Little Man, Big Plagiarist
Filed under: Animation, Comedy, Sony, Remakes and Sequels
As a massive fan of the Looney Tunes, I called foul the moment I saw the very first (and woefully wretched) trailer for Little Man. The flick's about a pint-sized criminal who poses as a baby in order to get some valuables back from an unwitting new guardian -- which means it has the exact same plot as the classic 1954 Looney Tunes short called Baby Buggy Bunny.OK, I thought, fine. The witless Wayanses are stealing from old Bugs Bunny cartoons now. Wonderful. But now comes word from Cartoon Brew that there's a lot more thievery going on than previously assumed. (Having not seen Little Man myself, mainly because I choose not to drop $10.50 on voluntary retina torture, I cannot comment on these scenes -- but if I HAD been in the movie theater as the rip-offs unfolded, I'd have been screeching like a howler monkey.)
Stuff stolen from the 52-year-old cartoon includes: 1) A scene in which the new guardians discover a tattoo on their new baby friend; 2) A clueless grown-up giving the man-baby the "upsy-daisy" treatment ... into the ceiling; 3) The most blatant theft: A gag involving the flicking of lights and the smackdown that occurs when someone says "click" instead of flipping the lights off. (It makes more sense if you've seen the Bugs cartoon recently, which I have.)
Little Man is a Sony product. Bugs' copyrights are held by Warner Bros. Where's the freaking lawsuit? If we can't punish the Wayanses for making such absymal comedies, surely they can get their knuckles rapped for outright plagiarism.
(Thanks to film ick for the pointer towards Cartoon Brew, and thanks to CB for the pic of "Finster Baby.")
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 12)
7-17-2006 @ 7:27PM
wreckk said...
Funny... Sony Pictures also put out Click which is a direct rip from the Jetsons, in a episode where George gets remote that can shift...
Gotta love the Sony.
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7-17-2006 @ 9:41PM
rebirth204 said...
Dude, are you serious? Who the hell would remember a cartoon SHORT from 52 years ago? There are countless stories in the world to be told, and to think for one second that one story would not parallel another is ridiculous. GET OVER IT.
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7-17-2006 @ 9:54PM
Scott Weinberg said...
Am I serious? Serious enough to imply that people not only remember the old Looney Tunes cartoons, but also (gasp) consider them works of ART? Serious to imply that there isn't a fifty-year statute of limitations on plagiarism?
Yep, a little serious. And indeed there ARE "countless stories in the world to be told," so why do lazy screenwriters feel the need to feed off the corpse of Chuck Jones?
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7-17-2006 @ 10:00PM
Joe said...
As soon as I saw the trailer for Little man where they had the "kid" shaving smoking a cigar and tattoo'd I instantly thought of the old Bugs cartoon with baby Finster and I haven't seen it in over 15yrs. But then again I gave up totaly on the Wayanses when I heard about White Chicks
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7-17-2006 @ 10:06PM
Tom Fisher said...
It's about time someone else noticed this. We'd been calling this movie "The Live Action Baby Finster" since the first commercials hit.
So where's Warner Legal when you need them?
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7-17-2006 @ 10:09PM
clarence said...
anytime someone really makes it big, you always have those who don't have a life trying to throw mud. anything negative will ( sale ), we all know this. let's wait until the mud throwers get a beam of light and cast a shadow on it and see how they feel. The word similar refers to all the songs,movies poems,essays,inventions,books and even birth names which fall in line with little man.
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7-17-2006 @ 11:28PM
Blair said...
Oh my God, you people really have too much time on your hands... who cares about a cartoon? It is not that serious. Get over it... life goes on. I think some of you need to get laid.
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7-17-2006 @ 11:32PM
Marc said...
its like arguing over a movie with a ghost - its too common to really say is reserved for one thing in specific. it started initialy with real life roots. midgets would carry messages during wars posing as babies. I can't quite remember what era this was, but it was true. since then several things have played jokes with this. is it just me or do too many people whine about the smallest things?
P.S. theyr'e not works of art. they are entertainment. nothing more, nothing less.
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7-17-2006 @ 11:46PM
Tracy said...
