Gopo's Little Man

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Gopo's Little Man on 2008 stamp

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

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 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]

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.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-03-04. Retrieved 2009-03-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)

External links[]

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