Scottish Ballet: Hansel and Gretel

Once Upon a Blog covered this back in July, but I just found a review for the Scottish Ballet's Hansel and Gretel via Kingdom of Style. Seems like a great opportunity if you live in that region of the world, there are performances through early February. Click through to read the full review, but from the images below it seems like total eye candy. I love how they used giant sets and props to make the adult dancers seem like children.

They made a rather significant plot change, that instead of being abandoned by their parents, Hansel and Gretel sneak off by themselves to rescue their friends, for children in their village have been disappearing. The children are thus courageous heroes, and they avoid making the parents evil. I feel like I've noticed this being a pattern in several retellings of Hansel and Gretel, taking the blame away from the parents. Is it just another example of altering fairy tales to make them more and more child-friendly, or is it a positive way to avoid negative stereotypes of mothers/stepmothers in particular in fairy tales?