"
Hansel and Gretel" is a well-known
fairy taleA fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
of German origin, recorded by the
Brothers GrimmThe Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...
and published in 1812. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a
cannibalisticCannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...
hagA hag is a wizened old woman, or a kind of fairy or goddess having the appearance of such a woman, often found in folklore and children's tales such as Hansel and Gretel. Hags are often seen as malevolent, but may also be one of the chosen forms of shapeshifting deities, such as the Morrígan or...
living deep in the forest in a house constructed of cake and confectionery. The two children save their lives by outwitting her. The tale has been adapted to various media, most notably the opera
Hänsel und Gretel (1893) by
Engelbert HumperdinckEngelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...
and a stop-motion animated feature film made in the 1950s based on the opera. Under the Aarne–Thompson classification system, "Hansel and Gretel" is classified under Class 327.
Plot
The following summary is based on an 1853 anonymous translation
by Iona and Peter Opie in 1972.
Hansel and Gretel are the young children of a poor
woodcutter. When a great famine settles over the land, the woodcutter's second, abusive wife concocts a plan to take the children into the
woodsWoods is a common surname of English and Irish origin.-A:* Alan Woods * Albert Woods* Albert H. Woods* Aubrey Woods* Ayiesha Woods-B:* Bambi Woods* Barbara Alyn Woods* Belita Woods* Ben Woods, rugby union player* Bill Woods...
and leave them there to fend for themselves, so that she and her husband, with two fewer mouths to feed, might not starve. The woodcutter opposes the plan but finally, and reluctantly, submits to his wife's scheme. They are unaware that in the children's bedroom, Hansel and Gretel have overheard them. After the parents have gone to bed, Hansel sneaks out of the house and gathers as many white
pebblesPebbles may refer to:* Pebbles, small rocks* Pebbles , Boston-area radio DJ* Pebbles , British-trained thoroughbred racehorse of the 1980s* Pebbles Flintstone, a character in The Flintstones animated television show...
as he can, then returns to his room, reassuring Gretel that God will not forsake them.
The next day, the family walk deep into the woods and Hansel lays a trail of white pebbles. After their parents abandon them, the children wait for the moon to rise and illuminate the pebbles. They return home safely, much to their stepmother's horror. Once again provisions become scarce and the stepmother angrily orders her husband to take the children further into the woods and leave them there to die. Hansel and Gretel attempt to gather more pebbles, but find the doors locked and find it impossible to escape.
The following morning, the family treks into the woods. Hansel takes a slice of bread and leaves a trail of bread crumbs for them to follow home. However, after they are once again abandoned, they find that the birds have eaten the crumbs and they are lost in the woods. After days of wandering, they follow a beautiful white bird to a clearing in the woods, and discover a
cottage__toc__In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cozy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location. However there are cottage-style dwellings in cities, and in places such as Canada the term exists with no connotations of size at all...
built of
gingerbreadGingerbread is a term used to describe a variety of sweet food products, which can range from a soft, moist loaf cake to something close to a ginger biscuit. What they have in common are the predominant flavors of ginger and a tendency to use honey or molasses rather than just sugar...
and cakes with window panes of clear sugar. Hungry and tired, the children begin to eat the rooftop of the
candyCandy, specifically sugar candy, is a confection made from a concentrated solution of sugar in water, to which flavorings and colorants are added...
house, when the door opens and a "very old woman" emerges and lures the children inside, with the promise of soft beds and delicious food. Their hostess is a "wicked witch" who waylays children to cook and eat them.
The next morning, the witch locks Hansel in an iron
cageA cage is an enclosure made of mesh, bars or wires, used to confine, contain or protect something or someone. A cage can serve many purposes, including keeping an animal in captivity, capturing, and being used for display of an animal at a zoo.-History:...
in the garden and forces Gretel into becoming a slave. The witch feeds Hansel regularly to fatten him up, but Hansel cleverly offers a bone he found in the cage (presumably a bone from the witch's previous captive) and the witch feels it, thinking it to be his finger. Due to her blindness, she is fooled into thinking Hansel is still too thin to eat. After weeks of this, the witch grows impatient and decides to eat Hansel, "be he
fatFats consist of a wide group of compounds that are generally soluble in organic solvents and generally insoluble in water. Chemically, fats are triglycerides, triesters of glycerol and any of several fatty acids. Fats may be either solid or liquid at room temperature, depending on their structure...
or
lean-In business:* Lean Startup, how to start a company in a lean way* Lean manufacturing, process improvement discipline* Lean construction is a translation and adaption of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the end-to-end design and construction process...
