Blog Entry 3

The original Grimm tale of Hansel and Gretel is different from the MGM version. The Grimm tale included a stepmother who had a strong hatred for her husband’s two children. In the fairy tale by the Grimm Brothers, Hansel and Gretel were forced into the woods by their stepmother and father twice because they had no other way to feed them so they came to a conclusion to leave them in the forest on their own to fend for themselves. In the MGM version, Hansel and Gretel went into the forest because they had let the donkey eat their mother’s food that she had just prepared. So, their stepmother sent them into the forest to pick more berries. The children do not find their way back home in the MGM version; however, in the Grimm tale, the children find their way back once but then the second time they are led to the witch’s house. These two situations make the Grimm tale and the MGM version quite different. In the film and in the tale, the only similarities I noticed were that the children were taken in by the witch and did not know she was a witch until she had already “kidnapped” them and took them under her wing. She made Gretel into a slave and tried fattening up Hansel. The witch still had the eyesight problems and was still killed by Gretel because she had put her in the oven. Conversely, in the MGM version, Gretel did not push the witch. In the film, Gretel uses the witch’s magic against her (the cane) and made her switch places with Hansel who was about to be cooked in the pot. Also in the Grimm tale, the children are guided by a dove to take them back home from the witch's house. In my opinion, the movie directors made these changes to make the movie more “children-friendly.” If children were to watch the movie and the stepmother was as evil as she was in the Grimm tale, children may become afraid that their own mother would leave them to fend for themselves or even die. I would prefer showing the MGM version of Hansel and Gretel to children instead of the Grimm tale just because it is less scary and more interactive with children from of all the songs being sung by children in the movie.