Gopo's Little Man

Gopo's Little Man (Romanian: Omuleṭul lui Gopo) is a humanoid character that appears in most of Ion Popescu-Gopo's animation films.

Gopo's Little Man on 2008 stamp

History and symbolism

The Little Man first appears in A Brief History (1956), an animation film telling the story of the Universe and humankind from an evolutionary perspective. The trepidations caused by a dinosaur made a monkey fall off a tree and break its tail. The monkey then got off the ground under the appearance of The Little Man, who is then shown climbing a ladder. As he climbs, he successively turns into an Egyptian, a Greek, a Roman, a medieval knight, a Victorian gentleman, and a modern man.

The Little Man explores the deep seas and then flies to space in a rocket (anticipating Yuri Gagarin's spaceflight by five years).[1]

The worldwide success achieved by A Brief History turned The Little Man into an iconic character, symbolizing the human race in its quest for knowledge and beauty. Ion Popescu-Gopo was going to use it in another seven films. In many situations, The Little Man is shown holding a flower to his heart, which is taken to symbolize the humans' capacity and need for love.

Filmography
Homo Sapiens
  • A Brief History (1956)
  • Seven Arts (1958)
  • Homo Sapiens (1960)
  • Allo Hallo (1962)
  • Ecce Homo (1977)
  • Three Apples (1979)
  • Quo Vadis, Homo Sapiens? (1982)
  • Homo Faber (1986)

Awards
  • Palme d'Or in the Cannes Film Festival for A Brief History (1957)
  • The Grand Prize for the Best Animation Film in the Tours Film Festival (France) for Seven Arts (1958)
  • The Golden Gate Award of the San Francisco Film Festival for Homo Sapiens (1960)

The Little Man statuette

Romanian artist Adrian Ilfoveanu was commissioned to create the trophy for the Gopo Awards, whose first edition in 2007 was also thought as a tribute to the 50th anniversary of A Brief History''s victory at Cannes. Gopo's Little Man was chosen as a model. Although the Gopo Awards were recently established, the statuette entered popular culture, so that Romanian cinematic artists talk about receiving one or more "Little Men."[2]

gollark: WATERPROOFING AND REMOVABLE BATTERIES CAN COEXIST YOU TRIANGLE
gollark: I just want a phone I can actually repair easily, with cheap standardized equipment, but noooo...
gollark: Are you aware of "heat conduction"?
gollark: Yes.
gollark: Which makes it nightmarishly complex to do anything.

See also

References
  1. Cristea, Irina (February 2004). "Archived copy". Jurnalul Național (in Romanian). Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 29 March 2013.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-03-04. Retrieved 2009-03-03.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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