Davenport Films: Hansel & Gretel

Davenport's retelling of Hansel & Gretel is fairly standard. "Abandoned children in desperate times" is a historical reality and a fantasy trope. Enki, from The Twelve Kingdoms, the astute and practically libertarian Taiho or emperor's advisor, starts his life as an abandoned child. He is savvy and rarely taken in but proves susceptible to another abandoned child's plans. 

Hansel and Gretel come across as equally savvy and resilient yet vulnerable. 

I don't encounter Hansel and Gretel with children as a retold tale very often --other than as a ballet--possibly because it is so entirely self-contained. It's also rather nasty--and often played for laughs. The witch, for example, is quite often played by a male, as in British pantomime. The story does circle around child slavery, child abuse, and murder in self-defense. Dark humor seems the best reaction. 

Hansel and Gretel grown up and hunting monsters (basically, Supernatural, and yeah, both brothers have been Gretel at least once) is much more common. That is, the characters live on, shorn of their tale (but not necessarily their backstory). 

Again, fairy tales were not originally meant to be sweet and fluffy. In the Davenport film, Gretel's desperate attack on the witch is accompanied by a thudding heartbeat. Poe, anyone? 

Entirely appropriate.