Hansel and Gretel (2002 film)

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Hansel and Gretel is a 2002 film version of the children's story. It stars Jacob Smith and Taylor Momsen as the title characters. This version has some interesing twists to it. It includes the Sand Man, played by Howie Mandel. The children, Hansel and Gretel, also have a stepmother that leads them into the forest. The movie was not advertised very much.

[edit] Plot

The movie begins in a modern home with two kids about to go to bed during a thunderstorm. They ask their father to read them a story to help them feel better (there mother had just died). The dad finds a dusty, old book and decides to read that story. Throughout the movie they stop and go back to the original bedroom, where they are reading the story.

Hansel and Gretel are living with their father and step-mother in a very tiny shack not even fit for an animal to live in. They live on bread crusts, and what their father brings home after hunting. They are very poor. They know their stepmother is evil, but the father doesn't know it. Knowing the family is poor, the father decides to sell the necklace that belonged to their dead mother. But, the stepmother lies and said she would get it ready for the journey to town, but takes it instead! She gives their father a packaged pebble. The next day the stepmother takes the kids for a walk (they have no choice because she is armed with an axe.) in the magic forest. Once they get far enough into the forest, the stepmother abandons them.

While they wander around the forest, they are greated by a Boogey man! But, the sandman comes! He tells the boogey man to scram, and said he would help the children. So, when he had to leave, Hansel and Gretel went looking for food and were tricked into going to a troll's house. They got caught and were then saved by the Sand Man. They also let the glamerous Wood faeire free, which they befriend. Throughout the story the Sand Man and the fairy are always bickering which causes problems at times.

One night when the Sand Man goes out to do his job, and Wood Faeire goes out to see if she can find something for the starving children to eat, and a witch in a nearby house congerous up a storm that seprates the group. (This traps the Wood Faeire under a branch when she makes a shift into a spiky green ball and she can't change back.) Hansel and Gretel wake up to find a house made of candy and chocolate. The lady that lives there invites them in and they eat some delicious food and then go to bed. They wake up the next morning and find the house is just an empty shack with an old lady in it. A raven comes to the window to tell them that the old lady is actually a witch. The witch walks into the room and begins making Gretel cook and Hansel eat. She does this because she's going to eat Hansel and wants him nice and fat. Hansel gains about sixty pounds. Because of certain principles, they break a mirror and the witch looses her glamor. Meanwhile, The Sand Man, who feels unappreciated wanders off and tries to put himself to sleep forever, the wood faeire tells him not to. So, the Sand Man and the fairy find the children, and they walk in and help Hansel and Gretel get the witch into her cauldron and they cook her, killing her. The Sand Man and the fairy take Hansel and Gretel home back to their father and they don't worry about the stepmother. But what ended up happening to her was she went to the troll's house and makes him cook and clean for her. But, the raven comes, and steals her lockett and returns it to the children!

They return to the bedroom of the two kids and their father, and the dad opens the closet to check for monsters for one of the kids. When he opens the closet, the Sand Man and the fairy say hello to the kids, but the father doesn't see them. They explain to the children why the father can't see them and the kids go to bed, ending the film.

                               THE END

[edit] Cast

Jacob Smith as Hansel
Taylor Momsen as Gretel
Alana Austin as Wood Faerie
Gerald McRaney as Father
Lynn Redgrave as Woman and Witch
Dakota Fanning as Katie

Hansel is a clever boy who helps alot in the movie. (Main Character.) He is the brother to Gretel.

Gretel is smart girl who is one of the main characters in the movie.

Wood Faerie is a glamarous fairy who is pretty mean with the wand. She was captured by a troll, and then set free by Hansel and Gretel. She once dated the boogeyman, and then fell for the Sand Man.

Father carer for Hansel and Gretel, husband to the stepmother.

The witch was wicked, and wanted to eat the children.