Otesánek

I liked this film very much. As with most comedy/horror films, the plot is fairly absurd. An infertile couple is desperate for a child. When the husband digs up a tree root vaguely resembling a child the woman loves it so much that it comes to life, and life begins to imitate a frightening fairly tale. It gets pretty slow towards the end, and would have been an even better film had it been about 25 minutes shorter. But, the film is great fun to watch, especially the performance of the woman playing Little Otik's mother, who is just insanely funny in the protection of her "son".

It's certainly not the best of it's kind, but it is a hilarious, twisted nightmare of a tale that fans of the genre will likely enjoy.

Perhaps Jan Svankmajer is sick of the medium of stop-motion animation which first made him famous. Perhaps he's trying to move into pure filmmaking. And perhaps I shouldn't criticize him for that. He's actually an excellent live-action director as well, which Little Otik (in Czech "Otesanek," "Greedy Guts," the name of an Eastern European fairy tale from which the script is adapted) demonstrates. But I'm not sure he wants to leave stop-motion animation behind. It seems to me more like he wants to use it more often in the film, but he didn't have the money. If you're interested in Svankmajer's work, start with his short stop-motion films, then move to Alice, his version of Alice in Wonderland, and then move to this film and then Faust.

As for the film itself, it's imperfect. Its biggest problem is that it's overlong. There's really not enough meat in it (well, there's enough meat literally). It can move slowly, especially nearer the beginning. Also, the ending is a bit abrupt. Still, there're a lot of great scenes and set pieces. It can also be very funny. It's certainly the most humorous side of Jan Svankmajer that I've seen. 8/10.

The film is based on Czech fairy tale "Otesánek" ("Greedy Guts"). It is a story of a loving but childless couple, Karel and Bozena whose biggest dream is to have a baby. To make his wife smile, Karel digs up a tree root and carves it to look like a human baby. So overwhelming is Bozena's wish to become a mother that by its power, the stump transforms into a living creature with enormous appetites. Very soon, the baby formula and carrot soup are not enough to feet the little monster and mysteriously, people begin to disappear.

"Little Otik" is similar to Svankmajer's earlier feature movies "Alice" and "Faust" but it is more plot-driven, has fewer stop-motion animation sequences that would not even begin until 40 or so minutes into the film. Another problem that has been noted by almost every viewer is that the movie is slightly (126 minutes) overlong and it drags a little toward the end. As excellent as Svankmajer is a live-action director, what makes him unique is the groundbreaking combination of both live-action and darkly-humorous, visceral, and surreal animation and I wanted to see more of it. Still, "Little Otik" is highly original, funny, dark, and sinister with first rate acting from live actors and many great scenes and effects. Young Kristina Adamcová is especially good as Alzbetka, Karel's and Bozena's next door neighbor, precocious and very observant girl. I highly recommend "Little Otik" but I believe that the best introductions to Svankmajer are his short stop-motion and clay-motion films. The DVD includes the B/W 12 minutes long early film "Flat" (1969) - this is Svankmajer in his nightmarish best. We are in the claustrophobic apartment with the film protagonist where every object is an enemy and predator. Pay attention to the ending -"Abandon hope all ye who enter here".

7.5/10

I knew I had to see this movie when I saw a picture of Little Otik, the misshapen cannibal log baby! I expected it to be an strange romp through fairy tales and stop motion, similar to Svankmeyer's other movies like ALICE and FAUST [which i love]. And it was... only LITTLE OTIK was a little less zany, was more plot-driven, and had fewer stop motion sequences. So I didn't like it was much as FAUST, but it was still pretty awesome.

Other reviews can fill you in on the plot if you really need to hear about it, but basically a childless couple "gives birth" to a piece of wood shaped like a baby. The wood baby comes alive...and really, REALLY likes to eat.

LITTLE OTIK's tone is humorously dreary, in an understated way. I especially appreciated the kitchen table scenes where the mother forces her family to eat nasty soup. I lived in provincial Russia for four months and flashed back to my own times around the table, facing a bowl of mush with bones in it... YUM! Jan Svankmeyer really loves to accentuate slurping and belching noises, too. These are some of the most disgusting meal scenes I have ever seen in a movie.

While this movie has more dialogue than a typical Svankmeyer film, much of the story is still told through pictures rather than words. I found a lot of the pregnancy imagery to be pretty well-done, like the juxtaposition of pictures from the little girl's sex-ed book with footage of the father cutting down the tree which will become Otik. You don't realize the significance of that montage until after Otik is born, then it all makes sense.

There are a few negative sides to the movie. For instance, I wasn't such a big fan of the parts where the girl reads the fairy tale out loud we see pictures of it. A similar device worked in Alice but was kind of needless here, since no one watching the movie would really need the plot spelled out for them, at least not in such detail. I mean, all we need to know is that there's a legend, that the girl is familiar with it, and that the cabbage patch will play a big part in the story. Now, if the folk tale had been shown in stop motion, I would have loved it!!

Also, I got a little weary of the constant close ups, especially of peoples' mouths. And as others have noted, the movie ran about 20 minutes too long. Probably some of the pregnancy footage in the first act could have been edited.

Overall my criticisms are few! I'm glad I saw this movie and would definitely recommend it to other Svankmeyer fans!!

A bizarre horror-comedy by Surrealist master Jan Svankmajer that adapts and reinterprets the folk story of Otesanek (aka Greedy Guts) for the big screen.

Otesanek tells the story of the struggle of a childless couple, Bozena and Karel, to hide and control heir piece-of-wood son Otesanek -a freak of nature with an insatiable appetite that they brought to life- and to stop him behaving wildly.

The film re-examines the myth of the primeval creation, in which the natural order is subverted and disrespected. The couple succumbs to an act of greedy love that produces, as a result, a greedy gluttonous carnivore despite the creature being a piece of wood.

On the other hand, Svankmajer depicts with great insight the sins of parenthood in our modern world, in which children are spoiled rotten, to whom everything is allowed, any bad act excused, and nothing denied.

The movie also depicts with great humor and realism the social dynamics of small groups in blocks of apartments and neighborhoods, paced by gossip, the power of appearances, the help and support neighbors give to each other, the enmities and tensions existing amongst them, the human types that populate them, etc.

The role of food in this movie is also very interesting, as most human characters in the movie eat disgusting porridge-ish meals, despite them fancying meat, while Otesanek is the only one eating meat all the time! The Actors are all great and charming in their respective roles. Veronika Zilková plays with great conviction the non-easy to play barren wife Bozena, while Jan Hartl plays with sweetness her doubtful and confused husband Karel. Also terrific are the actors playing the good-hearted neighbors: Kristina Adamcová as the incisive rebel child Alzbetka -who is also the catalyst of the story-, Jaroslava Kretschmerová as Alzbetka's sensible Mother, Pavel Nový as Alzbetka's typical working-class male Father, and Dagmar Stríbrná as the patient caretaker.

The stop-motion animation of Otesanek is delightfully awkward, especially when Otesanek is a baby, and the illustrations by Svankmajer's wife for the original tale in the book Alzbetka is reading are beautifully colorful and artistic. They are a contrast to the ugly-looking 70-80s colors and lighting with which Svankmejer shot the movie. Also delightful are the episodes involving the old spectacled neighbor and Alzbetka, which are really naughty.

On the negative side, beyond the ugly film and colors used, the movie is too long and its pace too slow at times.

A grotesque mesmerizing humorous adult tale with a great story, terrific performances, and very interesting themes. This is not a film for lazy watchers, though.