Hansel et Gretel (Film, 1987) – Wikipedia

Hansel et Gretel ( Hansel and Gretel ) is an American film directed by Len Talan released in 1987.

Hansel and Gretel are the two children of a poor family. Their mother, worried about their poverty, and their father, continuously abused by the worrying baker of the village, learn that the children of the surroundings have mysteriously disappeared for some time, without leaving traces. They receive from their neighbor milk and eggs. While the two children have fun in the kitchen, the donkey escapes from its enclosure, drops the milk jug and eat the cake that their mother prepared with the eggs. Very angry, she sends them to seek wild berries. Braving the ban on their father, Hansel and Gretel decide to seek these wild berries in the mysterious forest.

Along the way, they discover a house entirely built in gingerbread and chocolate, surrounded by a long hedge made of large men’s bread men. The old woman living in this house welcomes them with joy … She invites them to her kitchen and serves them a hearty meal. They agree to stay sleeping at home in a small room.

Unfortunately for children, this cake house is actually the lair of a witch. Before dawn, Gretel hears strange noises. She goes down to the kitchen and discovers the witch formulating a spell. Frightened, she runs to warn her brother, but the witch burst into the room and throws a spell that makes them motionless and docile: thanks to this “hocus pocus”, she declares that Hansel will be “his prey” and that Gretel will be her slave.

The next morning, Hansel was locked in a large cage hanging from the ceiling. Gretel is forced to prepare huge amounts of pies and pastries. By going to draw water from the well, she understands that the gingerbread men are in fact the children who had mysteriously disappeared and that the witch captured.

The witch spends long hours cooking and gorging Hansel so that it becomes fat and fat. The boy protests but he is forced to eat the huge amounts of foods that we have prepared for him. He begins to fatten, and the witch is delighted to find him more plump: to make sure, she asks to feel one of her fingers, which she still inspects with a Lorgnon always hanged on her neck.

As Hansel refuses to continue to make, the witch threatens him to kill her little sister. The boy, frightened, agrees to eat as much as she wants. The witch then gives her a big roast chicken, which Hansel forces herself to devour in front of her. During the night, he manages to wake Greetel and asks him to steal the lorgnon of the witch, which is almost blind.

Gretel tries to remove the Lorgnon, but the witch is still on guard. She feeds Hansel more and more, and gets angry with Gretel, who does not cook fast enough. When she shows him how to pound nuts, Gretel shows address and slides the Lorgnon under the hammer: the witch breaks it herself. Hansel is comforted, while he complained of “bursting” in the cage soon.

The witch makes Gretel work more than ever, with rage, and she continues to stuff Hansel as a goose. However, when she asks him to present one of her fingers to take him, the boy gives him a chicken bone. Without her eyewear, the witch does not realize the deception, and she is very surprised to see that Hansel has lost weight instead of growing …

While Hane must be plunged into the oven by the witch, Gretel takes his wand and overthrows his magic formula: thanks to this “hocus pocus”, the witch takes the place of Hansel and soon finds itself locked in the oven. The children run away, and the spice bread men burst around the house: the children that the witch had cooked in her magic oven are finally free.

All the children end up finding the parents of Hansel and Gretel, who had gone to their search. They return to the village singing.

Most of the music from the film is taken from Humperdinck’s opera, Hansel and Gretel (1893).

• Generic under the air of Type hands
• Type hands : the host of the Guignol, Hansel, Gretel and other children’s show
• Type hands (recovery) – Hansel et Gretel
• Fairy song – Gretel
• What a beautiful day ( Oh What a Day ) – father of Hansel and Gretel
• Sugars, spices – Grizelda
• Credits The witch is dead – Choirs
• The main song of the film, Type hands , is a German rhyme.

• Audiovisual resources :