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During the course of Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters the town of Augsburg is repeatedly depicted in a rather rural style, with half-timbered clay houses and dirt streets, as seen on this screenshot from Mina's trial at the beginning: enter image description here

Yet at the end (and only there), when Hansel and Gretel get their pay for returning the children, it shows a much higher developed part of the town, with large stone buildings and cobblestone streets, as seen here: enter image description here

Is there any information if this change of depicting the town at the end was done on purpose? And if yes, what is the meaning of this (was it maybe just to emphasize the effect of the happy ending)?

(Of course it could also be that there wasn't much more to it and it was just a natural consequence of them being at a different part of town, but the difference to the previous depictions of the town struck me as pretty significant.)

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I think you are looking at two areas of the same town - the village parts where regular people live and work, and the city center/ market square - where the wealthier business people, government and church would be, and where the heroes would be honored for their great deeds.

Some interesting links about the sets:

http://carlyreddin.com/Hansel-Gretel-Witch-Hunters Click through to the next two pages to see hand drawings of the village sets

http://whatculture.com/film/set-report-hansel-gretel-witch-hunters.php Explains (with photos) how they transformed the castle square in Brunswick into a medieval market for the film

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bondbulletin/sets/72157626395815566/ More photos of the market place where the witch burning was filmed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoaqIapj0dI Video of the village settings from the Babelsburg film studio

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