Story
Synopsis
Tony Mite as his alter ego, Tiny Mite, is a hero who constantly saves the day at Tinytopolis. In this week’s “episode”, the nefarious Mole Muncher seeks to bury Tinytopolis to commence a crime wave the likes of which Tiny Mite has never faced before.
The short film will emulates an episode of classic 60s television, as if it were a long lost episode of the original Tiny Mite TV series from back in the day. Drawing inspiration from classic TV and the silver age of comics, the film replicates the visual and comedic style of the time period.
The Characters
Tiny Mite as a hero is quippy, ready to help and ready for action, while Tony Mite is awkward and clumsy. His powers include shrinking abilities and Mite Strength, where he channels the power of an undetermined amount of mites (from 6,000 to 6,000,000) to deliver powerful attacks! He works at Tiny Co, a company that provides a good and service that is left ambiguous to further the satire aspect. Tiny Mite’s famous catchphrase is “Just a little!”
Tony’s co-worker friend and love interest is Mitette, a take on the “Lois Lane” archetype, drawing inspiration for her personality from characters like Roxanne from Megamind. She and Tony have a will-they-won’t-they dynamic, where they just can’t actually start a relationship despite both being into one another. When she is captured by Mole Muncher as part of his schemes, Tony will have to save her without revealing his secret identity.
This episode’s villain is Mole Muncher! Part man, part mole, this evil-doer has mole feelers for hands. Mole Muncher acts as the classic, cartoonishly evil villain with a throaty voice and an evil laugh. His mole powers came about from the classic freak accident while he was researching moles in a radioactive power plant on behalf of Tiny Co. Left without his sight, he now hates the sun, and Tiny Co! Seeking revenge, his nefarious scheme is to bury the city under a mound of dirt, allowing him to commit crime 24/7! However, he needs money to fund his plans, and sends in a typical robber to rob a bank (along with the big sack with a $), which leads Tiny Mite to discover the scheme…
Tiny Mite’s Origins
Tiny Mite was invented as a bit, a joke if you will, to see how long we could make up a story for the hero, both the fictional story and his “real” comics and movies, before others caught wind that it was in fact a joke. His character, lore and history were purposely cliche, weird and goofy.
The more this bit went on, the more the idea of making an actual film with the character stuck with us. Now, the bit is becoming a reality.
The “story” of Tiny Mite as a character is one of failure and convolutedness. The first issues of Tiny Mite would have been written at the same time as other superhero classics from the Silver Age of comics, and it would have been a real competitor! They would even have a TV show (this short film) that would run at the same time as Batman (1966)! But in the end, Tiny Mite was never as successful or popular, and faded into obscurity. Every so often, new writers would try to revive the franchise with new takes on the character to fit with the time period, but nothing was able to make him popular. It wasn’t until present day, that one of the long lost episodes for Tiny Mite would resurface online, giving the character another chance at finding a place in the superhero mythos!
This is all of course made up, but part of our story’s framing device. While it’ll be a very short part of the film, it will help ground it as something that could have existed during the Silver Age of comics.
The Style
As a “classic” TV show from the 60s, our film will be heavily inspired by Batman (1966), The Green Hornet (1966), the original Star Trek (1966) as well as the Mexican show El Chapulín Colorado (The Red Grasshopper)(1973).
The film’s visual style will aim to replicate these shows, with simple costumes and very clearly fake props and sets, kind of making it look cheap on purpose. Tone-wise, the film will have the same, campy dialogue and goofy comedy, with some added satire.
Why Tiny Mite is important
Superhero media is very popular, and for good reason. It's full of fun, diverse characters that relate to everyone in every situation. They’re larger than life, yet also very life-like. It’s also a very cool genre where brightly dressed heroes fight for good! However, the genre, at least in films, is becoming formulaic, repetitive and too reliant on CGI.
Well, Tiny Mite is here to help! The entire character and his story are a parody on superheroes, and using a different style! There’s lots of satire and parodies of superheroes, like 2008’s Superhero Movie, but they usually focus on modern media and tropes, while our film will look back at the origins of the genre and explore something familiar, yet new and funny.
