Hansel and Gretel is a television special that was made in 1983 for The Disney Channel, directed by Tim Burton. It only aired twice on October 29 and 31, 1983, at 10:30 P.M.[2] 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.[3]

Plot
The film features an entirely East Asian cast as the eponymous characters: a poor toy-maker, his son, Hansel, and daughter, Gretel, and his wicked new wife, 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 attempts to beat them up, but their father stops her, having her send them into their attic bedroom instead. 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.