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

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 have not seen all of the Cannon Movie Tales but so far I like this one best. This fairy tale was always interesting as a kid because of the house made of cookies and candy. Which kid would not love to find that! The candy house really came across as real so well done on the makers there. The story is pretty true adaptation but more elaborated. I'm glad they didn't make the mother so cold as in the original tale where she didn't seem to care about them. Nicola Stapleton was a nice little Snow White and plays the role of Gretl eagerly well but so does Hansel. But the real star is the evil witch, she is so ugly and scary, really I wouldn't want to be trapped in that house with her even not as adult. And all that sugary food shown it makes you want to have pie and cake for real! I think the movie found the perfect balance between scary (the witch) and sweet (thanks to the songs).

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.