Since its publication in 1952, EB White's children's book has sold 45 million copies and been translated into 23 languages.

Now it's been translated to celluloid. The film adaptation skilfully combines CG animation with real animals, and has various Hollywood luminaries voicing the livestock who share the farmhouse stables with the piglet, Wibur, who may become a dinner table dish if someone doesn't look after him.

The saviour, you may remember if you've read the book, is a spider called Charlotte (voiced by Julia Roberts), the sight of which makes a grown horse faint but who turns out to be the real heroine of the piece, hopefully proving to children how silly it is to be frightened, as I still am, of creepie crawlies with eight legs.

The film, directed by Gary Winick, is cleverly done, investing its animals with a Disney-like capacity to behave like humans which doesn't quite match White's imaginative flair.

But it works well enough on its own terms and manages a quiet sincerity that overcomes its lack of real sophistication.

Apart from Roberts, there's Steve Buscemi, Oprah Winfrey, Cedric the Entertainer, Kathy Bates and John Cleese as the farmyard herd, and I can't imagine why Robert Redford has been cast as the fainting horse.

Never mind, if you can identify all the voices before the credits roll up, you are a better man than I.