''Logorama'' is a 2009 French adult animated

short film A short film is any motion picture that is short enough in running time not to be considered a feature film. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences defines a short film as "an original motion picture that has a running time of 40 minutes ...

co-written and directed by François Alaux, Hervé de Crécy and Ludovic Houplain ( H5), and produced by Autour de Minuit. Set in a stylized version of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...

, the short portrays events told entirely through the extensive use of more than 2,000 contemporary and historical

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordm ...

s and

mascot A mascot is any human, animal, or object thought to bring luck, or anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name. Mascots are also used as fic ...

s. The film won both the Prix Kodak at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival and the

Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...

at the

82nd Academy Awards The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2009 and took place on March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m ...

in 2010. A catalog based on the short, titled ''Logobook'' and written by the film's co-director Ludovic Houplain, was published by

Taschen Taschen is a luxury art book publisher founded in 1980 by Benedikt Taschen in Cologne, Germany. As of January 2017, Taschen is co-managed by Benedikt and his eldest daughter, Marlene Taschen. History The company began as Taschen Comic ...

in 2013.

Plot

The short opens with a

panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

where all of its buildings and inhabitants are in some form of commercial branding: birds are in the form of

Bentley Bentley Motors Limited is a British designer, manufacturer and marketer of luxury cars and SUVs. Headquartered in Crewe, England, the company was founded as Bentley Motors Limited by W. O. Bentley (1888–1971) in 1919 in Cricklewood, Nort ...

and

Aston Martin Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated ...

logos and

MSN MSN (meaning Microsoft Network) is a web portal and related collection of Internet services and apps for Windows and mobile devices, provided by Microsoft and launched on August 24, 1995, alongside the release of Windows 95. The Microsoft Net ...

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group comprises ...

; pedestrians are in the shape of the AIM icon; and overhead highway signs are mounted on

Atlantic Records Atlantic Recording Corporation (simply known as Atlantic Records) is an American record label founded in October 1947 by Ahmet Ertegun and Herb Abramson. Over its first 20 years of operation, Atlantic earned a reputation as one of the most ...

logos, among others. The Original

Pringles Pringles is an American brand of stackable potato-based crisps. Originally sold by Procter & Gamble (P&G) in 1968 and marketed as "Pringle's Newfangled Potato Chips", the brand was sold in 2012 to the current owner, Kellogg's. As of 2011, Pr ...

mascot (voiced by David Fincher) pulls into a Pizza Hut restaurant's parking lot and propositions an

Esso Esso () is a trade name, trading name for ExxonMobil. Originally, the name was primarily used by its predecessor Exxon, Standard Oil of New Jersey after the breakup of the original Standard Oil company in 1911. The company adopted the name "Ess ...

Girl waitress (voiced by Aja Evans) on a

smoking Smoking is a practice in which a substance is burned and the resulting smoke is typically breathed in to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have bee ...

break (her cigarette is the

Air France Air France (; formally ''Société Air France, S.A.''), stylised as AIRFRANCE, is the flag carrier of France headquartered in Tremblay-en-France. It is a subsidiary of the Air France–KLM Group and a founding member of the SkyTeam global airl ...

logo). Meanwhile, BiC Boy students alongside Bob's Big Boy (voiced by Joel Michaely) and Haribo Boy (voiced by Matt Winston) are on a tour at a zoo led by a flamboyant Mr. Clean (voiced by Michaely); hating the tour, Big Boy and Haribo Boy hop off the tour train and soon begin to harass the

MGM lion Leo the Lion is the mascot for the Hollywood film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and one of its predecessors, Goldwyn Pictures, featured in the studio's production logo, which was created by the Paramount Studios art director Lionel S. Reiss. Since ...

mooning Mooning is the act of displaying one's bare buttocks by removing clothing, e.g., by lowering the backside of one's trousers and underpants, usually bending over, and also potentially exposing the genitals. Mooning is used in the English-speak ...

and throwing a bottle of

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atla ...

at it, prompting the zoo's owner, the Jolly Green Giant (voiced by Michaely), to scold them. As

Michelin Man Bibendum (), commonly referred to in English as the Michelin Man or Michelin Tyre Man, is the official mascot of the Michelin tyre company. A humanoid figure consisting of stacked white tyres, it was introduced at the Lyon Exhibition of 1894 ...

police officer A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...

s Mitch and Mike (voiced by Bob Stephenson and Sherman Augustus) order lunch at KFC, a call comes in over the radio stating that a criminal named Ronald McDonald (voiced by Stephenson) is on the loose in a red delivery truck; both Mitch and Mike spot Ronald in his truck and chase him. The police pursuit quickly veers out of control, as many innocent bystanders are imperiled/injured. Meanwhile, the BiC students alongside Big Boy and Haribo Boy at the zoo have finished their tour and are back on the school bus, soon nearing the Pizza Hut where Esso Girl is serving the Original Pringles mascot and the Pringles Hot & Spicy mascot. Ronald swerves to avoid the school bus and crashes his truck over in front of the Pizza Hut. Several guns and biological weapons then spill out of the back of the truck, tempting Big Boy and Haribo Boy to steal and sell them at the

black market A black market, underground economy, or shadow economy is a clandestine market or series of transactions that has some aspect of illegality or is characterized by noncompliance with an institutional set of rules. If the rule defines the ...

