An Exercise In Nonsense

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

When I was a child,"Hansel And Gretel" used to scare me to death,particularly the bone the unfortunate boy showed to the witch.The Grimm brothers ' widely known fairy tale has undergone some changes and,as far as the parents are concerned ,for the best.David Warner portrays a meek woodcutter who seems a little under her wife 's (Emily Richard)thumb who has sometimes cruel words -but the fairy tales are often cruel- when she tells her children going to bed that they should not awake .The fairy tale revolves round a familiar topic: the fear of starving ,which was not only in fairy tales ("Tom Thumb " is another example ,which shows analogies with "H and G" :the candies ,cannibalism).In this food shortage ,all is temptation:on a small scale ,the baker's shop,and on a larger one,the witch's house.But too much pastry and sweets makes you sick.The second part is ,IMHO,less successful: the children remain true to form ,but I do think that Cloris Leachman overacts and makes her character more ludicrous than really scary .Enough is enough!The same can be said of the final "fireworks".All and all ,it is an enjoyable show for the whole family.Two very interesting variations on the same theme (strictly for adults and teenagers): "Whoever slew Auntie Roo?"(1971) Curtis Harrington."Les Amants Criminels " (1999) François Ozon.

Being a lover of '80s cinema, as well as an appreciator of all things Cannon and Golan-Globus, I was happily surprised to discover that Cannon had made a series of movies about fairy tales that I was unaware of. I managed to get my hands on this one, my first of hopefully many Cannon Movie Tales. The story is the simple one of Hansel and Gretel, padded out enough to make a movie.It starts with the worst family ever. The mom sits at home bitching while the wussy dad (David Warner) lets himself be pushed around and underpaid for the wood he cuts without putting up a fight. The two kids are deeply stupid, singing and dancing around like morons who have no understanding of how messed up their situation is. Maybe this is some subtle propaganda for helping the underprivileged and mentally challenged. The mom gets mad at the kids and sends them off into the woods. Soon the dad returns home having finally sacked up and gotten his money. But now the kids are lost and come upon the candy house of a witch named Griselda (a barely recognizable Cloris Leachman in a nice makeup job). Once the kids get lost, the story gets good. There are spooky woods, creepy gingerbread statues, and a scary witch. It's quite a bit of fun and a nice change of pace from today's over-polished kids films.Despite this being from Cannon, there are no guns anywhere. Nor is there any machismo or heaving bosoms. There are some terrible songs and an often sad story told in the most upbeat manner possible. Also, the most unsettling happy ending ever. It's a good time, though. I will definitely seek out more Cannon Movie Tales and recommend you do the same.

we used to make that analogy of the Hansel and Gretel name when we were kids. for some reason that really scared my female cousin and she seemed to particularly hate that fairy tale always after hearing that. i kind of understood because the analogy gave me the creeps too. although not as much as it seemed to give her.the whole Hasel and Gretel tale really is a whole lot of jeepers creepers. it's pretty morbid stuff. after all it has a very vengeful sense of morality. personally i don't support capital punishment or revenge, the Testament does advise turning the other cheek, but i suppose the witch here is pretty homicidal and carnivorous and doesn't elicit much sympathy. especially the manicky, greedy way she is portrayed at the hands of Cloris Leachman who does it so fiendishly well.everything about this delightful Cannon MovieTale is, shall we say, (ahem),well done. although nothing is ever overdone or over-baked. it's all cooked to delicious perfection.Englebert Humperdink's children's opera has been done successfully, but not in live action movie form. even though Cannon films made their MovieTales on humble budgets, the films looked good and felt like movies, not filmed stage plays like many other fairy tale theaters. fans of Cannon MovieTales also know that their fairy tales are also largely underrated and not often given the attention or credit they so richly deserve.this particular version of the fairy tale opera is worth something just for Cloris Leachman's outstanding performance as the witch. she is very amusing but she is also rather frightening too. it's also nice to see MovieTale star Nicola Stapleton (Snow White) here as well.aside from the obviously politically incorrect message of "witch burning", which is pretty morbid, but a inherent problem in the original telling if you want to be accurate, this film is probably more cultured and refined than a lot of the mindless junk that is usually tossed at kids these days in the movies and on television.this is a good film for kids on a whole but there actually might be some risk of scaring really small children. heck, the movie scared me when i first saw it in the late 80's and i was like, almost thirty.

I first saw this movie in 1988 and recently in 2002 I wished I could watch it again. Fourteen years on, I still remember this film.Everyone plays their part well. It is a fantastic story which can be enjoyed by adults and children alike. The songs are great, the scenery is lovely and when you see the witch's house and garden, I think you'll agree that they are excellent.I don't need to go into detail about the story. We all know it unless we've been living in a cave for years. Even though you know what the film's conclusion is going to be before you see it, it doesn't detract from the enjoyment.Check this movie out. However, you'll have a hard time doing that because I haven't spotted it on TV, cable or at a video store since I first saw it. Perhaps someone will release it onto DVD one day.