Little Otik

Name: Little Otik
Genre: Drama, Thriller, Fantasy, Horror, Comedy
Released: December 19, 2001
Duration: 132 min
Rating: 74
Cast: Jan Hartl, Veronika Zilková

2001

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 13 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Ratings

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7.0

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7.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Ratings

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Movie Details & Credits

Zeitgeist Films | Release Date: December 19, 2001

Starring: Jan Hartl, Veronika Zilková

Summary: This film is based upon a classic fairy tale of an infertile couple who adopt a tree stump as their baby.

Director: Jan Svankmajer

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller, Fantasy, Horror, Comedy, Animation

Runtime: 132 min

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Metascore

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Mixed:

Negative:

Critic Reviews

Ella Taylor

Magnificently twisted black comedy.

A.O. Scott

A handmade dream, cobbled together from dirt, wood and more imagination than most of us can muster in our most fevered states. Because this Czech master refuses to work in the scrubbed, antiseptic manner of most animators, this fable comes to life as hilarious and creepy. Read full review

V.A. Musetto

Subversively funny, it's a welcome alternative to the big-budget movies flooding into theaters at this time of year. Read full review

TV Guide Magazine Ken Fox

Wickedly funny, deeply disturbing, live-action retelling of an old Czech folktale. Read full review

Marc Savlov

Should be required viewing for prospective parents still sitting on the spermatazoan fence; after all, you're going to need a good sense of humor, aren't you? Read full review

Elizabeth Weitzman

Must be the smartest -- and most disturbing -- movie about parenthood in ages.

Deborah Young

An unsettling piece of filmmaking whose grimly vivid images are guaranteed to give impressionable viewers nightmares. Read full review

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User Reviews

beeanadou

Jul 13, 2018

Caring neighbors and curious little girl aren't always whom you'd like to meet around.

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Joshc

Apr 8, 2008

For Tolkien, fairy tales were not concerned with possibility so much as desirability: "If they awakened desire, satisfying it while often whetting it unbearably, they succeeded. . . . " In that sense, Jan Svankmajer's Little Otik is an even more authentic fairy story, dealing as it For Tolkien, fairy tales were not concerned with possibility so much as desirability: "If they awakened desire, satisfying it while often whetting it unbearably, they succeeded. . . . " In that sense, Jan Svankmajer's Little Otik is an even more authentic fairy story, dealing as it does with the yearning for what is impossible and a rebellion against the real. In his fourth feature, Svankmajer has transposed a grotesque Czech folktale about a childless couple who raise a tree stump as their baby to contemporary Prague. Filled with strollers, the city is likewise an incubator for fantasy. The storklike, uptight Karel (Jan Hartl) discovers babies inside melons and sees infants in the marketplace, fished from tanks, weighed, and wrapped in newspapers to go. To tease his pining wife, Bozena (Veronika Zilková), Karel uproots a tree stump and presents it to her. Bozena is totally accepting… Expand

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ChadS.

Aug 14, 2006

"Little Otik" loses steam when the little girl becomes the animated tree's caretaker. Not only does the film drag, it's also hard to buy a small child not being intimidated by an abomination against nature. Yes, it's a black comedy, but there has to be some rules. Also, we "Little Otik" loses steam when the little girl becomes the animated tree's caretaker. Not only does the film drag, it's also hard to buy a small child not being intimidated by an abomination against nature. Yes, it's a black comedy, but there has to be some rules. Also, we can already recognize that "Little Otik" is a fairy tale, so watching the girl read the story from an anthology in which her real world is imitating, perhaps, flaws this otherwise beguilling film with a little too much self-awareness.… Expand

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lilliam

Mar 20, 2021

I really thought I was going to love this movie. I've been in love this this director's short animated films since I was a (very weird) child. But I haven't been impressed with his live action films so far.
The movie drags to the point of feeling neverending. And it's a pretty bad (and dareI really thought I was going to love this movie. I've been in love this this director's short animated films since I was a (very weird) child. But I haven't been impressed with his live action films so far.
The movie drags to the point of feeling neverending. And it's a pretty bad (and dare I say sexist) take on "female insanity".
Also, the camera looking straight at that little girl's exposed butt was gratuitous and gross af. Not a very good way of criticizing pedophilia.
The one star is for the special effects and the creature design.… Expand

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