. Ronald gets out of the truck and knocks out Haribo Boy with his foot, before taking Big Boy hostage and running inside the Pizza Hut. Big Boy frees himself by biting Ronald in the arm, before running for cover behind the counter with Esso Girl while an enraged Ronald attempts to shoot him. The police are given the excuse to start firing on Ronald, but Ronald kills one of the police officers. As the gunfight ensues in the streets, a low rumbling is heard across Los Angeles, resulting in a giant

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

erupting and opening a fissure shaped like

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by th ...

logo that splits the streets wide open. Big Boy and Esso Girl escape the rapidly collapsing Pizza Hut using a hijacked police car while the Original Pringles mascot and the Pringles Hot & Spicy mascot are both crushed inside. After shooting Mitch with his gun (as shown via the gun barrel sequence à la

James Bond The ''James Bond'' series focuses on a fictional Secret Intelligence Service, British Secret Service agent created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short-story collections. Since Fleming's death in 19 ...

), Ronald rides through the city on a stolen '' Grease 2'' motorcycle, but drives into a fallen

Weight Watchers Weight Watchers or WW may refer to: * Weight Watchers (diet), a comprehensive weight loss program and diet * WW International WW International, Inc., formerly Weight Watchers International, Inc., is a global company headquartered in the U.S. tha ...

sign and is thrown off, sliding and falling into a crevasse shaped like the

Zenith Electronics Zenith Electronics, LLC, is an American research and development company that develops ATSC and digital rights management technologies. It is owned by the South Korean company LG Electronics. Zenith was previously an American brand of consumer el ...

logo. As he pulls himself back up, he is run over by Esso Girl and Big Boy, who barely escape the city and speed along a curved highway shaped like the VAIO logo. As the duo near the

Hollywood Chewing Gum Hollywood Chewing Gum is a brand of French chewing gum belonging to the group Mondelēz International Mondelez International, Inc. ( ), often styled Mondelēz, is an American multinational confectionery, food, holding and beverage and snac ...

Hollywood Sign The Hollywood Sign is an American landmark and cultural icon overlooking Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. Originally the Hollywoodland Sign, it is situated on Mount Lee, in the Beachwood Canyon area of the Santa Monica Mountains. Spellin ...

, it falls apart and sends the giant letters crashing onto the highway in front of them. While evading one of the letters, the duo veer off the highway and down a hill, finally crashing into a tree shaped like the American Century Investments logo. Following this, petroleum oil suddenly erupts from the rifts around town and entirely floods Los Angeles. The hill Esso Girl and Big Boy are stranded on splits into two, revealing a giant North Face logo while the land crumbles around them, swallowed by the sea and leaving the duo on a tiny island together. The film closes with Esso Girl picking up and biting a colored Apple Inc. logo while lying down on the island alongside Big Boy, before zooming out to reveal that

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the ...

has been separated from mainland and is now shaped like the Nike, Inc. logo, but also revealing that the entire universe is made up of even more logos. After the credits, a now-bald, black-eyed and partly-toothless Ronald laughs menacingly and says " I'm lovin' it!"

Cast

* Bob Stephenson – Ronald McDonald,

Police Officer Mike * David Fincher – Original

Mascot * Aja Evans –

Girl * Sherman Augustus – Michelin Man Police Officer Mitch * Joel Michaely – Big Boy, Jolly Green Giant, Mr. Clean * Matt Winston – Haribo Boy * Gregory J. Pruss – Pillsbury Doughboy, Chopper Pilot * Josh Eichenbaum – M&M's *

Jaime Ray Newman Jaime Ray Newman (born April 2, 1978) is an American actress, producer and singer. She is known for starring as Kristina Cassadine in the soap opera '' General Hospital'', Mindy O'Dell in the drama series ''Veronica Mars'', Kat Gardener in the f ...

– Dispatch Girl (Radio) * Andrew Kevin Walker as Pringles Hot & Spicy

Themes

''Logorama'' explores the extent to which logos are embedded in Earth's daily existence. H5 members explained that, "''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 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".

Brands, mascots and logos

The entirety of ''Logorama'' is made up of brand images, logos and mascots, with these brand images, logos and mascots used as characters, props, locations, vehicles and other content. Notable uses within the film include

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold ...

mascot Ronald McDonald being depicted as the main antagonist, while Michelin Men are depicted as the police. However, some of the logos are also derived from fictional works, such as Slurm from '' Futurama'', the ''

Ghostbusters ''Ghostbusters'' is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, ...

'' logo, the Buy-N-Large (BnL) sign from ''

WALL-E ''WALL-E'' (stylized with an interpunct as ''WALL·E'') is a 2008 American computer animation, computer-animated science fiction film produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It was directed and co-written by ...

'', the '' South Park'' sign and logo of ''My First Thomas'', a ''

Thomas & Friends ''Thomas & Friends'' (originally known as ''Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends'' and later ''Thomas & Friends: Big World! Big Adventures!'') is a British children's television series that aired across 24 series from 1984 to 2021. Based on ''The ...

'' toyline.

Awards

''Logorama'' has received the following nominations and awards: * 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) – Nominated * Audience Award – Lille International Short Film Festival (2009) – Nominated * Jury's Special Prize, Audience Prize, Fuji Prize for Best Directors – Cinanima International Animated Film Festival (2009) – Nominated * Best Short Film – Stockholm International Film Festival (2009) – Nominated * Best Direction, Audience Award – Vendôme Film Festival (2009) – Nominated * Gold Medal for Animation – Zinebi, Bilbao International Film Festival (2009) – Nominated * Oscar for Best Animated Short –

(2010) – Won * Best Short Film – Césars 2011 – Nominated

In other media

The 2012 ''

Simpsons ''The Simpsons'' is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical depiction of American life, epitomized by the Simpson family, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa, an ...

'' episode " A Tree Grows in Springfield" ends with a vignette inspired by ''Logorama'' called Logomania."The Simpsons" A Tree Grows in Springfield (TV Episode 2012) -Connection - IMDB
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References

External links

''Logorama''
on

Vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software a ...