Hansel and Gretel (2009) is the dark origin story behind the beloved fairy tale. The titular characters are ten and eight, respectively. Their mother, shown in flashbacks as a loving woman, died during the birth of Gretel. Their step-mother, younger and meaner, walks all over their father, who is in his early thirties (but looks about sixty).
One day, while going to the market, Hansel begins imagining a land of candy and sweets. One house in particular, made of gingerbread, stays in his mind. Before going to bed that night, he tells Gretel what he had imagined. He goes to sleep, and imagines the house again. Hansel and Gretel walk inside, only to be tormented by their step-mother. She is about to kill them, but he wakes up in a cold sweat.
The next morning, he tells the family what he had dreamed. To avoid being beaten, he changes the step-mother into an old witch. To seem more heroic (and to tell a good story), he also adds in a new ending, where he and Gretel foil the witch, and throw her in the oven. The parents smile at the ending, where the children come home with a pile of gold. After the story ends, their parents send them back to the market.
I like the dream aspect of your movie. One question you might consider: What is going on his "real life" that is causing Hansel to have such vivid and specific dreams?
ReplyDeleteI also like the dream aspect. I think it is a creative take on the story that still maintains many important aspects of the tale. Where does the mother, to be shown in flashbacks, come in to the story about going to the market and the dream?
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