Cristi_Ciopron
I have found this version to be carefully crafted and relatively appealing, though the characters were unlikable, beginning with the kids and their pets, and so perhaps it's not a cartoon to elicit exalted admiration, but just a bit of amusement for a cool evening; anyway, it has the mandatory blandness one would expect. For a moment, I thought of discussing European folktales instead of discussing this flick; but why not discuss them both, and give everybody a good time here? I am a folklorist by training, a movie buff by vocation, so take the joyride! This 'Hänsel and Gretel' is a puppet show, which only adds to the delight and supplies the necessary merriment to be found even in such a dreadful succession of events. The German Romantic imagination was immoderate and wild (which is why some of us like it so much, enjoy it immoderately, for which I, beginning at age 19, can testify); but then again so were the folktales, the genuine folklore of the nations—immoderate, disturbing and lurid. Such is the narrative folklore—lurid, licentious, obscene, subversive, debauched and puzzling. And, hand in hand with Hänsel and Gretel, we step into some of its most lurid and disturbing territory. Of course a kids' movie isn't willing or ready to deal with such stuff. As an aside, the German Romanticism was a huge attempt at recovering the genuine feel of these folktales; an attempt stifled by the bourgeois 19th century's pedagogical obtuseness and inconceivably harmful hypocrisy. In the center of 'Hänsel and Gretel' reigns a particularly disturbing symbol: the hag, the old—woman who 'eats children'. This is even more shameless than the giant met by Jack of the beanstalk fame. So these European peasants liked their tales spicy and weird! They were into some sick stuff! Two children are chased away from home by their angry mother, chased and sent away to go looking for strawberries and provide for the family's meal; they are led astray partly by their own carelessness and negligence, as the witch seems quite moderate in using her powers and spells, as if she cunningly misguides but doesn't force one out of his way, she doesn't really kidnap the children but more or less fools or deludes them, lures them away, and these magical worlds have their own behavioral codes. The suggestions of H & G (pedophilia, sadism, cannibalism) are obvious enough. Now you see how kids raised with suchlike tales would grow up to write or read voraciously Gothic novels. HANSEL AND GRETEL is a very Gothic fairytale, very violent, cruel and disturbing, the way these German folktales knew how to be, very engrossing and taut, about, among others, the appalling terrors of the Teutonic forest, and one is reminded of the Apostle of Germany (S. Boniface, I think) taking down a tree, cutting it himself; the American genre cinema also has the notion of the forest, the wood being a dreadful place, and there are countless flicks about the monsters lurking in these environments. Most of the kids' adaptations aren't really ready to deal with the truly Gothic nature, unrelentingly disturbing, of the story in H & G, trading it for the commercially safer cuteness. So, can H & G be made into a kids' movie? There are literally lots of screen adaptations, including an erotic version, and some were made by giants like Lotte Reiniger and Harryhausen, so that the cinema archivist will find joy in this chapter.We see that our ancestors were very intent on scaring the children with the fairy tales they told them. Nowadays vampire—sagas seem pretty bland by comparison.
MarcoAntonio1
This film has always been one of my top favorite childhood films. "Hansel and Gretel" was not always easily accessible to kids. Although it had sporadic television showings back in the days of black and white televisions, kids normally had to wait about every three years for it to be theatrically re-released to see it. I remember seeing it once on television back in the days before we had color television sets and then seeing it several years later on the big screen (in all of its Technicolor splendor) and it captivated me by being the definitive version of the famous tale. I liked it so much that when they re-released it some years later I went to see it again! After the mid-seventies it more or less disappeared and it seemed to have become a forgotten film (shown occasionally on early cable T.V.). However, in the early eighties I was surprised to see it on VHS through a company called Media Home Entertainment. Sadly, their print had a terrible mono soundtrack making the film inaudible and the scene where the the stars form in the heavens (after the Sandman floated away) looked like it was set in the daytime instead of at night-time. Later, in the eighties a no-frills video company released the same print with a marginally better soundtrack. When HBO showed it in the early nineties, they showed a restored quality print. One with perfect sound and with the stars in the heavens forming in the evening (keeping to the evening setting of Hansel and Gretel asleep under a tree in the forest). Not long afterward, that restored version was put on to VHS by Vestron and I was delighted. Too bad that Vestron didn't hold on to the rights long enough to put out a DVD edition of the film. It has since fallen into the hands of another company and they've evidently used a not exactly perfect VHS print of the film as the master source for their DVD presentation of "Hansel and Gretel". The evidence of VHS decay are sporadically obvious during the film. It's annoying that the company probably had the means to give us "the" perfectly restored version of the film on DVD, but instead decided to gyp us with a low-budget video to DVD transfer of it. I hope that another company will obtain the rights to this film and put a good copy of it on the market soon. "Hansel and Gretel" must have been a pretty big hit in its day (1954). There was a comic book and a record album of this film. I know that the two times that I saw it in the theaters it played to packed movie houses. Let's hope to see a restored DVD edition of it the near future!
Jennifer Avenell
We had the sound track when I was growing up. My brothers and sisters and I listened to it over and over. I'm well into my forties now, and I can still reel off songs and dialog. My older sister burned CDs of the sound track for us all a few years ago. A wonderful present! I hadn't heard it for decades, and missed it very much. The angel pantomime still gives me goosebumps, it's so very, very beautiful. The witch was played for laughs as much as for being scary. She is delightful. My friend's children always love it when I give them my imitation of her cackle.I was priviledged to actually see the movie once in a theatre, a children's matinee. How I wouldn't love to have a copy of it. The music and vocalizations are timeless, beautiful, thrilling. I'm sure any child would love this classic as much as I and my siblings did!
