Blog Post #8

There are several differences between the Hansel and Gretel fairytale by the Brother’s Grimm and the movie adaptation. These changes from the original fairytale to the movie were made for several reason. One large change was that Hansel and Gretel’s mother is their biological mother who loves them and not a horrible stepmother who wants them dead. This was probably done so that the movie would seem more fun and family friendly rather than it seems cruel. Especially since it is a PG movie that is probably targeted towards children. They also didn’t want to enforce negative stereotypes about stepmothers to young children. Some other changes that the movie makers made were to make the run-time longer since if the movie only consisted of what happened in the fairytale, it would be very short. So, they added extra subplots in order to make the film longer. For example, although in the fairytale the family had money problems, but the root of it wasn’t necessarily specified. In the movie they had troubles with the bank and the banker, and the banker ends up giving them the money they need instead of cheating them. This of course never happens in the original. The basic parts of the original story like the character’s name and the witch and the witch because they are core parts of the story. The gingerbread is an iconic part of the story and is something that everyone can recognize. Removing something like that from the fairytale would change it completely to the point where it is unrecognizable which is why the movie makers chose to leave it in.