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Otesánek

  • 2000
  • TV-14
  • 2h 12m
IMDb RATING
7.3/10
7.2K
YOUR RATING
Otesánek (2000)
Theatrical Trailer from Zeitgeist Films
Play trailer1:39
1 Video
24 Photos
Adult AnimationBody HorrorDark ComedyFolk HorrorMonster HorrorPsychological ThrillerSatireSplatter HorrorStop Motion AnimationTragedy

A childless couple passes off an anthropomorphous tree stump as their baby, but things get out of hand when the monstrosity comes to life and demands to be fed.A childless couple passes off an anthropomorphous tree stump as their baby, but things get out of hand when the monstrosity comes to life and demands to be fed.A childless couple passes off an anthropomorphous tree stump as their baby, but things get out of hand when the monstrosity comes to life and demands to be fed.

  • Director
    • Jan Svankmajer
  • Writers
    • Karel Jaromír Erben
    • Jan Svankmajer
  • Stars
    • Veronika Zilková
    • Jan Hartl
    • Jaroslava Kretschmerová
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.3/10
    7.2K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jan Svankmajer
    • Writers
      • Karel Jaromír Erben
      • Jan Svankmajer
    • Stars
      • Veronika Zilková
      • Jan Hartl
      • Jaroslava Kretschmerová
    • 56User reviews
    • 46Critic reviews
    • 74Metascore
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 6 wins & 9 nominations total

    Videos1

    Little Otik
    Trailer 1:39
    Little Otik

    Photos24

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    Top cast19

    Edit
    Veronika Zilková
    Veronika Zilková
    • Bozena Horáková
    Jan Hartl
    Jan Hartl
    • Karel Horák
    Jaroslava Kretschmerová
    Jaroslava Kretschmerová
    • Paní Stádlerová
    Pavel Nový
    Pavel Nový
    • Frantisek Stádler
    Kristina Adamcová
    • Alzbetka
    Dagmar Stríbrná
    • Pani správcová
    Zdenek Kozák
    • Mr. Zlabek
    Gustav Vondracek
    • Mladek, the postman
    Arnost Goldflam
    Arnost Goldflam
    • Gynaecologist
    Jitka Smutná
    Jitka Smutná
    • Bulankova, the social worker
    Jirí Lábus
    Jirí Lábus
    • Policeman at station
    Radek Holub
    Radek Holub
    • Young postman
    Jan Jirán
    Jan Jirán
    • Karel's co-worker
    Zdenek Palusga
    • Uniformed policeman
    Frantisek Polata
    • Plainclothes policeman
    Vaclav Jezek
    • Plainclothes policeman
    Joseph Cahill
    Tomás Hanák
    Tomás Hanák
    • Radio presenter
    • (voice)
    • Director
      • Jan Svankmajer
    • Writers
      • Karel Jaromír Erben
      • Jan Svankmajer
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews56

    7.37.2K
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    Featured reviews

    goodellaa

    Grotesque and amusing.

    This movie does seem to drag a little toward the end, but any reasonable person should be hanging on to see what ELSE will happen, because things do happen in this movie. It is full of funny characters and weird situations, so it is quite amusing, in a "Twilite Zone" sort of way. Did you like "Erasurehead", "Dead Alive", and "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"?

    This movie illustrates, in fairy-tail fashion, what sort of AWFUL things can happen if you tamper with the natural order of things.
    8miloc

    Strange, enjoyable, worth a look.

    I had the good fortune to see this at a special showing in Washington introduced by the director. I just wanted to say that I found it fascinating, very funny, and pretty unnerving at moments. Friends of mine had recommended Svankmajer's animated works, which I have yet to see and hopefully will be able to track down and watch.

    I love the visual effects-- they don't have the polished look of digitized Hollywood extravaganzas, but they have a curious, unruly life to them which I found infinitely more interesting. This is a sharp, funny, likeable yet disturbing folktale on film, and I strongly recommend those with a taste for the unusual seeking it out.
    8JesNollie

    A little slow towards the end, but still very funny

    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.
    trippycheez

    Good movie about a cannibal log baby

    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!!
    8Imdbidia

    Daring and original revisit to the story of the Greedy Guts

    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.

    Related interests

    Seth Green, Mila Kunis, Alex Borstein, and Seth MacFarlane in Les Griffin (1999)
    Adult Animation
    Jeff Goldblum in La Mouche (1986)
    Body Horror
    Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Sian Clifford in Fleabag (2016)
    Dark Comedy
    Florence Pugh in Midsommar (2019)
    Folk Horror
    Bill Skarsgård in Ça : Chapitre 1 (2017)
    Monster Horror
    Rosamund Pike in Gone Girl (2014)
    Psychological Thriller
    Peter Sellers in Dr. Folamour ou : comment j'ai appris à ne plus m'en faire et à aimer la bombe (1964)
    Satire
    Shawnee Smith in Saw (2004)
    Splatter Horror
    Dakota Fanning in Coraline (2009)
    Stop Motion Animation
    Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams in Manchester by the Sea (2016)
    Tragedy
    Daveigh Chase, Rumi Hiiragi, and Mari Natsuki in Le Voyage de Chihiro (2001)
    Animation
    Will Ferrell in Présentateur vedette: La légende de Ron Burgundy (2004)
    Comedy
    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Elijah Wood in Le Seigneur des anneaux : La Communauté de l'anneau (2001)
    Fantasy
    Mia Farrow in Rosemary's Baby (1968)
    Horror
    Cho Yeo-jeong in Parasite (2019)
    Thriller

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Originally, Jan Svankmajer wanted to shoot this film in early nineties and considered to cast Woody Allen and Mia Farrow as Karel and Bozena.
    • Quotes

      Bulankova, the social worker: Show me your Otik. That's his name, isn't it? Don't worry, i won't eat him.

    • Connections
      Featured in Brows Held High: Little Otik and the Magic of Stop Motion (2016)

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    FAQ16

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    Details

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    • Release date
      • January 25, 2001 (Czech Republic)
    • Countries of origin
      • Czech Republic
      • United Kingdom
      • Japan
    • Language
      • Czech
    • Also known as
      • Little Otik
    • Filming locations
      • Knovíz, Czech Republic(animations)
    • Production companies
      • Athanor
      • Barrandov Biografia
      • FilmFour
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $125,716
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 2h 12m(132 min)
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital EX
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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