In the opening scene from Charlotte’s Web, Fern confronts her father as he is about to kill a runty pig. She wants her father to let her take care of the pig instead. In the book, Fern cries and pleads with her father. In the movie, she insists her father do as she wills, saying I won’t let you…

The contrast here is subtle; most people wouldn’t care and I even missed it the first few times I watched the movie. But today the differences in this scene jumped out at me because I’m in the process of teaching my daughter lessons in authority, particularly Dad’s authority (him not being home all day like I am, she’s less respectful of what he does all day).

I thought it was interesting that, in the original story, Fern recognizes and respects the authority of her father, whereas in the modern movie version we see a little girl who’s been trained to act as though her will supersedes her father’s. And worse yet, the audience has been trained not to notice because this seems the norm today, at least in what is portrayed by the entertainment industry.