."
She prepares the oven for Hansel, but decides she is hungry enough to eat Gretel, too. She coaxes Gretel to the open oven and prods her to lean over in front of it to see if the fire is hot enough. Gretel, sensing the witch's intent, pretends she does not understand what she means. Infuriated, the witch demonstrates, and Gretel instantly shoves the witch into the oven, slams and bolts the door shut, leaving "
The ungodly witch to be burned to ashesCremation is the process of reducing bodies to basic chemical compounds such as gasses and bone fragments. This is accomplished through high-temperature burning, vaporization and oxidation....
", the witch screaming in pain until she dies. Gretel frees Hansel from the cage and the pair discover a vast treasure and precious stones. Putting the jewels into their clothing, the children set off for home. A swan ferries them across an expanse of water and at home they find only their father; his wife has died from unknown cause. The father has spent all his days lamenting the loss of his children, and is delighted to see them safe and sound. With the witch's wealth, they all live happily ever after.
History and analysis
JacobJacob Ludwig Carl Grimm was a German philologist, jurist and mythologist. He is best known as the discoverer of Grimm's Law, the author of the monumental Deutsches Wörterbuch, the author of Deutsche Mythologie and, more popularly, as one of the Brothers Grimm, as the editor of Grimm's Fairy...
and
Wilhelm GrimmWilhelm Carl Grimm was a German author, the younger of the Brothers Grimm.-Life and work:...
heard "Hansel and Gretel" from Dortchen Wild, and published it in
Kinder- und Hausmärchen in 1812. In the Grimm tale, the woodcutter and his wife are the biological parents of the children and share the blame for abandoning them. In later editions, some slight revisions were made: the wife is stepmother to the children, the woodcutter opposes his wife's scheme to abandon the children, and religious references are made.
Folklorists Iona and Peter Opie indicate in
The Classic Fairy Tales (1974) that "Hansel and Gretel" belongs to a group of European tales especially popular in the Baltic regions about children outwitting ogres into whose hands they have involuntarily fallen. The tale bears resemblances to the first half of
Charles PerraultCharles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...
's "Hop-o'-My-Thumb" (1697) and
Madame d'AulnoyMarie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy , also known as Countess d'Aulnoy, was a French writer known for her fairy tales...
's "
Clever CindersFinette Cendron is a French literary fairy tale written by Madame d'Aulnoy.It is Aarne-Thompson type 510A...
" (1721). In both tales, the Opies note, abandoned children find their way home by following a trail. In "Clever Cinders", the Opies observe that the heroine incinerates a giant by shoving him into an oven in a manner similar to Gretel, and point out that a ruse involving a twig in a Swedish tale resembles Hansel's trick of the dry bone. Linguist and folklorist
Edward VajdaEdward Vajda is a historical linguist at Western Washington University. He has become known for his work on the proposed Dené–Yeniseian language family, seeking to establish that the Ket language of Siberia has a common linguistic ancestor with the Na-Dené languages of North America...
has proposed that these stories represents the remnant of a
coming of ageComing of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies...
rite of passageA rite of passage is a ritual event that marks a person's progress from one status to another. It is a universal phenomenon which can show anthropologists what social hierarchies, values and beliefs are important in specific cultures....
tale extant in
Proto-Indo-European societyProto-Indo-European refers to the single ancestor language common to all Indo-European languages. It is therefore a linguistic concept, not an ethnic, social or cultural one, so there is no direct evidence of the nature of Proto-Indo-European 'society'. Much depends on the unsettled Indo-European...
