Gingerbread House: Difference between revisions

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The '''Gingerbread House''' is a stock location in fairy stories. It's where [[Hansel and Gretel]] were nearly eaten by the witch. It's the chocolate palace in ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]''. It is, simply put, a building made of food, usually sweets but other variations do exist.

** Subverted by the follow up "Meaner stuff" advert showing a more powerful version of the car being made of a bone chassis, melted down katanas, snake venom, barbed wire, road rubber and windscreen wipers made from crossbow parts, put together with brute strength and hi-tech tools.

== Anime and Manga ==

* Partial example: In onethe third ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' [[Non-Serial Movie]], the [[Mooks]] of the big bad cast an illusion over the senshi that causes them to see the playground they were fighting in as a gingerbread house.

* The titular character of ''[[Toriko]]'' lives in one, which he does eat, as well as the neighboring animals. It must be periodically rebuilt, much to the dismay of the architect.

* ''[[El Chavo Deldel Ocho]]'': Doña Clotilde told the tale to El Chavo, Quico and La Chillindrina. When she recalled how she liked hearing her mother telling the tale, the kids thought her mother was the witch from the tale.

* In ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'' the book (and the second movie adaptation) shows why having a house made of sweets (in this case, chocolate) could be a very bad idea, especially in a hot environment. This happens when Wonka has a chocolate palace built for a prince in India, and it quickly melts after construction.

* In T.H. White's ''[[The Once and Future King|The Sword in the Stone]]'', Morgan Le Fey's house is a feast of food. Unlike most examples, this is a test. As in many folkloric accounts of Fairyland, if the boys eat anything, [[Food Chains|they will be trapped]].

** Also a subversion in that the house is so over-the-top as to be unappealing. Morgan, being a fae, has little experience of food.

* The almost forgotten nursery rhyme King Boggen:

Roofed with pancakes -- you never saw the like. }}

* ''[[Discworld]]'': A gingerbread cottage appears in ''[[Discworld/The Light Fantastic|The Light Fantastic]]'', although we're told the Confectionery School of Architecture never really caught on, even amongst witches (outside high-magic areas like the Forest of Skund, the walls go soggy). "Black" Allis Demmurge (in ''[[Discworld/Wyrd Sisters|Wyrd Sisters]]'') is also described as living in a gingerbread cottage (although ''[[Discworld/Maskerade|Maskerade]]'' claims that once she'd gone really peculiar, she "turned people into gingerbread and lived in a cottage made of frogs"). References are also made in a couple of books to health-conscious witches experimenting with crispbread, but that proved even less popular.

* The titular fruit in ''[[James and the Giant Peach]]'' qualifies, being a home for the anthropomorphic insects with whom James interacts.

== Video GameGames ==

* ''[[SagaSaGa Frontier]]'': Kylin's Paradise is a giant refuge for children made out of gingerbread cookies and candy treats.

** In the [[Fan Remake|Fan Remakes]]s, she'll only use him for lawn ornamentation if she catches him. Once you've boiled her in her own stew, you actually [[Last Lousy Point|get a point if you sample the goods]].

* The closest its brother game ''[[Space Quest]]'' gets is a reference to ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'' during the 6th game, and an [[Easter Egg]] if you use the otherwise-useless tongue icon on one of the Xenon ruins.

* In one [[Chuck Jones]] ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' short, Jerry hides inside a huge wheel of swiss cheese and sculpts out a home inside.

* Some years ago, a [[Toronto]] confectionery company built an actual gingerbread house large enough for children to walk through, using giant candy canes for structural members and sheets of candy glass for the windows. It was displayed in one of the city's larger shopping malls, then donated to the local children's hospital.