Babes in the Woods

1932 animated short film directed by Burt Gillett

This article is about the Silly Symphonies animated film. For the children's tale, see Babes in the Wood. For other uses, see Babes in the Wood (disambiguation).

Babes in the Woods

Directed by| Burt Gillett
Produced by| Walt Disney
Color process| Technicolor

Production
company

Walt Disney Productions

Distributed by| United Artists

Release date

* November 19, 1932 (1932-11-19)

Running time

| 8 minutes
Country| United States
Language| English

Babes in the Woods is a 1932 Silly Symphonies animated short film produced by Walt Disney.[1]

It is a re-working of the British folk tale Babes in the Wood, with some material incorporated from Brothers Grimm's Hansel and Gretel, the Russian folk tale The boy and the witch, and the addition of a village of friendly elves (a feature not traditionally present in either tale) and a happier ending.

It is the last Disney short to produce with Cinephone synchronized sound system.

## Plot

[edit]

The film opens with birds flying around the "Witch Rock", as a singing voice starts to recount the legend relating to it as told in the storybooks. Hansel and Gretel wander the woods and stumble upon a village of dwarfs. They are welcomed in until a witch comes and takes them away on her broom to her candy house. The witch watches them eat the house and invites them inside the house, which is revealed to be filled with cages and handcuffs, with ugly animals that are all in fact transformed children ("Lizards, rats, spiders and bats. That's what I make of all little brats!").

The witch turns Hansel into a spider with a potion and chains him to a post. She then takes a spoonful of a brew from a cauldron on the fireplace and throws it onto a noisy cat, turning it into stone. She takes Gretel and tries to turn her into a rat, but an arrow from outside smashes the potion. The witch then locks Gretel beneath the floor and goes out to see that the dwarfs have come to the rescue of Hansel and Gretel.

While the witch is fighting the dwarfs, Hansel frees his sister and in the process discovers the antidote to the earlier potion, which they then use to return the other children to normal. Finally, the witch falls from her broom and into her cauldron from the sky and turns into stone, turning into the Witch Rock. The children and dwarfs celebrate their victory over the witch, and thus the story of the Witch Rock is passed down to legend.

## Home media

[edit]

The short was released on December 4, 2001, on Walt Disney Treasures: Silly Symphonies - The Historic Musical Animated Classics.[2][1]

This short was released also in bonus on the Diamond Edition blu-ray of 2009 of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.[3]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b Merritt, Russell; Kaufman, J. B. (2016). Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series (2nd ed.). Glendale, CA: Disney Editions. pp. 118–119\. ISBN 978-1-4847-5132-9.
2. ^ "Silly Symphonies: The Historic Musical Animated Classics DVD Review". DVD Dizzy. Retrieved February 20, 2021.
3. ^ https://dvdizzy.com/snowwhite-diamondeditionb.html

## External links

[edit]

* Babes in the Woods at IMDb
* Babes in the Woods at disneyshorts.org
* Blog de Babes in the Woods Archived April 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine (in French)

* v
* t
* e

Silly Symphony film series

1929|

* The Skeleton Dance
* El Terrible Toreador
* Springtime
* Hell's Bells
* The Merry Dwarfs

1930|

* Summer
* Autumn
* Cannibal Capers
* Frolicking Fish
* Arctic Antics
* Midnight in a Toy Shop
* Night
* Monkey Melodies
* Winter
* Playful Pan

1931|

* Birds of a Feather
* Mother Goose Melodies
* The China Plate
* The Busy Beavers
* The Cat's Out
* Egyptian Melodies
* The Clock Store
* The Spider and the Fly
* The Fox Hunt
* The Ugly Duckling

1932|

* The Bird Store
* The Bears and Bees
* Just Dogs
* Flowers and Trees
* King Neptune
* Bugs in Love
* Babes in the Woods
* Santa's Workshop

1933|

* Birds in the Spring
* Father Noah's Ark
* Three Little Pigs
* Old King Cole
* Lullaby Land
* The Pied Piper
* The Night Before Christmas

1934|

* The China Shop
* The Grasshopper and the Ants
* Funny Little Bunnies
* The Big Bad Wolf
* The Wise Little Hen
* The Flying Mouse
* Peculiar Penguins
* The Goddess of Spring

