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Hansel & Gretel: Journey through History

Santiago Aguila, Asma Yaiche, Sarah Gruenberg.

The Original Tale

Written in 1812, Hansel and Gretel by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, also known as the Brothers Grimm, is the first written version we have of this tale. The two siblings are left in the forrest by their parents, abondandoned and then lost. We are introduced to the gingerbread house, a witch, and the dark themes of cannibalism, murder, and abondonment. This tale was written as a way for the Brothers to perserve german culture and folklore, not as a childrens tale. It provided real context to the authentic state of Europes relatively recent history. Coming out of a time of great famine. Giving context to the desperate extremes one had to go to for sustanance to survive. A time of scarcity in resorce.

Original

Hansel and Gretel Opera:

The Hansel and Gretel Opera was composed by Engelbert Humperdinck and performed from 1893 till now. Hansel and Gretel are sent into the Dark Woods to go fetch strawberries. Then they get lost and meet the Sandman and the Dew Fairy who help them until they meet Rosina Tastymuzzle, the evil witch. The children defeat the witch.

The Opera is significantly notable because of the fact it has continued to widely share Hansel and Gretel in a very close format to the original, but altering why the childern are lost in the forrest. Bringing into conversation, new questions due to societal development from when it was initially performed, to now.

Opera

Familial Evolution

Deriving from The Grimm Brothers in early adaptations of Hansel and Gretel, we see the storyline staying quite similar to the original format. This allowed for a lot of creativity and statement to be made in the accompanying illustrations of this folktale. With the presentation of the parents rather casually abandoning their children in the forest, societal views of this changed as familial structures had and were undergoing change as well. The biggest cause of this was the change in infant mortality rates and overall reproduction rates.

Familial Evolution

Author-illustrator Anthony Browne Adaption

1981

This 1981 apdaption is of grand importantance due to the conflicting illustrations showing characters with modern dress and possessions, to a storyline that still tells the orginal dark narritive that we are fimilar with. The evolution of material life shown brings concern to the seemily casual detachmnet the parents have to the children.

Hansel & Gretel by Rika Lesser; illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky

1984

- Children appearing very adult-like in dress and looking rather not childlike in disposition

- A dynamic of competition between youth and adults

- in contrast to the 1981 adaption, Zelinsky keeps his imagery more true to the original, thus presenting a beautiful tale to be once again analyzed in our society after more than a hundred years of familiar evolution from the original.

The Globalization-In the 1900s

- The 1900s was a period of significant economic transfarmation marked by:

• The Second Industrial Revolution: the 1900s saw the continuation of the development of new manufacturing processes, factory production, and new technologies that started in the 18th century.

• The Rise of Global Trade: the 1900s saw the exchange of goods and services across borders using transportation and communication.

• The Pst-WWII Economic Boom: after the second Worlf War, the global economy experienced a period of rapid growth and prosperity.

• Globalization: The latter half of the 20th century saw the development of new supply chains and trading relationships, which increased competition for jobs and resources.

- Therefore, greed that has been a part of the human nature for centuries, is being fighted by several movements and even in fairy tales such as in ''Hansel and Gretel'' where this theme has been adapted and modified in various ways and in different movie adaptations, providing new angles and perspectives to explore its concept in different contexts.

Globalization

Hansel and Gretel - 1949:

1

- During the 1900s, the story of "Hansel and Gretel" began to be written down and published in books. This led to a more standardized version of the story that was widely circulated and popularized.

- One of the most notable changes to the story was the addition of the gingerbread house.

- In the earlier versions of the story; ''Hansel and Gretel'' by Hugh W. Comstock in 1949, the witch's house was typically made of other materials, such as wood or stone (log house). However, the image of the gingerbread, cake, and candy house became a popular motif during the second industrical revolution, the rise of the global trade, and The Pst-WWII Economic Boom as sugar and other sweets became more widely available and affordable.

- The including of the cake, or candy house in ''Hansel and Gretel'' story wasn't only for showing the economical level. But also, to depicate characters pursuing material wealth and consumer goods

The True Story of Hansel and Gretel - 2003

2

- ''The True Story of Hansel and Gretel'' by Louis Murphy in 2003 is a fairy tale that is reimagined and a war story that is retold. It is a story of individuals striving to survive and a village trying to outlast a war (Second World War).

