dont be greedy!

First off, I want to apologize for the lateness of this post- i forgot that we’re all part of different blogs so my friend in a different one said that her TA emailed them to post a response to the blog, so i was waiting on an email to go post and forgot to just look on the blog site. so im sorry! And will remember to look here next time right after our class meetings on tues.

So for my movie pitch, i am taking a bit from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the issue of greediness from the essay we read. There was one part in Bettelheim’s essay that talks about children and greediness and how they must learn to overcome these destructive desires, for they only lead to more evil and danger. Especially since a lot of times, these desires are for physical satisfaction, and thus appealing to the eye and tempting but are so bad if one gives into temptation.

The story is set in a land far, far away where it is not confined by time or physical space. A drought and famine has hit the land and all is dark, desolate, and dreary. Hansel and Gretel are the 2 eldest in their family of 8 (7 and 5 respectively), so they have the responsible of somehow making some money and finding food for the rest of their brothers and sisters, while their widowed mother is picking the dried up grain and bits and pieces of the abundant harvest just from months ago (their father had died from the lack of food). There was this huge factory where most of the townspeople were employed, that was owned by this mega-millionaire. He had so much money that he didn’t know what to do with it and was bored. He was also very lonely because his beloved wife had died due to being too greedy- she ate too much of the food at one time and then died from complications with digestion. And she failed to bear him children, so he had a great idea. Because of the famine, a lot of families were selling their children away or just plainly abandoning them, so the local orphanage is overfilled and can’t take anymore. His idea was to hold a contest and whomever finished/completed it, he would adopt them and the rest of the family to live with him happily ever after in his mansion. He wanted to make sure that they weren’t greedy, because he could not risk losing someone else he loved to greediness. He would devise a whole obstacle course that lead to a huge feast at the end for the children and their family, but also along the way he would try to distract them with candies littering the ground, or cookies hanging from the trees, or cakes and other delicious pastries lining the pathway. The children had to race each other through the enchanted forest, and whomever gets to the feast first and beats out the others, wins. Also, eating the food along the way will cause them to get fatter and fatter and throughout the obstacle course, there are parts that are tight squeezed and where they have to climb over walls, jump through hoops, squeeze under small spaces, and swing on ropes. So those that were tempted and wanting to satisfy their hunger because they haven’t eaten in so long, will get fatter and fatter and not complete the whole race because they won’t be able to fit through so of the spaces. So long story short, all of the children from the town entered the contest, and one by one they all fall victim to the delicious and appetizing food along the way. Hansel and Gretel encouraged each other not to eat of those, because they could feel that something greater and better awaited them at the end. So they win, eat the wonderful feast with their family, and now lives in the mansion. Oh and the mother and the millionaire marry and they all lived happily ever after!