Hansel and Gretel (1982 Disney film)

Hansel and Gretel
Written by	Julie Hickson
Story by	The Brothers Grimm
Directed by	Tim Burton
Production
Producer(s)	Julie Hickson Rick Heinrichs
Release
Original network	The Disney Channel
Original release	October 31, 1983

Hansel and Gretel is a TV special that was made in 1983 for Disney directed by Tim Burton. It only aired once on October 31, 1983 at 10:30pm. The only other times it was shown was as part of the Tim Burton retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and the Tim Burton L'Exposition at the Cinémathèque Française in Paris as part of a traveling exhibit.

The story features an all-Asian cast as the eponymous characters: a poor toymaker (played by Jim Ishida), his son, Hansel, and daughter, Gretel (played by Andy Lee and Allison Hong), and his wicked new wife (played by Michael Yama), who overtly despises her stepchildren. One evening at dinner, Hansel and Gretel decide to tease their stepmother. She becomes so fed up of their games that she hits them and sends them into their attic bedroom. Their father waits until his cruel wife is asleep and goes into the attic with a small clown puppet he'd made and a few cookies he'd sneaked for them to cheer the children up. He then puts the children to bed and sets down a small swan toy before turning into bed himself.

The next morning, the stepmother decides to take Hansel and Gretel for a walk in the labyrinthine forest. Certain that the children would be unable to find their way out on their own, she abandons them by tossing a small firework toy in the children's path to distract them. Unbeknownst to their wicked stepmother, Gretel had told Hansel to pick up a pile of small stones near the house and drop them so they may find their way home, knowing their stepmother's plot. The children manage to find their way back home that same evening using the stones Hansel had dropped.

While their father is in town selling his toys the next morning, the children's stepmother, unhappy with their return, decides to take the children on another walk in the woods. Before leaving the house, she gives the children a toy duck, telling them it is one of their father's toys. The children, not trusting their stepmother, once again leave a trail of stones behind them on their path. As they walked, the toy duck they were dragging had, unbeknownst to them, been eating the stone trail they left along the way. Once again they find themselves deserted in the woods, but this time with no direction home. Hansel and Gretel have no choice but to sleep in the woods that night. As they slept, the toy duck slowly transforms into a small toy robot which leads them to a house made of gingerbread and candy.

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