Hansel and Gretel: MGM vs. Grimm

                One of the biggest changes between the MGM adaptation of “Hansel and Gretel” and the Grimm Brothers version is the role of the mother/stepmother.  In the fairy tale, the stepmother is actively trying to get rid of the children by convincing their father that it is necessary to survive. She is relentless in her attempts to abandon the children as she walks them out into the forest twice.  These actions make her as much of a villain as the witch in the story. She conveniently dies before the children return home, so that they can live happily ever after with their father who actually loves them.

               In the movie, the mother is angry with the children, when they accidently leave the donkey in the house. She sends the children out to pick berries, and they get lost. Immediately, this mother is concerned and feeling extremely guilty. When they return home, she is visibly relieved and it is clear that she loves and had missed the children. The whole family together can now live happily ever after.

                Another major difference is the father’s involvement in the abandonment. In the Grimm fairy tale, he is an active, though somewhat unwilling, participant in leaving the children in the forest. He is then exonerated from the crime by regretting his actions, and he gets to be in the happy ending. However, in the movie, he is away when the children get lost in the forest, and he then searches for them. He finds them after the defeat of the witch and leads them back home.

                These changes are fairly significant in the film, and this leads to different messages. The Grimm tale teaches the reader that women are greedy and often evil. Both of the adult women (the stepmother and the witch) are evil and have bad intentions for the children. It also teaches that men can be exonerated from child abuse and abandonment, because the father lives happily ever after with Hansel and Gretel. With the vast changes that the film made, the messages are completely different. The directors probably chose to make these changes to make the movie more successful in the United States. Parents do not want to pay to take their children to a movie where the parents are badly portrayed. The resulting message is this: women are sometimes forgetful in where they tell their children to pick berries, but men will risk their lives to search for lost children in a forest. This is clearly a completely different message, but one that will probably sell more movie tickets and lead to less nightmares from young viewers.

                It is important to note that there are some similarities in the film and the original tale. The witch is always evil, and the children are always the ones that defeat her through their own cleverness. The main lesson is always intact: you can defeat the evil witch if you try and think hard enough. This lesson is why “Hansel and Gretel” remains a beloved fairy tale. The children are always showcased as the heroes of the story, and if this changed, the premise of the whole story would change.