Here is the third children's book by E. B. White to be brought to the screen after Charlotte's Web and Stuart Little. Richard Roth directs this animated musical film with a screenplay by Judy Rothman Rolfe based on the 1970 book. The moral of this E. B. White classic is: Never give up trying to express your unique personality. The first thing and the last thing: Be true to yourself.

In a Canadian forest, a mother trumpeter swan (voiced by Mary Steenburgen) gives birth to three offspring. Father (Jason Alexander) is expecting great things from his son Louie (Dee Baker). When he discovers that the boy is mute, he calls him "defective." Louie's best friend is Serena (Reese Witherspoon), a free-spirited swan.

At the end of the summer, the family leaves Canada for Montana. Unable to communicate, Louie convinces Sam (Sam Gifaldi), a young boy, to take him along to his elementary school in order to learn how to read and write. Meanwhile, his father steals a trumpet from a music store in Billings so that Louie will have a voice.

The newly literate swan returns to his family wearing a slate with chalk around his neck. But alas, the others' still cannot understand him since they can't read. Louie next learns to play the trumpet his father has given him. Soon he has become a master on the instrument, but at a price. He discovers that his father feels guilty for stealing the trumpet. Sam assures him that he can earn the money to pay for it in faraway Boston. However, when he learns that Serena is to marry, he returns home to express his love for her.

Similar in spirit to Charlotte's Web, this animated feature emphasizes the friendship between an animal and a human being. It also, like Stuart Little, shows youngsters that physical flaws can be used to our advantage, forcing us to develop new talents and abilities.