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The Story of Hansel and Gretel (also internationally known as Hansel and Gretel, as The Adventures of Hansel and Gretel in Argentina and as The Littlest Outlaws in the UK) is a 1958 American animated musical fantasy adventure film produced and distributed by DW Film Pictures. It is directed by Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, and Don Patterson and features the voices of TBD.
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Loosely based on the fairy tale Hansel and Gretel by the Brothers Grimm, the film tells the story of two 6-year-old siblings named Hansel and Gretel, who get lost in the forest and become robbers to rob the rich and give to the poor while meeting several characters such as forest imp Prin, the Beatnik Badger Bros., woodpecker Driller, beaver Flattail, duck Wally, timid bear Pawprint, and the evil witch Mrs. Julia and her dimwitted raven Stup, who live in a house constructed of cake, confectionery, candy, and many more treats and had kidnapped the king.
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Plot[]
Set in medieval Germany, Hansel and Gretel are the rebellious and not well-behaved 6-year-old twin children of a poor woodcutter who lives in the forest with his wicked new wife, who overtly despises her stepchildren. One evening at dinner, Hansel and Gretel decide to tease their stepmother. She becomes so fed up with their mischiefs that she attempts to beat them up, but their father stops her, having her send them into their artic bedroom instead. The stepmother decides to take them into the woods and leave them there. The woodcutter opposes the plan, but his wife claims that maybe a stranger will take the children in and provide for them. With the scheme seemingly justified, the woodcutter reluctantly is forced to submit to it. They are unaware that Hansel and Gretel have overheard them. After the parents have gone to bed, Hansel and Gretel sneak out of the house and gather as many white pebbles as they can.
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 then they followed the pebbles back home. They return home safely, much to their stepmother's rage. Once again, Hansel and Gretel are still pranking the stepmother, who 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 discover it impossible to escape.
The following morning, the family treks into the woods. Gretel takes a slice of bread and leaves a trail of bread crumbs for her and Hansel to follow to return back home. However, after they are once again abandoned, they find that the birds have eaten the crumbs and they are lost in the woods. While wandering around the forest, Hansel and Gretel are kidnapped by three thieves, who take them to their hideout. The next day, Hansel and Gretel are forced out to go around a heisting spree and confidentially rob the town until they are chased by guards. While the children successfully escape back to the forest, their masters are captured and taken to the king, who demands the guards to capture Hansel and Gretel as well.
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Cast[]
- Dick Beals as Hansel, TBD
- Jean Vander Pyl as Gretel, TBD
- Anna and Thomas Wilson as Princess Josephine and Prince William, the 6-year-old twin children of the King and Hansel and Gretel's love interests.
- Margaret Halmiton as Mrs. Julia, a ruthless and cruel witch who plots to kidnap the king.
- Halmiton also voices the Stepmother.
- Mel Blanc as Stup the Raven (with an impression based on Al Pearce's character Elmer Blurt), TBD
- Blanc also voices:
- Willy Duck - TBD
- Prin - TBD
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- The two guards and the singing donkey who take Hansel and Gretel to the dungeon.
- Blanc also voices:
- Paul Frees as the King, TBD
- Jerry Colonna as the Captain of the Guards, the dimwitted yet well-meaning captain of the kingdom's guards who tries to find and arrest Hansel and Gretel. He serves as one of the film's comic reliefs.
- Colonna also voices
- Driller Woodpecker - TBD
- Flattail Beaver - TBD
- A guard
- Colonna also voices
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- Bud Abbott, Jerry Lewis and Bing Crosby as the Thieves - TBD
- Ed Wynn as the Father
- Dora Wilson as a village woman
- Hal Smith as the narrator
Production[]
Story development[]
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Animation[]
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Music[]
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Cinematic influences[]
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Music[]
Score[]
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Songs[]
The film consists of 11 songs listed in order.
- [Opening credits song]
- Oh, Poor Us
- Heisting Around - sung by Hansel and Gretel's thief masters, who inform Hansel and Gretel during their heisting job around the village.
- Busy as a Beaver
- The Recipe Song
- Leave It to Us (The Animals' Song) - sung by the animals while teaching Hansel and Gretel about how to rob.
- [Song sung by Bing Crosby during Hansel and Gretel's robbery spree around the kingdom]
- [Song sung by Hansel to rally Gretel's spirit during their time in the dungeon]
- [Mrs. Julia's second villain song similar to "Someone's in My House" from Bartok the Magnificent]
- [Song sung by the townspeople celebrating Hansel and Gretel for rescuing the King]
- [Opening credits song's Finale reprise]
Release[]
Original theatrical run[]
Re-releases[]
Home media[]
Reception[]
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Critical reception[]
Accolades[]
Differences from the fairy tale[]
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Trivia[]
- This is considered the most well-known film adaptation of Hansel and Gretel and one of its fewer film adaptations not to be a horror film.
- With a running time of 140 minutes, The Story of Hansel and Gretel is one of the longest DreamWorks animated films after All Dogs Go to Heaven, Trolls, Paulie, All Dogs Go to Heaven 2 (post-1999 releases), Toyland, The Prince and the Pauper, TBD, and Casper and Wendy.
- Gretel, Janice from Headin' South, Jane from Toyland, Gerda from The Snow Queen, Mary Lennox from The Secret Garden, Lucy from The Chronicles of Narnia, Sally from Friendly, Alma from Elefriend, and Alice and Miss Bianca from Disney's Alice in Wonderland and The Rescuers, respectively are considered by American animation historian TBD, as precursors to moden day animated female protagonists in American animated films, as most female protagonists in pre-1980s American animated films (e.j. Snow White from Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) mostly either were damsels in distress or had brief screen time. Charles Brubaker, the author of the website Cartoon Research, praised both Janice, Gerda and Gretel as "the very first headstrong and determined heroines in an animated film". Also, according to other animation historian Jerry Beck, the depiction of Gretel as an active heroine influenced other female protagonists in aninated films as of the late 90s starting with Disney's Pocahontas (1995) and Mulan (1998) and Don Bluth's Anastasia (1997).
- According to Dora Wilson, the idea of Gretel being the leader of the sibling duo was that "due to her having a great impact in the latter part of the story by locking the witch in the oven, [Wilson] feel that Gretel would be the leader of the two siblings", and that the idea of Gretel being shown as a dysfunctional and co-dependent girl was inspired by the Dreamtoons character Red Riding Hood.
- In a 2011 interview, writer Adam Gidwitz credited The Story of Hansel and Gretel as the inspiration for writing his novel A Tale Dark and Grimm, which is also a retelling of Hansel and Gretel that expand the story after they escape the witch's gingerbread house.
- This and Headin' South were the only two DreamWorks films to get detailed Laserdisc releases.
- The 2012 Blu-Ray release is considered one of the most sought after Blu-rays out of the DreamWorks Classic Treasures line.
- Two of the many people Hansel and Gretel rob during the "TBD" song sequence (the two passengers in the carriage) later made an cameo appearance in the 2006 direct-to-video film Shrek 2: Kingdom of Far Far Away (a crossover sequel to 2001's Shrek and 2004's Puss in Boots), being robbed by Puss in Boots to get a new outfit to the now-human Shrek. After Shrek, Donkey and Puss leave, one of the men even says, "We were first robbed by a pair of 6-year-old children, and now this?".
- Nowadays, aside with The Prince and the Pauper, some people consider The Story of Hansel and Gretel as the "predecessor" to the Fractured Fable Trilogy franchise.
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