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Logorama

2009 French film From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Logorama
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Logorama is a 2009 French adult animated crime disaster black comedy short film produced by the French graphic design and animation studio H5 as their first and only cinematic project made so far. Co-written and directed by François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain,[1] the film is set in a stylized version of Los Angeles and portrays various events as being told entirely through the extensive use of more than 2,000 contemporary and historical company logos and mascots.[2] The short's voice cast consists of Bob Stephenson, David Fincher, Aja Evans, Sherman Augustus, Joel Michaely, Matt Winston, Gregory J. Pruss, Josh Eichenbaum, Jaime Ray Newman, and Andrew Kevin Walker.

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Upon its release on 20 May 2009 in Cannes, Logorama has received numerous awards, including winning both the Kodak Discovery Award for Best Short Film (the Kodak Prix) at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival[3] and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 82nd Academy Awards the following year.[4]

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Plot

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In Los Angeles, the skyline and neighborhoods are surrounded by corporate symbols: Bentley and Aston Martin logos soar overhead like birds in flight, while MSN's butterflies flutter nearby; the AIM icon appears as pedestrians walking along the streets; and highway signs display logos from Atlantic Records among others. The original Pringles mascot drives through Malibu, eventually parking in a diner's parking lot and approaching a break-time Esso waitress smoking a Air France cigarette, attempting to flirt, but she declines, discarding her cigarette as she walks away.

Meanwhile, miles from the Santa Monica Pier, two police officers depicted as Michelin Men named Mitch and Mike are parked in their police cruiser discussing zoo animal captivity. Their conversation ends when Mike is tasked with grabbing lunch from KFC for both of them. As he leaves with a soft drink bearing a Dunkin' Donuts logo and a bucket of fried chicken wings resembling the Honda Motorcycles emblem, a criminal called Ronald McDonald is seen smuggling weapons in a red delivery van at a nearby gas station selling diesel. Mitch receives a message on the radio, revealing that the criminal is now on the loose.

Spotting Ronald in shock from afar, Mike rushes outside the KFC, accidentally bumping into a senior citizen and knocking him over. Once in the car, the police pursue Ronald; during the chase, innocent bystanders and motorists suffer accidental injuries and crash their vehicles. Across town, BiC Boy students, along with Big Boy and Haribo Boy, are on a guided tour of the Los Angeles Zoo led by a flamboyant Mr. Clean; tired of the tour, Big Boy and Haribo Boy leave the train and run to the lion exhibit. There, they disturb the MGM lion while he sleeps: Haribo moons him, and Big Boy throws an empty Coca-Cola bottle at him while insulting him, prompting the zoo's owner, the Jolly Green Giant, to reprimand them.

Meanwhile, the chase escalates, endangering more motorists, pedestrians, and drivers as Ronald and the police speed along an off-ramp, where Red and Yellow are struck and killed crossing at the crosswalk by the cruiser. The tour group quickly boards their school bus, heading to the Pizza Hut where Esso Girl serves coffee to the original Pringles mascot and the Hot & Spicy mascot, assisted by the Pillsbury Doughboy. The police chase is broadcast live. Ronald brakes and swerves to avoid the school bus but crashes into a car and a semi-truck, causing his van to slide onto the sidewalk and grass, stopping in front of the Pizza Hut, striking its sign, and tilting its pole, shocking everyone inside.

Several guns and biological weapons spill from the wrecked van onto the sidewalk and curb, tempting Big Boy and Haribo Boy, who have exited the school bus, to sneak away from the teacher to steal and sell them on the black market. Ronald exits his wrecked vehicle, frightening the children, then kicks Haribo Boy unconscious and uses a Heckler & Koch MP5 to take Big Boy hostage. He runs into the Pizza Hut with Big Boy, but Big Boy bites his arm to escape and crawls to the counter where Esso Girl is hiding, as Ronald tries to shoot him. Police are authorized to open fire, but Ronald retaliates, kicking the glass wall to try and shoot at them (even denting police cars and shooting a neon sign at a Hard Rock Cafe), after Mitch disobeys orders to hold fire—accidentally hitting Mr. Peanut in the head with a sniper bullet, causing his shell to shatter and the nut inside to fall to the tiled floor.

As gunfire erupts, a distant tremor shakes Los Angeles, causing a Michelin Man to miss Ronald’s head—his intended sniper target—resulting in the bullet hitting the diner's roof, ricocheting off the sign's dome, and striking a helicopter’s tail rotor, causing it to lose altitude and crash into a Pizza Hut. Fortunately, no one is hurt except the helicopter pilot, the Michelin Man, who loses consciousness, triggering an earthquake. The animals escape, with an elephant running into the Jolly Green Giant and carrying him off after he tries to stop them.

Big Boy and Esso Girl manage to escape the collapsing Pizza Hut, while the original Pringles mascot and the Hot & Spicy mascot are crushed inside after hiding under a booth. The two hijack Mitch and Mike's police cruiser to flee the scene as the earthquake causes a fissure in the street resembling the Microsoft Xbox logo that swallows it. Meanwhile, Mitch tries to shoot Ronald, but he shoots him in the forehead. Ronald then sneaks away, noticing a row of Grease 2 motorcycles, and rides off on one, leaving a donut shape made of skid marks resembling the Pirelli logo as he departs.

Once on the move, while the zoo animals rampage through the city, he dodges abandoned vehicles, debris, and falling signs, including those for Enron, Freddie Mac, and Kmart, using an already fallen Nabisco sign as a ramp. Just as he’s about to escape the city, he crashes into a fallen Weight Watchers sign blocking his way, sending him flying onto the road, where he slides into a crevasse resembling the Zenith Electronics logo. When he tries to get out, he’s run over by Esso Girl and Big Boy, who narrowly escape the city and head to the hills via Route 66, traveling along a curved highway shaped like the Vaio logo.

