I apparently saw this film a few years ago and gave it a relatively low score. However, I saw it again tonight and was very impressed! I think this discrepancy is because when I first saw it, I was not that familiar with silents---particularly ones as old as "Mary and Gretel". Now, seeing it after I've viewed a couple thousand silents, I can appreciate much more how groundbreaking it was and how audiences of the day must have been wowed by the film.
Long, long before Willis O'Brien, Ray Harryhausen and Jan Svankmajer came this cute little stop-motion film from the Peter Pan Film Company. It features a story that is clever though occasionally repetitive and slow. However, it abounds with lots of charm and is gosh-darned cute to boot! The story begins with a fairy bringing two dolls to life (like Pinocchio). The two walk about encountering lots of cute characters and you can't help but think that the whole thing is incredibly sweet and entertaining. Well done and one of the very earliest films of its type.