Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 0795975103237
Format: Color, Subtitled, NTSC
Label: Zeitgeist Films
Languages: EnglishSubtitledCzechOriginal Language
Manufacturer: Zeitgeist Films
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Zeitgeist Films
Release Date: January 21, 2003
Running Time: 132 minutes
Studio: Zeitgeist Films
Theatrical Release Date: 2000

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Rating: - Good but a Little Disturbing
This is a good fairy tale, but I am waiting until my kids, four and six, are a lot older to allow them to watch it.

The story is about a woman longing to have a child. When she can't, she mothers a tree root/stump as a child. The child (Otik) becomes real and has a voracious appetite for raw meat, and he grows and grows. When the mother can't provide enough food, the child begins to bloodily devour human beings.

The mother managed to hide the child's appearance from ... Read More

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Rating: - Svankmajer at the height of his powers.
Little Otik (Jan Svankmajer, 2000)

Jan Svankmajer's Alice, perhaps his best-known movie, is the kind of thing you either love or hate. Little Otik strengthens the strong points of Alice while mitigating that film's weak points; those who hated Alice might be convinced to give Svankmajer another try with this little gem.

Karel (Valley of Exile's Jan Hartl) and Bozena (Veronika Zilkova, who won the Best Actress at the 2000 Czech Lions for her role here) are an infertile couple. ... Read More

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Rating: - Fairy Tale for Adults:

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, ... Read More

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Rating: - allegory
The only thing I might add to all the previous reviews is that it isn't about the tree 'baby'? It describes how pursuit, addicton, obsession can destroy those around one.

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Rating: - Unique film
It's based on a Czech fairy tale called "Greedy Guts". A woman badly wants a baby but both she and her husband are sterile. One day her husband digs up a tree root and it looked a little like a person. So he carved it to make it look more like a baby as a joke (seems like a sick one to me) and gave it to her. The mentally unbalanced wife immediately fell in love with the ugly piece of wood and treated as a baby. This "baby" comes to life and boy is it hungry! The little girl who lives in the same building notices ... Read More

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