Hansel and Gretel

This is another of the beautiful Cannon Movie Tales,that aired on the Disney Channel starting in the late 80's and on ito mid-90's.This one is beautifully photographed.The songs are adapted from the opera so they are not new but are still beautiful.I saw this at about 7:00 on a Friday night on The Disney Channel.I fell in love with it and could not find it anywhere.Luckely,Amazon had a copy.It has not lost its charm.Cloris Leachman is the most evil witch ever filmed.She gave me the creeps.This film is ideal for family viewing.Little children will be frightened so make shure you are there for a person to lean on.

The Cannon Movie Tales adaptations of famous fairy tales is an interesting little series, and while there are some faring better than others and a few that are less than brilliant, others are well done and charming. Hansel and Gretel is one of the finer examples of the latter, and gets my vote as the best of the series.

It's not without its flaws, all of the films in the series do, some bigger and more serious than others. The low-budget does show in the less than inspiring and too-fancy-dress-like costumes and the witch's death underwhelms, instead of being nail-biting like in the story the way it's done here causes some unintentional humour.

Visually, however, on the most part Hansel and Gretel is actually one of the better-looking Cannon Movie Tales films. It's lovingly photographed and has charming, colourful settings and a fantastically realised Witch's House, its delicious to look at, but at the same time quite nightmarish, design being one of the standout set designs of the Cannon Movie Tales films. The songs, adapted from Humperdinck's wonderful opera, are simply lovely and are beautifully adapted, with the best performed being Sugar and Spice and the most effective melodically being A Fairy Song. The script is filled with fun and charm, and also with a real sense of dread in the second half, while the story adaptation-wise follows the Grimm story fairly closely while expanding on some parts, though actually it's closer to the story of the opera.

The storytelling is whimsical and charming, while also witty and poignant, the Witch and her scenes also effectively induces nightmares without distorting the tone (the Witch scenes are quite dark) and are pretty tastefully handled. The film's nicely directed, and the performances are solid with the standout being Cloris Leachman as the Witch. Her make-up is excellent, and Leachman clearly has a ball without over-compensating too much and is genuinely frightening. Hugh Pollard and Nicola Stapleton are appealing as Hansel and Gretel and David Warner does bring a touching degree to a character who could easily have been portrayed as an idiot going by how he was written.

Overall, a winner from the Cannon Movie Tales series and my vote for their best. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I watched this film when I was about 6 or 7 and absolutely loved it. I used to rent it along with two other films from the same company, Puss in Boots and Snow White. When I was about 11 the video shop closed down and since then I have been searching for this film. I can still remember the words to the songs and I am now 21! Finally I have found a copy of it and cannot wait til I get it. I'm sure my son will enjoy it as much now as I did then. It is well recommended for children of all ages, although some children may find the witch a little frightening, it just depends on the child. It is a hard film to find but I would recommend looking for it and the other titles I mentioned earlier, it will be a well loved film for children and for adults!

Ok, I own 300 movies of my own and I am 14! So what does that tell you? I have seen a lot of versions of Hansel and Gretel, but I must say that I like this one a lot. It is different from the everyday story that you hear. That is what makes it interesting. I like this a lot. I think that the actors/actresses did their parts very well!! This is a movie that is good for the whole family to see!! Well, that's it.

I think this is a great movie from the Cannon Theatre... but you might want to keep it away from extremely young kids. it scared me so badly that even today, at 19, I have to fast forward through scenes. There are things that just scar you ... ya know? Grizelda the Witch was more terrifying than the Witch of the West in "Wizard of Oz". All around, a very good farie tale, but not my favorite out of the series.