. A house made of confectionery is found in a 14th-century manuscript about the
Land of CockayneLand of Cockayne is the final album by the band Soft Machine, released in 1981. By this point, the band contained none of its original members. The title refers to the medieval land of plenty....
.
In
The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales,
Maria TatarMaria Tatar is an American academic whose expertise lies in children's literature, German literature, and folklore. Tatar is the John L. Loeb Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, and Chair of Folklore & Mythology at Harvard University...
observes that the witch's end in the oven has been read as portending "the horrors of the Third Reich". Because the witch is often depicted with "stereotypical Jewish features, particularly in twentieth century illustration", the scene of her death becomes "all the more ominous". Tatar observes that poet
Anne SextonAnne Sexton was an American poet, known for her highly personal, confessional verse. She won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1967...
in rewriting "Hansel and Gretel" described the abandonment of the children as "the
final solutionThe Final Solution was Nazi Germany's plan and execution of the systematic genocide of European Jews during World War II, resulting in the most deadly phase of the Holocaust...
".
Tatar notes that the few birds in the tale are "representatives of nature" and "ensure that the children remain in the woods (eating their breadcrumbs), yet also provide the means for escape (ferrying them across the water)". The children have no second thoughts about taking the witch's riches home to their father, she remarks. "The acquisition of wealth [...] guarantees that the father and the children will live happily ever after." Tatar suggests that in the stepmother's death there is "some kind of inner identity between her and the wicked witch". Tatar observes that while the stepmother gives the children as little to eat as possible, the witch appears to be the soul of generosity with foodstuffs, "[y]et she represents an intensification of the maternal evil at home", for she only feeds the children in order to fatten them up for her next meal.
Max Lüthi observes that the mother or stepmother happens to die when the children have killed the witch has suggested to many commentators that the mother or stepmother and the witch are, in fact, the same woman, or at least that an identity between them is strongly hinted at. A Russian folk tale exists in which the evil stepmother (also the wife of a poor woodcutter) asks her hated stepdaughter to go into the forest to borrow a light from her sister, who turns out to be
Baba YagaBaba Yaga or Baba Roga is a haggish or witchlike character in Slavic folklore. She flies around on a giant pestle, kidnaps small children, and lives in a hut that stands on chicken legs...
, who is also a cannibalistic witch. Besides highlighting the endangerment of children (as well as their own cleverness), the tales have in common a preoccupation with food and with hurting children: the mother or stepmother wants to avoid hunger, while the witch lures children to eat her house of candy so that she can then eat them. Another tale of this type is
The Lost ChildrenThe Lost Children is a French fairy tale collected by Antoinette Bon in Revue des traditions populaires.It is Aarne-Thompson type 327A. Another tale of this type is Hansel and Gretel; The Lost Children combines with that type several motifs typical of Hop o' My Thumb, which is typical of French...
. The Brothers Grimm identified the French
Finette CendronFinette Cendron is a French literary fairy tale written by Madame d'Aulnoy.It is Aarne-Thompson type 510A...
and
Hop o' My Thumb"Hop-o'-My-Thumb", also known as "Little Thumbling" , is a literary fairy tale by Charles Perrault . At the age of 67, Perrault decided to dedicate himself to his children and published Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals , with the subtitle: Tales of Mother Goose...
as parallel stories.
The opera version
Hänsel und Gretel is an
operaOpera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
by
Engelbert HumperdinckEngelbert Humperdinck was a German composer, best known for his opera, Hänsel und Gretel. Humperdinck was born at Siegburg in the Rhine Province; at the age of 67 he died in Neustrelitz, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.-Life:After receiving piano lessons, Humperdinck produced his first composition...
, first performed in
WeimarWeimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...
on December 23, 1893, and often performed at Christmas today.
- In 1954, the opera was adapted into a stop-motion animated film Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy
Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy is a stop motion animated film that was created in 1954 and released by RKO Radio Pictures. It is based on Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hänsel und Gretel, and contains many musical numbers. It was the first American feature length animated film not made by...
. The film featured spoken dialogue, but also retained some of Humperdinck's music, sung in English instead of German.
