If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

All in all, I'd say Otasanek / Little Otik / Greedy Guts was a pretty good film. Not Svankmajer's best by any means (that honor is reserved for his masterpiece, Alice / Neco z Alenky), but a good effort all the same. While some of the camera-work at times felt slightly awkward, the acting was overall pretty good. Keep in mind that it is a lower-budgeted foreign independent film, so it does not come anywhere near having a clean-cut and polished "Hollywood" feel to it (for me, that's a plus, however I realize many other people do not feel the same). When all is said and done, its a pretty good treatment to a Czech fairy tale, has several humorous scenes but there were a number of times when I just wasn't sure whether what I was seeing was intended to be funny or serious. Svankmajer's stylistic use of stop-motion animation is interesting to watch, and also at times disturbing. As mentioned by mostly every past reviewer, the story started to drag on after a while, reaching a whopping 126 minutes before finally giving over... Little Otik is not a film I'll ever find myself watching often, nor is it something I would recommend to a lot of people (as it is not exactly something most people would be able to get into), but I personally enjoyed it, I found myself laughing at the dry, absurdist humor of certain scenes and interactions, and I believe most fans of European avant-garde film are likely to also.

To those who won't go near World cinema and can't even be talked into giving it a try, Little Otik will (justifiably, maybe) bolster their viewpoint with the oft conceived negative aspects they see some world cinema to have with many elements contained within this part-animated, Czech horror/comedy/drama. It's incoherently weird. A sassy young Czech girl, our protagonist has long blonde ponytails and talks a lot. She has typically Czech parents (or as stereotypes would have us believe); father drinks a lot and watches TV, mother makes vegetable soup with few vegetables - and other various pureed concoctions - all in close up. They live in the next apartment to a young barren couple. Otik, a tree stump, is dug up by the husband and given to comfort his distraught wife, after they return with the bad news from the fertility clinic. This lump of wood has knots and twigs sprouting where male human bodily parts are situated and look rather obviously so. We are left in no doubt as to which parts are what. 'Little' Otik immediately becomes surrogate son to the mother as she takes to it as her very own.One of the most creepy things I've seen, ever, is the animated wooden mouth - and moving 'wooden' lips of this log, suckling on the lovely, womanly breast of its 'mother' as it feeds. Superbly done. She beams, besotted, across to her husband - a perplexed and rather nerdy looking office clerk.To cut a long story short (this is one LONG movie, especially if it's viewed on a commercial TV station - with advert breaks it runs to over 2.5 hours) Otik grows into a giant meat-eating freak, cuckoo-like in its ever open greed for more. First the dog gets 'it', (or was it the cat?) then the janitor, who lusted after the young girl with the pony-tails and soon Otik finds the not particularly welcomed, but plump social worker, come to check up on the "baby" pretty tasty, too! And whatever happened to the postman? The couple themselves, the family in the next apartment, the young girl especially, all try to cover up the ever more ridiculous scenarios, each becoming ever more hilarious. Whenever we see Otik other than a when in his log-like state, he is animated, which means he springs to life, stop-go and superimposed imagery transforming, he changes quickly, often violently, at times crudely and at others skilfully. Reminding me of the Hungarian movie 'Hukkle' (Hiccup), where the basic needs and functions surrounding birth, food and death seem to be under intense scrutiny, Little Otik both celebrates and deplores these themes. Drawn from folklore and even a fairytale, the story triumphs and decries them. Taints of Polanski's Rosemary's Baby creep through; that distaste, that intense sense of wrongness.As to the best in East European cinema bit; well, it's unique, for one. Individual, as in that it genuinely produces something far more scary than bumps in the night and big flashes of thunder. Because it relates to our very base human instincts. It is also at times outrageously funny. I've seen this brilliant, yet weirdly bad film twice - about the number of times its been on UK TV that I'm aware of. One could score it anything from 1 point, to ten; with full justification. Go for it if you feel you could be up for it, but if you're not sure about the whole world cinema scene, steer clear. I wouldn't want this oddity to influence you badly against some of the best cinema going.

its weird and good and scary. oh i have to say more. let's see. i liked this movie, even though i did not want to watch it at first. it looked too weird. but i like scary movies, and being that otik is contrived from otesanik, a scary tale from back in the day... it was at least somewhat of a horror film. lotsa plot. no loose ends left over. it's funny how they tell you what's gonna happen through the course of the movie.... and it still works. this movie is reminiscent of grimms fairy tales. the only problem i had, was that the movie was too long. but the kids can watch, within reason, which is super cool if you have kids and you or they like scary movies.

LITTLE OTIK is a strange film that will probably be of some interest to those that dig dark-humor, horror, or both. Not a "great" film (though I believe it had the potential to be...), and definitely a little long as it tends to drag quite a bit after the half-way point or so - but I'd still recommend it as a "one-time watch"...The story is based on a fairy-tale (that I remember here in the States as being called THE FAT CAT, and involved the same basic story line, except it featured a cat as opposed to a wooden baby...) that comes horribly to life. A couple are incapable of conceiving, which makes the wife all the more obsessive about children. The husband carves a (very strange looking) "baby" out of a tree-root - and in response to the "loving" (and completely insane) care of the "mother" - one day the thing comes to life. Unfortunately, baby likes to eat and is not real discriminatory in his feeding habits, eating anything from cats to humans. Obviously this is going to cause some problems for the family. Meanwhile, a little girl who lives in the same apartment complex is the only one who seems to get what's going on, and eventually tries to "befriend" little Otik...If you're looking for a splatter-film, this isn't it. The "horror" elements are mainly implied, except for a few short scenes that won't be considered very graphic to any "seasoned" horror-fan. I also felt the ending seemed rather abrupt for as long as the film seemed to be. There was also a pedophilac undertone running throughout the film (involving the little girl and a dirty-old-man who lives in the same building) that some may find disturbing, but the scenes are handled in a funny way, and aren't very lewd. Definitely an "interesting" film to say the least - but flaws in the pacing and ending drop it a few notches in my book. Worth checking out...7/10