海角大神

When an online video goes viral, the copycat industry usually begins spinning out imitations almost as fast as the original went wide.

But 鈥淐aine鈥檚 Arcade,鈥� an 11-minute film that has already won millions of fans, is garnering a somewhat different response. As filmmaker Nirvan Mullick says, 鈥淭his is the video that is making grown men cry.鈥�

He points to a response video that has been uploaded, showing nothing more than a man in tears as he watches the story of the 9-year-old Caine Monroy, an East Los Angeles boy who spent his summer constructing an elaborate cardboard game arcade in his father鈥檚 auto parts shop.

鈥淭his film is seriously sending people back into their own childhoods and remembering their own creativity,鈥� Mr. Mullick says, 鈥渁nd remembering how wonderful it felt to have that freedom of expression.鈥�

Sometimes, adds Mullick, it鈥檚 the father-son relationship in the film that has brought on tears. 鈥淥ne of the important parts of Caine鈥檚 story is the support his father gave to the project,鈥� he says, noting with a laugh that not every parent would encourage a child to invade work space with a fantasy project. 鈥淗is dad, George, even told me that he was a little embarrassed a couple of times when customers would come in the shop and here he would be trying to sell a $300 auto part and his son Caine would come in and try to hustle the guy to buy tickets to play in his cardboard arcade.鈥�

One of Mullick鈥檚 favorite anecdotes: An artist from Fox鈥檚 鈥淭he Simpsons鈥� came to the auto parts shop to see the arcade for himself. 鈥淗e just put his head down on the counter and cried after he saw it,鈥� he says. 鈥淗e told me his own dad never gave him that kind of support.鈥�

鈥淭his is the really wonderful thing about this story,鈥� says Robert Thompson, popular culture expert at Syracuse University in New York. 鈥淚t鈥檚 having a fantastic digital success,鈥� he says, 鈥渂ut what it is celebrating is the actual value of real-world, completely nondigital creativity.鈥�

The story speaks to the younger male set as well. Proud mom Jessi Roman posted this on the blog Mommy Anomaly: 鈥淎fter watching this kid's story, I decided to show it to my 10 yr old son. He's always building things out of cardboard boxes ... and Legos ... and paper ... pretty much anything he can get his hands on. I thought it would be a nice bit of inspiration for him, knowing that this kid got so much notoriety for doing something similar,鈥� she wrote.

After shooting a video of her son Jojo and his Super Mario-themed bubble-gum machine, she wrote, 鈥渉e asked if there was a way we could show it to Caine.鈥�

They found Caine鈥檚 Facebook page and shared the video with Caine, whose site in return put out a call to anyone with a creation they wanted to share. NBC picked up on 鈥淐aine鈥檚 Arcade鈥� and included Jojo鈥檚 gum-ball creation in a Thursday-evening news segment.

鈥淛ojo was actually so overwhelmed by it all that he was moved to tears, telling me that I'd have to buy some more tissue,鈥� his mom blogged, adding that 鈥渁ll the while, [he was] grinning from ear to ear.鈥�

To be fair, not all men are transported equally by the narrative. 鈥淚鈥檓 a bit skeptical of the latest online hit,鈥� says Mark Tatge, journalism professor at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind. He warns about the downside of this fame and attention to young children, especially. 鈥淭his kind of narcissism that anything they do is a reason to put up a video鈥� is not something to encourage, he says. 鈥淔rankly, if this were my child, I would be a little worried about such obsessive behavior. I鈥檇 ask him, 鈥楧on鈥檛 you want to go play with some friends or go outside and play?鈥�

But, says Mullick, this short film has given the Internet something that is in short supply. 鈥淭his celebrates the good in all of us,鈥� he says, adding, 鈥淭his has made the Internet happier at a time when people are starving for something good.鈥