Babes in the Woods

Babes in the Woods is a 1932 Silly Symphonies animated film.

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

Plot
"'Once upon a time, a story was told about fairies and goblins and witches of old. They haunted the forests and meadows and dells and this is the legend the storybooks tell: Oh, don't you remember a long time ago? When two little babes, whose names I don't know. They wandered away on a fine summers day and were lost in a wood, I've heard people say.'" Hansel and Gretel stumble on a clearing in the woods where elves are going about their business. The elves are friendly to the children. A witch comes and takes them away on her broom to her gingerbread house, where she turns nasty on them, turning Hansel into a spider, her yowling cat to stone, and tries to turn Gretel into a rat when an elf's arrow stops her. While the elves are fighting the witch, Hansel and Gretel free the other children who have been imprisoned and transformed by the witch. Finally, the witch falls from her broom and lands in the cauldron containing the brew that turns living things to stone, and fatally becomes a large rock, which would be known as the Witch Rock.