Blog 8

The movie adaptation of the fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" is actually pretty accurate. The movie does start with twenty-five minutes of filler to help make it longer and more entertaining. There are several songs in the movie that were definitely added to make the movie more fun and exciting. And the witch uses a magic staff to control Gretel and Hansel. But other than those two major differences the movie is pretty good. In both the movie and the fairy tale the family is facing starvation, but in the fairy tale, the mother wants to take the children into the forest and leave them there so that the father and her can survive. In the fairy tale, the stepmother and the father take the children into the forest to collect firewood and leave them there, but Hansel overhears their plan and makes a trail of stones so that he and Gretel can find their way back home. They are left in the woods a second time and Hansel makes a trail of bread crumbs but the trail is eaten by birds so they get lost. In the movie, Hansel and Gretel are sent to pick berries and Hansel makes a trail of cookie crumbs which is also eaten by birds. In both the movie and the fairy tale, the children get lost in the forest and find the witch’s house. In the fairy tale, the house is made of bread, the roof is cake, and the windows are pure sugar. In the movie, the house is made of gingerbread and candy. In both, the witch has poor eyesight, but a very good sense of smell. In the movie, Gretel wakes up at night and discovers the witch’s plan to bake them into gingerbread and the witch catches her. The witch then ties Hansel up with magic and puts him in a cage. In the fairy tale, the witch takes Hansel from his bed while he is sleeping and locks him in a pen. In both, the witch looks at Hansel’s finger to see if he is plump enough to eat, but Hansel tricks her by making her feel a bone instead of his finger. In the movie, the witch is baked into a gingerbread person, but in the fairy tale, Gretel pushes her into the oven and she burns to death. In both, Hansel and Gretel bring back treasure from the witch’s house, in the movie the witch’s magic staff turns into money, and in the fairy tale, they find treasure in chests in the house. In the movie, Hansel and Gretel are happily reunited with their mother, but in the fairy tale, their stepmother dies while they are gone and she wouldn’t have welcomed them home because she wanted them dead.