- In December 1982, Live from the Met
Live from the Metropolitan Opera is an American television program that presented performances of complete operas from the Metropolitan Opera, New York City, on the Public Broadcasting Service television network. The program began in 1977, and was telecast live for its first few seasons...
presented a complete production of Humperdinck's opera on television, again sung in English.
- In December 1983, the opera's Evening Prayer music was heard as the opening theme of the television episode "Hansel and Gretel" from the anthology series Faerie Tale Theatre
Faerie Tale Theatre is a live-action children's television anthology series retelling popular fairy tales. Shelley Duvall serves as narrator, host and executive producer of the program, and occasionally stars in episodes...
.
In film and television
- Bewitched Bunny
Bewitched Bunny is a Looney Tunes cartoon featuring Bugs Bunny directed by Chuck Jones and written by Michael Maltese. Jones created the character Witch Hazel which debuted in this episode. Witch Hazel later appeared in Broom-Stick Bunny , A Witch's Tangled Hare , and in A-Haunting We Will Go...
is the 1954 Looney TunesLooney Tunes is a Warner Bros. animated cartoon series. It preceded the Merrie Melodies series and was Warner Bros.'s first animated theatrical series. Since its first official release, 1930's Sinkin' in the Bathtub, the series has become a worldwide media franchise, spawning several television...
animated short retelling the story of Hansel and Gretel, featuring Witch HazelWitch Hazel is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. Disney, MGM, Famous Studios, and the Little Lulu comic book also had characters named Witch Hazel, and Rembrandt Films had one named Hazel Witch. This article is chiefly concerned...
and starring Bugs BunnyBugs Bunny is a animated character created in 1938 at Leon Schlesinger Productions, later Warner Bros. Cartoons. Bugs is an anthropomorphic gray rabbit and is famous for his flippant, insouciant personality and his portrayal as a trickster. He has primarily appeared in animated cartoons, most...
in a novel role, in which he rescues the children before being captured himself.
- Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
's 1982 Hansel and Gretel is a live action film short featuring JapanJapan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese actors and striking set designs reminiscent of his later work in films such as "BeetlejuiceBeetlejuice is a 1988 American comedy horror film directed by Tim Burton, produced by The Geffen Film Company and distributed by Warner Bros...
" and "Edward ScissorhandsEdward Scissorhands is a 1990 romantic fantasy film directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp. The film shows the story of an artificial man named Edward, an unfinished creation, who has scissors for hands. Edward is taken in by a suburban family and falls in love with their teenage daughter...
".
- Faerie Tale Theatre
Faerie Tale Theatre is a live-action children's television anthology series retelling popular fairy tales. Shelley Duvall serves as narrator, host and executive producer of the program, and occasionally stars in episodes...
produced an episode of the story, starring Ricky Schroder, Bridgette AndersenBridgette Andersen was an American child actress best known for her part in the title role of the 1982 comedy Savannah Smiles.-Early life and career:...
, Joan CollinsJoan Henrietta Collins, OBE , is an English actress, author, and columnist. Born in Paddington and raised in Maida Vale, Collins grew up during the Second World War. At the age of nine, she made her stage debut in A Doll's House and after attending school, she was classically trained as an actress...
and Paul Dooley-Personal life:Dooley was born Paul Dooley Brown in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene , a homemaker, and Peter James Brown, a factory worker. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. He joined the Navy before discovering acting while at...
. It aired on December 5, 1983. It was released on VHS in the 1980s through to the mid-1990s, by Playhouse Video, CBS/Fox and later on DVD through Starmaker II and Koch VisioneOne Home Video a division of Entertainment One, was founded in 1999 as part of Koch Entertainment's entry into the television programming and home video market as Koch's rental and sell-through home video division...
.
- The Cannon Group
Cannon Movie Tales is the collective name for a series of films created in the late 1980s by Cannon Group producers Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus, associate producer Patricia Ruben, and executive producer Itzik Kol. Filmed principally on location in Israel, these stories are generally fairy tales...
made a live-action film in 1987 starring Hugh PollardHugh Pollard is a former British child actor most recognised for his role as Simon in the CBBC show Simon and the Witch...
and Nicola StapletonNicola Kathleen Stapleton is an English actress. Stapleton began her career at an early age. She is most famous for her work on British television, in particular her roles as Mandy Salter in BBC's EastEnders and Janine Nebeski in ITV's Bad Girls.-Early life:Stapleton grew up off East Street, which...
