So, Hansel and Gretel are just kids who end up in the hands of an evil witch, right? They cook her in the oven, follow their trail of breadcrumbs back home, and that’s the end of the story.
Guess again—this fairytale is not as typical as you thought.
Tommy Wirkola’s 3D film, “Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” presents a new twist to the original story of two lost children. While the plot starts out in the same way, we learn quickly that it doesn’t end when or where we thought.
Though many of us may think we were familiar with this tale, little did we know that Hansel and Gretel grew up to be avid witch hunters.
Within the first ten minutes of the film, audience members are brought up to date with the reputation this famous sibling duo holds and their current mission:
to find six missing children that are thought to have been kidnapped by witches of the nearby deep forest.
Hansel and Gretel first make their appearance in the quaint medieval town of Augsburg, Germany, coming to the rescue of a woman falsely accused of being a witch.
The sheriff in the small town disagrees, believing this woman should be hanged for her acts. In addition, he does not support Hansel and Gretel in their profession.
Such begins the tension between himself and the witch hunting siblings, but not for long the sheriff and his men are soon killed by a troll.
The storyline centers itself around witch killings throughout the forest. All the while, Hansel and Gretel grow more and more curious as to where they came from, and whether or not their origin has something to do with their immunity to witch spells.
The brother and sister know nothing of their parents’ existence or whereabouts and desire to discover and learn about just that. While their main mission is to find and kill witches, woven into the plotline is also their quest to understand who they are and why.
Through a series of events, we realize that Hansel and Gretel have more to their story than we originally may have expected.
“Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters” is seasoned with an original dose of excitement and thrill; first time audience members should prepare for a few surprises along the way get ready to be proven wrong in your plot assumptions.
Rating: 3 Stars (out of 5)
Director: Tommy Wirkola
Cast: Jeremy Renner, Gem- ma Arterton, Famke Janssen, Peter Stormare, Pihla Vitala
Rated: R (for strong fantasy violence and gore, brief sexuality/nudity and language)
Running Time: 88 minutes
The Reel Story: Jeremy Renner and Gemma Arterton star as a grown up Hansel and Gretel duo who hunt witches for a living, and desire to know more about their child- hood and where they came from.