him.
  • Only Sane Man: The spiders Tiffany and Crystal. They're the only ones in the beginning who catch on to Walt's obvious lies, and distrust Ja Rahr from the start and try to urge Walt to go home. There’s also Tiffany’s reaction to Walt claiming his homework ate the dog, with her thinking that story is too ridiculous to even comment on.
  • Random Events Plot: To the point where it seems to be more like a crazed fever dream, and not an actual structured plot.
  • Record Needle Scratch: After Walt says, "OK, Ja Rahr, back to the barnyard!" Ja Rahr asks, "Come again?"
  • Reptiles Are Abhorrent: Three of the snakes. Averted by most of the snakes at Viperwood.
  • Shout-Out: Noiman's car looks like Sparky from A Car's Life, another Spark Plug Entertainment film.
  • Shown Their Work: The Japanese snake speaks in properly spoken and acted Japanese.
  • Show Within a Show: "Paddle Wackier", a quiz show where you get spanked if you get a question wrong.
  • Smug Snake: Noiman Ja Rahr is a literal example of this trope.
  • Spoken Word in Music: The entirety of Walt's "song", as he tries to explain how his mother's pie went missing. And then he comes up with another one to explain how the ghost broke the pot, and one for the homework eating the dog, and finally, one for his own barnyard rap, "Barnyard Roots". And ALL the "songs" have the same tune and rhythm.
  • Stock Footage: The same clip is used three times when the baby alien is stuck on the roof (them crying really annoyingly that they don't want to come down); also, when Walt and the others are driving the car, it is the same footage (until Venom is introduced).
  • Stylistic Suck: The movie Walt tries out for is... not very good.
  • Team Mom: Tiffany is very protective of Walt and for good reason.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: DO. THEY. EVER. The trailer for this movie spoils the entire movie! The only thing they don't spoil is whether Walt will die or not, but it's SO painfully obvious that you might as well not even watch the movie.
  • Valley Girl: Noiman's friend Venom talks like this.
  • Wham Shot: As Noiman takes Walt to what he claims will be the pig's big break, we see the building they're entering has a slaughterhouse sign.
  • What Measure Is a Non-Cute?: Played straight and averted. The villains are snakes, but the movie also shows that most of the snakes in Viperwood are actually nice people. Moreover, Walt is helped out by two spiders and a wasp.
  • What the Hell Is That Accent?: Tiffany's accent is seemingly intended to be a kind of Yorkshire dialect (possibly similar to that from the Leeds area), but it comes out as something more Jamaican or Scottish, somewhere in between. Her friend Crystal likewise alternates between southeastern American dialects depending on the scene.
    • Gilbert's accent similarly fluctuates between (incredibly broad) approximations of French and German between scenes, accidentally yielding a kind of composite somewhere between Inspector Closeau and Dexter vocally.

 
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