BEST LITTLE GUY - LABYRINTH
Labyrinth
Congratulations to the worm from Jim Henson’s Labyrinth (1986) for winning Best Little Guy at the Itty Bitty Awards.
Sometimes Itty Bittys are controversial. Sometimes, as the crown is lifting, there’s a volatile concoction of the wind briefly picking up, the trees leaning in to take a closer look, and woodland creatures nervously dashing back into their burrows. A pause is shared around the world as movie buffs hesitate, if only for a second, sensing a subjective injustice. There is no fuel more reactive than that of pop culture disagreement.
Luckily, today we crown the worm from Labyrinth as Best Little Guy, and I have never been more certain of the peaceful sleep of keyboard warriors around the globe. The worm from Labyrinth is the undisputed, de facto Best Little Guy.
It almost feels superfluous to write this supporting document. Dissecting why the dry humping scene in Ang Lee’s underrated The Ice Storm (1997) deserved Best Masked Sexual Experience over Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining (1980) felt cheeky, rebellious… important. To fight in the corner of David against Goliath. But with the worm from Labyrinth? It’s like arguing air is breathable, or that Darren Aronofsky’s own ego is stifling his work.
Fundamentally, worm is a cultural familiar for a hybrid generation of young gen X and millennials. In a deeply fantastical movie, executed with a pure practical-effect whimsy only the 80s could have concocted, Worm stands out even among a cast of wonderful, larger-than-life characters. And not only that, Worm prevailed. Worm was an icon of childhood that stood against the reams of little guys who came after him and said nah, I’ll do it better, and I’ll have a cuppa while doing it.
Worm endured.
i never forgot you
That said, despite deep emotional connections to Worm, I was personally devastated to know that in naming Best Little Guy I was, by implication, suggesting another wasn’t Best Little Guy. I’m gonna carry that weight.
Flight of the Navigator (1986)
Director: Randal Kleiser
You are loved and you are seen, sweet puckmarin.
There were seven delusional seconds where, through the parkour of irrational thought, I tried to build a case for the puckmarin from Flight of the Navigator taking the award. It seems 1986 was a hell of a year for phenomenal little guys. But, sitting in my home adorned with worm merchandise, next to my display copy of the Labyrinth VHS, and scrolling through 300 pages of Etsy’s handmade worm products, I knew a puckmarin win would undermine the sanctity of the Itty Bitty Awards themselves.
I just hope he and Max are having a grand adventure, wherever they are.
THOUGHTS ON LITTLE GUYS
The Disney pantheon of little guys is too great and too equal to truly isolate a contender and, delving further into it, I realised I had my own assumptions about what constituted a little guy. For example, in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (1991) you might propose that everyone is a little guy: Lumiere, Cogsworth, Chip… They all brim with best little guy potential. However, when everyone is a little guy, no one is. Additionally, they’re all only temporarily little guys. People can’t be little guys. Disqualified.
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
Directors: Gary Trousdale, Kirk Wise
Animation supervisor: Nik Ranieri
Voices: Jerry Orbach (Lumiere), Kimmy Robertson (feather duster)
Here lies the deepest contention of Best Little Guy, the gut of it all. Little guys are something you feel in your gut; you just know when someone or something is a little guy. There could be extravagant discourse surrounding what constitutes a little guy, really nailing down the nitty-gritty of instinct. But I think, and I hope I’m not alone in saying this, it is the je ne sais quoi of the little guy, the vibe, a demeanour beyond classification... A little guy is known, not by data, but by heart.
Sir Didymus, bastion of the bridge, noble knight, and definitely the bravest little guy.*
*The Bravest Little Guy award has not been announced.
Puppeteers: Dave Goelz and David Barclay. Voice: David Shaughnessy.
A little guy, in 99% of cases, should be small and, where possible, the smallest character on the roster. For further clarification via example, Hoggle could never be a little guy, BUT I would accept an argument that Sir Didymus IS a little guy. Although something about this is off, it’s hard to pin down; we’re venturing into the little guy uncanny valley with Sir Didymus. Perhaps it is the complexity of his design, his loquacious nature, or the fact he rides Ambrosius; a little guy would never, by contrast, make another living creature subservient (or littler than himself).
bumblebee (2018)
Director: Travis Knight
I will not be answering any questions on Bumblebee’s (big) little guy status. He goes against 90% of any attempt to rationally document a little guy, and yet there’s something undeniably little-guy about that damn autobot. It’s keeping me up at night.
One clear rule, however, is not about the constitution of the little guy itself but their actions within the movie. All little guys need to have a back and forth interaction with a member of the main cast. And, at this juncture, I believe they should be a positive or, at minimum, neutral exchange. This could include transformative narractive arcs that begin with an evil little guy who becomes good.
Example of a little guy who isn’t a little guy
:
this goblin pops out when Sarah exits frame after marking his tile with lipstick. He then calls her mother an aardvark. Phenomenal. But not eligible for this award.
Voice: (a tentative guess based on one non-cited IMDB user submission) Peter Marinker
CONCLUSION
The identification of little guys, at this juncture, remains largely instinctual, framed in something soft and suggestive, but deeply understood in concept. That, I think, is part of what makes a little guy: a charisma and sense of being that transcends definition. In many ways, the lack of definition is a defining strength in itself. If you know, you know. What I know, is that if someone asked me to define a little guy I would simply hold up a picture of the worm from Labyrinth.
Far be it for us to dissect the timeless and enduring presence of icons such as Worm.