Wow Blair that was mature. Had not the Wayans'stated that the idea "Just kind of came to them" we may not care. They should have just admitted they got the idea from an old cartoon. Unless you are under the age of 12 and never watch Boomerang, most of us remember the cartoon. But what do I know, my daughters and I like White Chicks
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7-18-2006 @ 12:04AM
YouGottaBeKidding said...
I gotta agree with the posters above, this is petty. You must not know of all the other countless times that a story has been redone. Do you even know for a fact that they did indeed take the same plot and not acknowledge it, or even pay some royalty? I doubt you do. Obviously they're doing something right considering the money they've pulled in. Oh and I did see it, it was fairly good; however I did enjoy White Chicks better.
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7-18-2006 @ 12:22AM
PJ said...
The thievery goes back farther than that. There is a Little Rascals short about midgets posing as babies so they can rip off the jewelry of a bunch of rich snobs. Stymie called them figets.
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7-18-2006 @ 12:55AM
Fernando said...
When I first saw the trailer for "White Chicks" I was positive that it would be the worst movie ever and I'd never waste $6.00 to go see it in a theater or $5 to rent it, one day flipping through the channels I saw it was on and there was nothing else so I put it on and actually liked it. (I did the same thing and watched the 1st 30 mins of "Date Movie", knowing it'd prob be torture, but this time I was right, Date Movie is one of those movies that's so bad and so ridiculously unfunny that it even puts you on a bad mood... but that's neither here nor there)
Anyway, I thought the exact same thing about "Little Man" and I steadfastly refuse to pay to watch that, but I'll give the Wayans a second chance once it shows on satellite and make my opinion then. Even though it will prob suck.
Regarding the plagiarism, I'm not surprised? Is anything at the movies original anymore? A pirate sequel, a superman sequel, an X-Men sequel. If it is indeed true that it is plagiarism, then it sucks that ppl are making rich off of other's ideas and the only reason they can and we can't is because they have a famous last name.
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7-18-2006 @ 1:26AM
NeverEnder said...
I really don't have strong feelings either way on this issue, but I would like to say that the only good movie a Wayans brother has been in is Requiem for a Dream. Any film they appear in that is produced by them, or starring more than one of them, should be avoided at all costs. I've read better stories in tabloids in the grocery checkout.
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7-18-2006 @ 8:20AM
Tim Runnals said...
That was the worst movie review, you should be banned from every writing another Scott. It was a funny movie and leave it at that. Who the hell cares if it has been redone from something else. How many other movies have been aswell and I'm sure you find those alright. Don't be racist against the Wayans brothers just because they make more money than you.
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7-18-2006 @ 8:42AM
Nicole Knight said...
Come on, now that you mention it, I do remember the cartoon! But now a days eveything is re-done...songs, movies etc. so what makes this any different! NK
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7-18-2006 @ 8:58AM
ihatemovies said...
While I have no doubt that the brothers Wayans had prior knowledge of said cartoon, it's a fact that ALL movies "steal" ideas from the cinematic past. As we all know, "Reservoir Dogs" was practically a remake of "City on Fire" and yet you don't hear many film fanboys chirping about that, do you?
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7-18-2006 @ 9:16AM
Joe said...
Tim Runnals...
Racist? Don't embarrass yourself.
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7-18-2006 @ 10:25AM
Mosi said...
I say so what...everything is stolen.....europeans stole america from the Indians, stole free labor from Africa...you guys and warner brothers should get over it....and there are no original ideas for the most part....The wind be gone is a parody of gone with the wind...the little man is a comedy/parody...so there!
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7-18-2006 @ 10:42AM
James said...
Seriously, what does race have to do with this? All Scott did was point out the similarities between this and a cartoon from 50 years ago. Whether you consider it to be plagerism (which, believe it or not, is a bad thing) or a homage - it's only an opinion. If Jim Carrey or Adam Sandler had done this, I believe the reaction would be the same.
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7-18-2006 @ 10:49AM
Tush said...
"europeans stole america from the Indians"
Europeans stole India from Indians. They stole America from Native Americans.
"P.S. theyr'e not works of art. they are entertainment. nothing more, nothing less."
I heartily disagree. What's the basis of this comment... ignorance?
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