1935|

* The Tortoise and the Hare
* The Golden Touch
* The Robber Kitten
* Water Babies
* The Cookie Carnival
* Who Killed Cock Robin?
* Music Land
* Three Orphan Kittens
* Cock o' the Walk
* Broken Toys

1936|

* Elmer Elephant
* Three Little Wolves
* Toby Tortoise Returns
* Three Blind Mouseketeers
* The Country Cousin
* Mother Pluto
* More Kittens

1937|

* Woodland Café
* Little Hiawatha
* The Old Mill

1938|

* Moth and the Flame
* Wynken, Blynken, and Nod
* Farmyard Symphony
* Merbabies
* Mother Goose Goes Hollywood

1939|

* The Practical Pig
* The Ugly Duckling

Related|

* Donald Duck
* Comic strip
* Silly Symphonies: The Complete Disney Classics
* Bucky Bug
* "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"
* The Thrifty Pig
* Mickey Mouse Works
* Once Upon a Studio
* Disney Magic Kingdoms

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Films directed by Burt Gillett

* Wild Waves (1929)
* Cannibal Capers (1930)
* Frolicking Fish (1930)
* The Fire Fighters (1930)
* The Shindig (1930)
* The Chain Gang (1930)
* Monkey Melodies (1930)
* The Gorilla Mystery (1930)
* The Picnic (1930)
* Winter (1930)
* Pioneer Days (1930)
* Playful Pan (1930)
* The Birthday Party (1931)
* Birds of a Feather (1931)
* Traffic Troubles (1931)
* Mother Goose Melodies (1931)
* The Moose Hunt (1931)
* The Delivery Boy (1931)
* The Busy Beavers (1931)
* Mickey Steps Out (1931)
* Blue Rhythm (1931)
* Fishin' Around (1931)
* The Beach Party (1931)
* Mickey Cuts Up (1931)
* Mickey's Orphans (1931)
* The Duck Hunt (1932)
* The Mad Dog (1932)
* Just Dogs (1932)
* Flowers and Trees (1932)
* Mickey's Nightmare (1932)
* King Neptune (1932)
* Bugs in Love (1932)
* The Wayward Canary (1932)
* Babes in the Woods (1932)
* Mickey's Good Deed (1932)
* Mickey's Pal Pluto (1933)
* Ye Olden Days (1933)
* Three Little Pigs (1933)
* Mickey's Gala Premier (1933)
* The Steeple Chase (1933)
* Giantland (1933)
* Shanghaied (1934)
* Playful Pluto (1934)
* The Big Bad Wolf (1934)
* Gulliver Mickey (1934)
* Orphan's Benefit (1934)
* Mickey Plays Papa (1934)
* The Sunshine Makers (1935)
* Scotty Finds a Home (1935)
* Lonesome Ghosts (1937)
* Moth and the Flame (1938)
* Brave Little Tailor (1938)

* v
* t
* e

"Hansel and Gretel" by the Brothers Grimm

Film|

* Hansel and Gretel (directed by Walter Janssen) (1954)
* Hansel and Gretel (directed by Fritz Genschow) (1954)
* Whoever Slew Auntie Roo? (1971)
* Hansel and Gretel (1987)
* Hansel and Gretel (2002)
* Hansel and Gretel (2007)
* Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
* Hansel & Gretel (2013)
* Hansel & Gretel Get Baked (2013)
* Hansel vs. Gretel (2015)
* Gretel & Hansel (2020)

Animation|

* Babes in the Woods (1932)
* The Candy House (1934)
* Bewitched Bunny (1954)
* Hansel and Gretel: An Opera Fantasy (1954)
* Get Lost (1956)
* "Treehouse of Horror XI" (2000)
* Secret Magic Control Agency (2021)
* A Tale Dark & Grimm (2021)

TV|

* Hansel and Gretel (1958)
* Hansel and Gretel (1983)
* Once Upon a Time (2011) ("True North", "Chosen")
* Witchslayer Gretl (2012)

Opera|

* Hansel and Gretel

Other|

* Freeway II: Confessions of a Trickbaby (1999)
* Terror Toons 2: The Sick and Silly Show (2007)
* Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011)
* Teeny-Tiny and the Witch-Woman

This article about a Disney animated film is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

|

* v
* t
* e

*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template