Movie vs film: Hansel and Gretel

The director of the MGM film of Hansel and Gretel made the classic fairy tale into a musical. This was a decision that made the original tale that is originally gruesome and added a more kid friendly tone to it as most kids would want to see their favorite fairy tale come to life in a movie. The director changed the story by making the evil stepmother become a worried and depressed mother. The film director did this so that kids would not believe that stepparents are necessarily always evil. The mother is worried that everyone in the family will starve due to the fact that the family is poor and has no money to buy food. This makes the mother extremely irritable when the children insult her cooking. She becomes so angry when the donkey eats their food that she sends them out into the forest that is when Hansel and Gretel find the witch's hut. In the story the Stepmother convinces her husband to abandon his kids in the forest in the hopes that they will die. The Stepmother does this because the family will die of starvation. Not because they are poor, but due to a famine. It can be argued that the director made this change to appeal to the audience of children watching once again. However the director adds to the story as well. In the movie the Father asserts himself to the baker who is not paying them properly. This money is enough to put food on the table once again. If the Father in the fairy tale had asserted himself like this to the Stepmother, Hansel and Gretel would never had been sent into the forest in the first place.