Its eyes are two black dots scattered on the face and the oval, which is actually a nose, has the dimension of a pea. Three rebellious wires form the hair of the odd character. When you look at it, you have the impression that it is unfinished, even forgotten or maybe something was left out. The expression of its face shows neither joy, nor sadness, but gives the feeling of an enormous vacuum.

The character described is not a monster, not even a politician’s caricature but the famous „little man” of Gopo. The fame of this little man from different animations has passed the Romania’s borders and it marked the coming of a new era in animation industry.

Ion Popescu Gopo, a well known Romanian artist was the one that created „the little man”. Screenwriter, artist, director and actor, Gopo became famous because of his short animation movies.

Ion Popescu Gopo was born in Bucharest in 1923 and he studied for a  while at the Academy of Arts in Bucharest. He begins his carrier in mass media as a contortionist at different newspapers. He takes animation courses in Moscow. After a while he is hired at the Cinematographic Studio in Bucharest, working in the department of animation. Being more and more preoccupied of this kind of work,  he creates different animations for children: The Bee and The Dove, Two Rabbits, Marinica, A mosquito with money, The Mean Hedgehog, Galatea and many others.

Realizing he will never equal the technique of Walt Disney, he decides to create the opposite of the famous style. This is the way the little man was created, a modest character, drawn from few lines, but capable to express contemporary concerns and worries. As Gopo, himself declared, he realized that the only part where he could attack Walt Disney was the subject of the stories. The excellent combination between the subject and simple design brought the creator   in 1957 a „Palme D’Or” at the International Film Festival from Cannes, France. „Short History” remained indeed in the cinematographic history as an original and unforeseeable short movie.

Along with his death in 1989, the future of Romanian animation definitely collapsed. His achievements were placed unfortunately in a bad time and the Romanian animation period was over before it even begun. The Animafilm studio was soon brought in bankruptcy.

Still, Ion Popescu Gopo remains one of the few Romanian artists to be mentioned in the international encyclopedias. As a sign of gratitude, every year The Romanian Promotion Film Association organizes „The Gopo Prizes”, given to the highest performances in the Romanian film industry.

Source: festival-anonimul.ro