. It later shown on the Disney ChannelDisney Channel is an American basic cable and satellite television network, owned by the Disney-ABC Television Group division of The Walt Disney Company. It is under the direction of Disney-ABC Television Group President Anne Sweeney. The channel's headquarters is located on West Alameda Ave. in...
in the late 1980s and mid-1990s. MGM released it on VHS and DVD August 9, 2005.
- HBO miniseries Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child
Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child is an American animated television series that premiered March 26, 1995, on HBO. Narrated by Robert Guillaume, the series aired 39 episodes from 1995 to 2000, and is currently airing on the HBO Family digital cable television channel in the United...
tells the story in a 1995 episode.
- The season 3 Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode Gingerbread (1999) explores a new twist to the Hansel and Gretel tale, as a demon
call - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
that takes the form of two murdered children in order to incite discord into small communities, turning society against itself.
- Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby
Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby is a 1999 exploitation film, written and directed by Matthew Bright. It stars Natasha Lyonne as Crystal "White Girl" Van Meter, and María Celedonio as Angela "Cyclona" Garcia...
, a film by Matthew BrightMatthew Bright is an American film director, writer and actor.His first noted credits were as writer and actor in the 1982 film Forbidden Zone, portraying the twins Squeezit and René Henderson...
made in 1999, is somewhat based on the story of Hansel and Gretel.
- In a 1999 episode of Disney's House of Mouse
Disney's House of Mouse is an American animated television series, produced by Walt Disney Television, that originally aired from 2001 to 2003-Premise:...
, there is a cartoon version of the story, with Mickey MouseMickey Mouse is a cartoon character created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks at The Walt Disney Studio. Mickey is an anthropomorphic black mouse and typically wears red shorts, large yellow shoes, and white gloves...
and Minnie MouseMinerva "Minnie" Mouse is an animated character created by Ub Iwerks and Walt Disney. The comic strip story "The Gleam" by Merrill De Maris and Floyd Gottfredson first gave her full name as Minerva Mouse. Minnie has since been a recurring alias for her. Minnie is currently voiced by actress Russi...
as Hansel and Gretel.
- The 11th Halloween edition of The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
, titled "Treehouse of Horror XI"Treehouse of Horror XI" is the first episode of The Simpsons twelfth season and the 249th overall, and the eleventh Halloween episode. The episode features "G-G-Ghost D-D-Dad", "Scary Tales Can Come True" and "Night of the Dolphin" and was written by Rob LaZebnik , John Frink and Don Payne and...
" (2000), features 'Scary Tales Can Come True', a parody of "Hansel and Gretel" and other fairy tales, with Bart SimpsonBartholomew JoJo "Bart" Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons and part of the Simpson family. He is voiced by actress Nancy Cartwright and first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987...
and Lisa SimpsonLisa Marie Simpson is a fictional main character in the animated television series The Simpsons. She is the middle child of the Simpson family. Voiced by Yeardley Smith, Lisa first appeared on television in The Tracey Ullman Show short "Good Night" on April 19, 1987. Cartoonist Matt Groening...
playing Hansel and Gretel.
- Hansel and Gretel is a 2002 live-action film which features new twists to the Hansel and Gretel story. It stars Lynn Redgrave
Lynn Rachel Redgrave, OBE was an English actress.A member of the well-known British family of actors, Redgrave trained in London before making her theatrical debut in 1962...
, Howie MandelHoward Michael "Howie" Mandel is a Canadian stand-up comedian, television host, and actor. He is well known as host of the NBC game show Deal or No Deal, as well as the show's daytime and Canadian-English counterparts. Before his career as a game show host, Mandel was best known for his role on...