- This story is set during the Holocaust (in 1943) and features two Jewish siblings who run away from their village (abandoned) and end up lost in the forest. They stumble upon a cabin that it is owned by a kind old woman, but soon they discover that she is harboring a group of Jewish refugees. The siblings are taken in by the group and must survive in the harsh conditions of the forest while avoiding Nazi patrols.

- In this version, Murphy presents the war as a landescape of horrors, the village humiliated under the yoke of ruthless SS (Schutzstaffel) officers and by the necessities of survival under unbearable circumstances.

The Gingerbread house:

- ''The Gingerbread house'' by Nanette Norry is a story that set during the Industrial Revolution and features two orphaned siblings who must work in a factory to survive. But one day they decide to escape the factory. While, they are on the road, they find a shelter in a gingerbread house.However, they soon discover that it is owned by a wicked woman who plans to use them as slave labor.

- In this story we can see than these two orphaned siblings share the approximately the same fate with Hansel and Gretel since both has been escaped/abandoned, suffered from hunger and greed, benefit from a stranger's house, and their final destiny was a witch.

The Reinvention - Early 2000s

  • The early 2000s saw a change in child right laws:
  • 2002: First instance of child delegates the United Nations General Assembely detailing the prospects of Children over the next decade
  • 2006: Publishing of "The Manual for the Measurment of Juvenile Justive"
  • 2010: The UN published the "Status of Convention on the Rights of the Child"

As a result the media (especially childrens media) began to change. Previously "frightening" topics were now satirised for younger audiences.

  • Shrek (2001)
  • Fairly Odd Parents (2001)
  • Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone (2001)
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends (2004)
  • Hoodwinked (2005)
  • Ben 10 (2005)

Reinvention

Suite Life on Deck (2009)

The entire episode is based on the satirisation of different Fairy Tales:

  • Snow White
  • Cinderella
  • Little Red Riding Hood
  • Jack and the Beanstalk
  • Hansel & Gretel

Plays alot into the comedy and absurdity of the situation.

  • 1 brother being quite openly aware of the danger presented through the witch.
  • While the other is incredibly oblivious
  • The dialogue is interesting as all nuance of the original Grimm Brothers tale is lost. With referenced to modern technology like insulin, treadmils and dieting
  • The two brothers represent the old and new perception of children.
  • Gretel (brown) shows an aware, mature and sensitive representaiton of a child
  • Hansel (Black) is greedy, gluttonous and ignorant child

Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters (2013)

Follows the grown up versions of Hansel and Gretel who now travel around a steampunk inspired world as mercenaries eliminating towns of witches.

  • This R rated movie features cartoonish violence, exessive swear words and sexual references

This movie was not one of the first "mature versions" of fairytales.

  • Represents the most extreme of the genre.
  • Largely because new avenues for media were needed as the stale nature of action movies were drying out.
  • These movies allowed for a catarthic response from audiences that grew up with many of these classic fairy tale characters
  • By putting them in a new, darker setting with aspects familiar to our world.
  • This allowed for maturer audiences to live vicuriously through gore, sex, murder and darker themes

Similar Examples

Dark Shadows (2012)

Snow White & the Huntsman (2012)

Bright (2017)

Horror Movie Era (2013-2020)

Once the market because more adept to adaptations of fairy tales in paletable "action movies". Logically Horror was the next genre to be touched upon.

Surprisingly there were quite alot of horror adaptations of Hansel & Gretel.

  • The only really substance many of these horror movies have is "oh look at this scary version of an otherwise unscary story!
  • Alot of these Hansel and Gretel Adaptations play alot into cannablism, greed and hunger
  • Important, in context as these themes are not specific to Hansel and Gretel BUT this story does provide a very accessible aspect, explaining why so many directors are drawn to this tale.

These adaptation of Hansel and Gretel (and other fairy tale/horrors). Demonstrate, sadly i think the decline of fairy tales because of their oversaturation. The Fairy tales that are popular now are the ones that really "water down" the elements that the originals had.

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