Hansel and Gretel (found Tim Burton short film; 1982)

File:Hansel gretel characters.jpg

Screenshot of the short's three main characters, as taken from Ricsie's VHSRip.

Status: Found

Date found: 13 Jun 2014

Found by: tapio1985, Ricsie

Airing for the first and only time at 10:30 PM, Halloween night of 1983 (on the then-newly launched cable network Disney Channel) was a 35 minute early live action directorial effort of Tim Burton's, titled Hansel and Gretel (a quirky, Japanese-style take on the original Brothers Grimm story); it was created the year before on a modest budget of $116,000. The film was hosted by the late Vincent Price, who had previously worked with Burton on his 1982 short Vincent. Besides its single airing, the only other time Hansel and Gretel was screened for an audience (not counting those following its 2009 re-discovery and restoration) was in May of 1983, when it was shown exclusively to Disney employees.

The short fell into obscurity in the decades following, apparently due to the fact that Burton was somewhat embarrassed by it and that Disney felt that the film's themes were a little too dark and uncomfortable for their child-targeted network. A copy of Hansel and Gretel was eventually re-discovered, restored and made partially available (ie. shown in a limited number of screenings) via various Tim Burton exhibitions around the world in late 2009 through 2012, with the restoration of the film premiering at the New York Museum of Modern Art. Due to the exclusive nature of said screenings, much was left to be desired, as the majority of those who sought the film were simply unable to travel to the aforementioned Burton exhibitions. Notably, a camcorder shot bootleg of Price's intro to the short (recorded at one of the Burton exhibitions) was uploaded to YouTube in January of 2011 by user tapio1985, who also revealed that he was in possession of a bootleg of the majority of the film, but had neglected to upload it due to the video length constraints imposed on YouTube's regular users.

Two years passed and the film once again shrank into obscurity, until tapio1985, in October of 2013, followed through with the rest of his bootleg footage, uploading it to YouTube in 7-8 minute segments. While this was a great deal more footage than most had seen before, tapio1985 had, unfortunately, not managed to capture the entire film (with roughly 10 minutes from the beginning unaccounted for), making for a bittersweet situation for fans and lost media buffs alike. However, in June of 2014, a VHSRip of the complete short (sans Price's intro) miraculously appeared on private torrent tracker Cinemageddon courtesy of user Ricsie, having acquired the rip from an unnamed source who had recorded it during it's lone 1983 airing and whose brother had since digitised the recording. The provision of this VHSRip (which subsequently and inevitably found its way to YouTube), plus tapio1985's previously uploaded bootleg introduction marked the first time that the production (in its entirety) had ever been made available on a wide scale, much to the delight of many; the event went on to garner several write-ups in a variety of online columns in the weeks passing, receiving generally favourable reviews. The bootleg intro by tapio1985, as well as a YouTube mirror of Ricsie's VHSRip of the short remain active as of this article's publication and can be viewed below.

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External links

• tapio1985's (incomplete) bootleg recording of Hansel and Gretel, part 1 of 3; 18 Oct 2013. Last retrieved 07 Nov 2014.
• tapio1985's (incomplete) bootleg recording of Hansel and Gretel, part 2 of 3; 18 Oct 2013. Last retrieved 07 Nov 2014.
• tapio1985's (incomplete) bootleg recording of Hansel and Gretel, part 3 of 3; 18 Oct 2013. Last retrieved 07 Nov 2014.
• MEGA mirror of Ricsie's VHSRip. Last retrieved 07 Nov 2014.

. All other instances of it having been available for public viewing were at various worldwide Tim Burton exhibitions, such as at a Tim Burton retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in late 2009 to early 2010 (for which a then recently rediscovered copy of the film was restored), at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Melbourne, in mid-to-late 2010 (who had loaned the film from the Museum of Modern Art), in 2011 at the LA County Museum of Art (who are now also said to be in possession of a copy of the aforementioned restoration, and who have since released two screenshots of the film online), and at the August 2012 Tim Burton L'Exposition at the Cinémathèque Française, Paris (who are reported to have loaned a copy of the film from the LA County Museum of Art).