, Dakota FanningHannah Dakota Fanning , better known as Dakota Fanning, is an American actress. Fanning's breakthrough performance was in I Am Sam in 2001. As a child actress, she appeared in high-profile films such as Man on Fire, War of the Worlds, and Charlotte's Web...
and Taylor MomsenTaylor Michel Momsen is an American actress, musician and model who portrays the character of Jenny Humphrey on the CW television series Gossip Girl and portrayed the role of Cindy Lou Who in How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and fronts the rock band The Pretty Reckless.-Early life and career:Taylor...
.
- Hänsel und Gretel is a 2005 German film shot in the forests of Thuringia
The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....
.
- Terror Toons 2: The Sick and Silly Show
Terror Toons 2 is the comedy/horror 2007 sequel to Terror Toons and is directed by Joe Castro, director of the first film. It was supposed to come out in 2004, but do to unknown reasons it was pushed to 2007...
(released in 2007) is a direct-to-videoDirect-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
horror film with Hansel and Gretel lost in the forest. The witch planned to poisonIn the context of biology, poisons are substances that can cause disturbances to organisms, usually by chemical reaction or other activity on the molecular scale, when a sufficient quantity is absorbed by an organism....
them with a rat and a bottle containing nitroglycerine and cook them in the hot oven for her supper, but instead of killing them, it turns them into big-headed, crazy cartoonA cartoon is a form of two-dimensional illustrated visual art. While the specific definition has changed over time, modern usage refers to a typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawing or painting intended for satire, caricature, or humor, or to the artistic style of such works...
characters: Hansel becomes a giant demoncall - 1347 531 7769 for more infoIn Ancient Near Eastern religions as well as in the Abrahamic traditions, including ancient and medieval Christian demonology, a demon is considered an "unclean spirit" which may cause demonic possession, to be addressed with an act of exorcism...
ic anthropomorphic rat, and Gretel becomes a criminally insane girl with ugly teeth. They rip the witch in half and almost immediately they are pulled from their world.
- Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel is a 2007 South Korean horror film.-Synopsis:The scene is opened with pictures from a storybook that tell Hansel and Gretel's story, then the scene fades to black. The scene then shifts to Eunsu, a salesman, driving his car along Highway 69 while talking to his girlfriend on the...
is a South KoreaThe Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...
n live-action horror film made in 2007, which is a retelling of the story in which the children are the occupants of the house and travelers are the innocents.
- In The Suite Life on Deck
The Suite Life on Deck is an American sitcom that aired on Disney Channel from September 26, 2008 to May 6, 2011. It is a sequel/spin-off of the Disney Channel Original Series The Suite Life of Zack & Cody...
episode "Once Upon a Suite Life" (March 5, 2010), Hansel is played by Zack MartinZachary "Zack" Martin is a main character on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and its spin-off The Suite Life on Deck...
, Gretel (Greg) is played by Cody MartinCody Martin is a main character created by Danny Kallis and Jim Geoghan for The Suite Life of Zack and Cody and its sequel/spin-off The Suite Life on Deck...
, Mr. MosebyMr. Marion Moseby is a character on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and its spin-off, The Suite Life on Deck...
plays the father of Hansel and Gretel, Emma Tutweiller plays the witch, Bailey PickettBailey Marie Pickett is one of the main characters on The Suite Life on Deck. She is from the fictional town of Kettlecorn, Kansas and pretends to be a boy in the premiere episode because there were no available places in the SS Tiptons cabins for a female...
plays a pie cooked by the witch, and Woody Fink plays a squirrel that ate the breadcrumbs, London TiptonLondon Leah Tipton is a fictional character in Disney's Suite Life franchise which consists of The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and its spin-off The Suite Life on Deck...
is absent.
- Hansel and Gretel in 3D (2011), a live-action version of the "Hansel and Gretel" fairytale produced by Michael Bay
Michael Benjamin Bay is an American film director and producer. He is known for directing high-budget action films characterized by their fast edits, stylistic visuals and substantial practical special effects...
and Scott GardenhourScott Gardenhour is an American award-winning film producer for commercials and feature films.After years as an independent Producer, Propaganda Films targeted Gardenhour to collaborate with top directors, including a music video director named Michael Bay, looking to break into the commercial...
's company, The Institute in association with Kalliope Films, is The Institute's first feature film.
- Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters
Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters is an upcoming American action horror comedy film directed by Tommy Wirkola. The film will be made in 3-D and is slated for release on March 2, 2012....
is an upcoming 2012 action-horror film by Tommy WirkolaTommy Wirkola is a Norwegian filmmaker.-Biography:Wirkola's first film was 2007's Kill Buljo that he co-wrote with Stig Frode Henriksen...
, set 15 years after the events of the fairy-tale, in which the adult Hansel and Gretel are a brother-and-sister team of professional witch-slayers.
- The German
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
comedian Otto WaalkesOtto Gerhard Waalkes is a Frisian comedian and actor. He became famous in the 1970s and 1980s in Germany with his shows, books and movies. His perhaps most famous trademark are the 'Ottifanten' , elephant-like comic characters of his own design...
used the Hansel and Gretel story for a large collection of musical parodies. He takes the melody and text of various well-known pop songs (in particular of the New German Wave) and intertwines them with parts of the Hansel and Gretel plot.
- Walt Disney
Walter Elias "Walt" Disney was an American film producer, director, screenwriter, voice actor, animator, entrepreneur, entertainer, international icon, and philanthropist, well-known for his influence in the field of entertainment during the 20th century. Along with his brother Roy O...
adapted Hansel and Gretel into a 1932 Silly Symphony called Babes in the WoodsBabes in the Woods is a 1932 Silly Symphonies animated film.It is a re-working of the British folk tale Babes in the Wood, with some material incorporated from Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm, and the addition of a village of friendly elves and a happy ending.-External links:* at...
, which was the third Technicolor Silly Symphony Disney had made, the first being Flowers and TreesFlowers and Trees is a 1932 Silly Symphonies cartoon produced by Walt Disney, directed by Burt Gillett, and released to theatres by United Artists on July 30, 1932...
and the second being King NeptuneKing Neptune is a 1932 cartoon by Walt Disney, the second in the Silly Symphonies series produced in Technicolor. While Flowers and Trees was originally intended as a black and white cartoon, King Neptune was meant to be in colors already from the start, and was able to take full advantage of...
.
In music
- In 1958, a live musical adaptation of the story, starring Red Buttons, Barbara Cook
Barbara Cook is an American singer and actress who first came to prominence in the 1950s after starring in the original Broadway musicals Candide and The Music Man among others, winning a Tony Award for the latter...
, Rudy ValleeRudy Vallée was an American singer, actor, bandleader, and entertainer.-Early life:Born Hubert Prior Vallée in Island Pond, Vermont, the son of Charles Alphonse and Catherine Lynch Vallée...
, Hans ConriedHans Georg Conried, Jr. was an American comedian, character actor and voice actor.-Early years:He was born on April 15, 1917 in Baltimore, Maryland to Hans Georg Conried, Sr. and Edith Beyr Gildersleeve. His mother was a descendant of Pilgrims, and his father was a Jewish immigrant from Vienna,...
(in drag as the Witch) and Stubby KayeStubby Kaye was an American comic actor. He was born Bernard Kotzin in New York City on the last day of the First World War, at West 114th Street in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan to first generation Jewish-Americans originally from Russia and Austria...
was presented on television by NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
. It featured songs by Alec WilderAlec Wilder was an American composer.-Biography:...
and William EngvickWilliam Engvick is an American lyricist, many of whose compositions appear in films.Engvick graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1937. He is best known for his collaborations with composer Alec Wilder; they produced songs for the Broadway musical Once Over Lightly , and for...
.
- Vocaloid producer, mothy (akuno-P), wrote a song called "Okizari Tsukiyoshou" ("The Tale of Moonlit Abandonment" or "Abandoned on a Moonlit Night") sung by vocaloids, Rin and Len Kagamine, which parodies Hansel and Gretel. The song, released on the 2009 Evils Theater album, is about two children who were tricked by their parents into getting lost in the forest and tried to find their way back home. They later found a home that they believed to be that of the witch from "Hansel and Gretel" and quickly shoved her and the henchmen into a burning oven. After defeating the witch, they felt that something about the house seemed familiar and set out to find their "real" mother and father. Mothy revealed that those who the children thought were the witch and henchmen, whom they killed, were actually their foster parents.
