''Little Otik'' (), also known as ''Greedy Guts'', is a 2000 surreal

dark comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

horror film Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit physical or psychological fear in its viewers. Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with Transgressive art, transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements of the genre include Mo ...

Jan Švankmajer Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934) is a Czech retired film director, animator, writer, playwright and artist. He draws and makes free graphics, collage, ceramics, tactile objects and asse ...

and

Eva Švankmajerová Eva Švankmajerová (née Dvořáková; 25 September 1940 – 20 October 2005) was a Czech surrealist painter, ceramist, costume and stage designer, poet and prose writer. SHe was wife and collaborator of the artist and film director Jan Švankmaje ...

. Based on the folktale Otesánek by

Karel Jaromír Erben Karel Jaromír Erben (; 7 November 1811 – 21 November 1870) was a Czech folklorist and poet of the mid-19th century, best known for his collection '' Kytice'', which contains poems based on traditional and folkloric themes. He also wrote ''Pí ...

, the film is a comedic live action,

stop motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exh ...

-animated feature film set mainly in an apartment building in the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. The film uses the Overture to ''

Der Freischütz ' (Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns, J. 277, Opus number, Op. 77 ''The Marksman'' or ''The Freeshooter'') is a German List of operas by Carl Maria von Weber, opera with spoken dialogue in three acts by Carl Maria von Weber with a libretto by Johann Fried ...

'' (1821) by

Carl Maria von Weber Carl Maria Friedrich Ernst von Weber (5 June 1826) was a German composer, conductor, virtuoso pianist, guitarist, and Music criticism, critic in the early Romantic music, Romantic period. Best known for List of operas by Carl Maria von Weber, h ...

as the score.

Plot

Karel Horák (Jan Hartl) and Božena Horáková (Veronika Žilková) are a childless couple and for medical reasons are doomed to remain so. While on vacation with their neighbors, the Stadlers at a house in the country, Karel decides to buy the house at the suggestion of Mr. Stadler. When he is fixing up the house, he digs up a

tree stump After a tree has been cut and has fallen, the stump or tree stump is usually a small remaining portion of the trunk with the roots still in the ground. Stumps may show the age-defining rings of a tree. The study of these rings is known as dendr ...

that looks vaguely like a baby. He spends the rest of the evening cleaning it up and then presents it to his wife. She names the stump Otík and starts to treat it like a real baby. She then works out a plan to fake her

pregnancy Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring gestation, gestates inside a woman's uterus. A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins. Conception (biology), Conception usually occurs ...

, and becoming more and more impatient, she speeds up the process and 'gives birth' one month early. Otík comes alive and has an insatiable appetite. Alžbětka (Kristina Adamcová), the Stadlers’ daughter, has been suspicious all along, and when she reads the

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

about Otesánek, the truth becomes clear to her. Meanwhile, little Otík has been just eating and growing. At one point he eats some of Božena's

hair Hair is a protein filament that grows from follicles found in the dermis. Hair is one of the defining characteristics of mammals. The human body, apart from areas of glabrous skin, is covered in follicles which produce thick terminal and ...

, and another day she returns home to find that Otík has eaten their

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

. Karel and his wife are at odds with Karel pushing for killing the creature and Božena defending it as their child. The baby later consumes a postal worker (Gustav Vondráček) and then a social worker (Jitka Smutná). The resulting deaths lead Karel to tie up and lock Otík away in the basement of their apartment building, leaving Otík to starve. Alžbětka secretly takes over as prime caretaker. She tries to keep Otík fed with normal human food, but, when her mother stops her, she is forced to

drawing straws Drawing is a visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, sometimes in com ...

(matches in this case) to choose a person to feed to Otík. The chosen victim is an old man and

pedophile Pedophilia ( alternatively spelled paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puber ...

, Mr. Žlábek (Zdeněk Kozák) who has been stalking her recently. Deciding she cannot take the stalking anymore, Alžbětka lures Mr. Žlábek to the basement where he gets entangled by Otik's vines and devoured. Karel himself later becomes a victim when he comes into the basement with a

chainsaw A chainsaw (or chain saw) is a portable handheld power saw, power saw that cuts with a set of teeth attached to a rotating chain driven along a guide bar. Modern chainsaws are typically gasoline or electric and are used in activities such as t ...

but on seeing Otík he hesitates and calls him "son" before dropping the chainsaw. Afterwards, Božena goes into the basement and is heard screaming; having become a victim herself. In the end, Otík disobeys Alžbětka despite repeated warnings and eats all of Mrs. Správcová's (Dagmar Stříbrná)

cabbage Cabbage, comprising several cultivars of '' Brassica oleracea'', is a leafy green, red (purple), or white (pale green) biennial plant grown as an annual vegetable crop for its dense-leaved heads. It is descended from the wild cabbage ( ''B.& ...

patch, prompting the old woman to take charge.

Ending

In the fairy tale upon which the movie is based, the old woman kills Otesánek by splitting his

stomach The stomach is a muscular, hollow organ in the upper gastrointestinal tract of Human, humans and many other animals, including several invertebrates. The Ancient Greek name for the stomach is ''gaster'' which is used as ''gastric'' in medical t ...

open with a hoe; however, the film ends with her descending the stairs, Alžbětka reciting the end of the fairy tale tearfully; the

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), or ...

is not allowed to witness the deed.

Cast

Veronika Žilková Veronika Žilková (born 16 October 1961 in Prague) is a Czech actress. She played the part of Božena Horáková in the 2000 Czech film, '' Little Otik'' also known as '' Otesánek''. In 1997 she received the Czech Lion Award as the best su ...

as Božena Horáková *

Jan Hartl Jan Hartl (born 12 September 1952) is a Czech actor who played Karel Horák in the 2000 Czech film '' Little Otik'', also known as ''Otesánek''. He was born in Prague, Czech Republic (then part of Czechoslovakia). Hartl is a member of the Nation ...

as Karel Horák *Kristina Adamcová as Alžbětka *Jaroslava Kretschmerová as Alžbětka's Mother *

Pavel Nový Pavel Nový (born 5 September 1948) is a Czech actor. He has appeared in more than one hundred films since 1962. Selected filmography References External links * 1948 births Living people Male actors from Plzeň Czech male film act ...

as Alžbětka's Father *Dagmar Stríbrná as Pani spravcova (the caretaker) *Zdenek Kozák as Mr. Žlábek *Gustav Vondracek as Mládek, the Postman *Jitka Smutná as Bulanková, the Social worker

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 84% based on , with a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Though rather overlong, ''Little Otik'' is a whimsical, bizarre treat." ''Little Otik'' was placed at 95 on ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

s best films of the 2000s.

Notes

External links

* * {{Jan Svankmajer 2000 films 2000 comedy-drama films 2000 comedy horror films 2000s pregnancy films 2000 animated films 2000s Czech-language films Films about trees Films based on fairy tales Films based on works by Karel Jaromír Erben Films directed by Jan Švankmajer Films with live action and animation 2000s monster movies 2000s stop-motion animated films Czech comedy horror films British comedy-drama films Czech black comedy films British black comedy films Films set in apartment buildings Films set in the Czech Republic Films based on Slavic mythology Czech Lion Awards winners (films) Golden Kingfisher winners 2000 black comedy films 2000s British films Czech animated comedy films Czech animated horror films Czech adult animated films Czech monster movies Fictional trees Anthropomorphic trees