The earthquake continues spreading through the desert and into Marlboro Country, where oil wells are located, forming a canyon. Approaching the Hollywood Chewing Gum Sign, it disintegrates and slides down the hill onto the highway. While avoiding one of the fallen letters, the duo veers off the highway, crashes through a guardrail, and tumbles down a hill, ending in a collision with an apple tree resembling the American Century Investments logo that almost kills them (as they didn't have time to put on seat belts) and causes one of the cruiser's front wheels to come off and roll away, scattering apples violently and stopping the earthquake.

Petroleum erupts from the newly formed desert canyon, flooding Los Angeles and sweeping everything away, prompting some to climb onto the highest points of remaining structures, which serve as islands amid the flooded city and floating debris that stay afloat, all while avoiding hungry crocodiles and trying to get help.

The hill supporting the cruiser, with Esso Girl and Big Boy inside, splits open, revealing a massive North Face logo, as the surrounding land disintegrates. The remaining land sinks into the sea, leaving behind a tiny island where the duo is stranded. Esso Girl picks up one of the nearby colored apples and bites into it while lying next to Big Boy on the newly formed island, now part of Southern California and the Baja California peninsula, separated from the mainland and shaped like the Nike swoosh logo, with the Earth depicted as the Universal Pictures logo, featuring its moon and the Sun.

Finally, it's revealed that the universe, including the solar system, is made up of countless logos: Mars, Inc. representing the Red Planet, Orion Pictures as a constellation, the Milky Way Galaxy with its stars, and Pioneer replacing Pioneer 11. Additionally, it’s shown that Ronald survived being run over, suffering only hair loss, a black eye, unfocused eyes, and some missing teeth.

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Voice cast

  • Bob Stephenson – Portrays various characters including Ronald McDonald, a criminal; Michelin Man (Cops), with Mitch as the relaxed officer, along with the Michelin Sheriff; , both as part of the law enforcement team.
  • David Fincher and Andrew Kevin Walker – voices two lecherous, rude customers known as the Pringles Men.
    • Fincher voices Original Pringles Mascot, the initial face of the snack brand.
    • Walker portrays Pringles Hot & Spicy, known for being argumentative and fiery.
  • Aja Evans – Represents the Esso Drop Girl, a waitress who is also taken hostage.
  • Sherman Augustus – Plays Michelin Man Police Officer Mike, a serious law enforcement officer, also a part of the law enforcement team.
  • Joel Michaely – Embodies Big Boy, a juvenile delinquent and hostage; Jolly Green Giant, a zoo manager; and Mr. Clean, a campy tour guide.
  • Matt Winston – Acts as Haribo Boy, Big Boy's second banana and a victim of the hostage crisis.
  • Gregory J. Pruss – Plays the Pillsbury Doughboy, a chef at the diner, and also a Chopper Pilot.
  • Josh Eichenbaum – Characterized as Yellow, an innocent bystander caught in the chaos.
  • Jaime Ray Newman – Serves as the Dispatch Girl on the radio, coordinating communications during the events.
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Themes

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Logorama explores the extent that logos are embedded in Earth's daily existence. H5 members explained: "Logorama presents us with an over-marketed world built only from logos and real trademarks that are destroyed by a series of natural disasters (including an earthquake and a tidal wave of oil). Logotypes are used to describe an alarming universe (similar to the one that we are living in) with all the graphic signs that accompany us everyday [sic] in our lives. This over-organized universe is violently transformed by the cataclysm becoming fantastic and absurd. It shows the victory of the creative against the rational, where nature and human fantasy triumph".[5]

Brands, mascots and logos

The entirety of Logorama features numerous brand images, mascots and logos as the characters, props, locations, vehicles and other content. Notable uses include McDonald's mascot Ronald McDonald being depicted as a criminal reminiscent of the Joker, Michelin Men being depicted as the police, and the Esso Oil Drop Girl being depicted as a waitress in a diner. However, some of the logos are also derived from fictional brands, such as Slurm from Futurama, the Ghostbusters logo, and the Buy-N-Large (BnL) logo from WALL-E.

Logos for well-known media such as The Wall, South Park, Sesame Street, COPS, Batman, James Bond, Grease 2, Street Fighter II, The Empire Strikes Back, and Left 4 Dead are included, along with several logos representing musical artists like Gorillaz, Green Day, The Clash, Daft Punk, Public Enemy, Sex Pistols, AC/DC, Run–D.M.C., Fatboy Slim, and Iron Maiden.

Accolades

Logorama has received the following awards and nominations:

  • Kodak Discovery Award for Best Short Film (the Kodak Prix) – Critics' Week, 62nd Cannes Film Festival (2009) – Won
  • Audience Award – Festival International de Curtas Metragans (2009) – Won
  • Audience Award – Lille International Short Film Festival (2009) – Won
  • Jury's Special Prize, Audience Prize, Fuji Prize for Best Directors – Cinanima International Animated Film Festival (2009) – Won
  • Best Short Film – Stockholm International Film Festival (2009) – Won
  • Best Direction, Audience Award – Vendôme Film Festival (2009) – Won
  • Gold Medal for Animation – Zinebi, Bilbao International Film Festival (2009) – Won
  • Oscar for Best Animated Short – 82nd Academy Awards (2010) – Won
  • Best Short Film – Césars 2011 – Won
  • Best Animated Film – Césars 2011 – Nominated
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In other media

The Simpsons episode "A Tree Grows in Springfield" (season 24, episode 6) ends with a vignette inspired by Logorama, called Logomania.[6]

A catalog inspired by the short, titled Logobook and written by the film's co-director Ludovic Houplain, was published by Taschen in 2013.[7]

See also

References

External links

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