- On the album Märchen (2010), by the Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese fantasy-band Sound HorizonSound Horizon, abbreviated by fans as Sanhora , is a Japanese musical group with composer Revo as the leader. They call themselves the "fantasy band" and have released their works that closely resemble suites.-History:...
, the second song describes the story of a young nun, who was killed by her own mother. The mother turned out to be a so-called witch, who met her doom by the hands of Hansel and Gretel, thus delivering the nun's revenge to her. In reality the woman wasn't a witch at all, merely someone whose wish was to let the children eat as much as they liked, most likely as a compensation for killing her daughter.
- Hanzel und Gretyl is an industrial metal band from New York City.
In publications
- Donna Jo Napoli
Donna Jo Napoli is an author of children's and young adult books, as well as a prominent linguist who has worked in syntax, phonetics, phonology, morphology, historical and comparative linguistics, Romance studies, structure of Japanese, structure of American Sign Language, poetics, writing for...
's story The Magic Circle (1993) retells Hansel and Gretel from the witch's perspective. The unnamed witch was once a pious midwife and devoted mother cursed by demons into becoming a hideous witch with a hunger for human flesh. The witch willingly climbs into the oven, knowing Gretel will kill her, thus freeing her from the life she loathes.
- In Bill Willingham
Bill Willingham is an American writer and artist of comics.-Career:Willingham got his start in the late 1970s to early 1980s as a staff artist for TSR, Inc., where he illustrated a number of their role-playing game products...
's FablesFables is a comic book series created by writer Bill Willingham, published by DC Comics's Vertigo imprint beginning in 2002. The series deals with various characters from fairy tales and folklore – referring to themselves as "Fables" – who have been forced out of their Homelands by "The...
comic book series (beginning in 2002), the witch from Hansel and Gretel, here named Frau TotenkinderFrau Totenkinder is a fictional character in the comic book series Fables, created by Bill Willingham. Leader of the magicians of Fabletown, Totenkinder represents many of the unnamed witches found in tales and legends...
, is a main character. ("Totenkinder" translates roughly as "dead children", and in this version the witch derives her power from sacrificing children.) Hansel makes a few appearances in an antagonistic role to the main cast.
- Louise Murphy
Louise Murphy was born in 1943 in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Her ethnicity is Scottish, Irish, and German. Murphy’s hobbies include playing the flute, classical music, and the opera. Ms...
's novel in 2003 The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival is a version of the story set in PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
during the Holocaust, with the two main characters depicted as Jewish children who had to change their names in order to hide from the Nazis.
- In the album The Hunt For the Gingerbread Man from the American rapper Percy Carey (MF Grimm).
See also
- "Brother and Sister
Brother and Sister is a well-known European fairy tale which was, among others, written down by the Brothers Grimm in their collection of Children's and Household Tales ...
"
- "Buttercup"
Buttercup or Butterball is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe. It is Aarne-Thompson type 327 C, the devil carries the hero home in a sack...
- "Foundling-Bird
Foundling-Bird is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 51.It is Aarne-Thompson type 313A, the girl helps the hero flee, and revolves about a transformation chase...
"
- "Frau Trude
Frau Trude is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 43.It is Aarne-Thompson type 334, at the witch's house.-Synopsis:...
"
- "The Golden Stag"
-Synopsis:An old woman told her husband that he had to lose his two children, a son and a daughter, by his first marriage, in the woods. The first time, the boy had been playing in the ashes, and the children came back, but the second time, the old man succeeded in losing them...
- "Molly Whuppie
Molly Whuppie is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales. A Highland version, Maol a Chliobain, was collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands...
"
- "Vasilissa the Beautiful
Vasilisa the Beautiful , commonly known as Vasilisa's Doll, is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki....
"
- "The Witch"
The Witch is a Russian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.A version of the tale, under the title "The Twins and the Snarling Witch", appears in A Book of Witches, by Ruth Manning-Sanders.-Synopsis:...
External links