Logorama

{{Infobox film

| name = Logorama

| image = Logorama poster.jpg

| alt = We see a black background with movie's name and the red slogan

| caption = Theatrical release poster

| director = François Alaux
Hervé de Crécy
Ludovic Houplain

| producer = Autour de Minuit

| writer = François Alaux
Hervé de Crécy
Ludovic Houplain
Gregory J. Pruss

| starring = Bob Stephenson
David Fincher
Aja Evans
Sherman Augustus
Joel Michaely
Matt Winston

| music = Bryan Ray Turcotte
Dayna Turcotte

| cinematography =

| editing = Samuel Danési

| studio = H5
Autour de Minuit Productions
Little Minx Films
Mikros Image

| distributor = Cinema Public Films (France)

| released = {{Film date|2009|5|20|Cannes|df=y}}

| runtime = 16 minutes

| country = France

| language = English
French

| budget =

| gross =

}}

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,[https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2010/09/13/logorama/ Short of the Week] 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.[https://www.adweek.com/digital/logorama-trailer/ Logorama Trailer - Adweek] 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.

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[https://www.animationmagazine.net/features/logorama-the-french-short-that-rewrote-the-rules/ Logorama: The French Short That Rewrote the Rules|Animation Magazine] and the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 82nd Academy Awards the following year.{{cite web|url=http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/82/nominees.html |title=Nominees for the 82nd Academy Awards |author=Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences |publisher=Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences |access-date=8 February 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141001195317/http://www.oscars.org/awards/academyawards/82/nominees.html |archive-date=1 October 2014 }}

Plot

In Los Angeles, California the buildings and inhabitants are commercial branding: Birds are in the form of Bentley and Aston Martin logos and MSN's butterfly; pedestrians are in the shape of the AIM icon; and overhead highway signs are mounted on Atlantic Records logos, among others. The Original Pringles mascot pulls into a Pizza Hut restaurant's parking lot and propositions an Esso waitress on break smoking an "Air France" cigarette. Meanwhile, BiC Boy students alongside Bob's Big Boy and Haribo Boy are on a tour at the Los Angeles Zoo led by Mr. Clean; tired of the tour, Big Boy and Haribo Boy hop off the tour train and soon begin to harass the MGM lion by mooning and throwing a bottle of Coca-Cola at it, prompting the zoo's owner, the Jolly Green Giant, to scold them.

As two Michelin Man police officers named Mitch and Mike order lunch at KFC, a call comes in over the radio stating that a criminal named Ronald McDonald is on the loose on a red delivery truck; the police chase Ronald in his truck. Many innocent bystanders are imperiled/injured, including Red and Yellow. Meanwhile, the students on tour are back on the school bus, nearing the Pizza Hut where Esso Girl is serving the Original Pringles mascot and the Pringles Hot & Spicy mascot some coffee. 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. Ronald gets out of the truck and knocks out Haribo Boy with his foot, before using a Heckler & Koch MP5 to take Big Boy hostage. He runs inside the Pizza Hut with Big Boy in tow, but latter frees himself by biting the former in the arm, before crawling 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, later resulting in a giant earthquake erupting and opening a fissure shaped like Microsoft's Xbox logo that splits the streets wide open. The animals escape, with an elephant running into the Jolly Green Giant and carrying him away. the Big Boy and Esso Girl escape the rapidly collapsing Pizza Hut while the Original Pringles mascot and the Pringles Hot & Spicy mascot are both crushed inside, eventually hijacking a "Angelo Cruz" police car to flee the scene. After shooting Mitch with his gun, Ronald rides through the city on a stolen Grease 2 motorcycle, leaving behind skid marks in the shape of the Pirelli logo, but drives into a fallen Weight Watchers sign and is thrown off, sliding and falling into a crevasse shaped like the Zenith Electronics logo after dodging an Enron sign, a Freddie Mac sign and a Kmart sign and using a Nabisco sign as a ramp. As he pulls himself back up, he is run over by Esso Girl and Big Boy, who barely escape the city and speed to the hills where they careen along a curved highway shaped like the Vaio logo. As the duo near the Hollywood Sign, 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. Petroleum suddenly erupts and floods Los Angeles, eventually swallowing the city and sweeping everything away, including a Michelin Man in a Randy's Donuts sign.

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. The remaining portion splits off and falls into the sea and forming a tiny island that the duo gets left on together. Esso Girl picks up and bites a colored Apple Inc. logo while lying down on the newly formed island alongside Big Boy. Southern California and the Baja California peninsula are shown to be separated from mainland and is now shaped like the Nike logo.

Voice cast

Bob Stephenson – Ronald McDonald, Michelin Man Police Officer Mike
David Fincher – Original Pringles Mascot
Aja Evans – Esso 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 – Yellow
Jaime Ray Newman – Dispatch Girl (Radio)
Andrew Kevin Walker – Pringles Hot & Spicy

Themes

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 {{Sic|ev|eryday}} 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".{{cite web |url=http://www.designboom.com/weblog/cat/8/view/7079/h5-logorama.html |title=H5: Logorama |date=28 July 2009 |publisher=Design Boom |access-date=February 8, 2010}}

=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.

Accolades

Logorama has received the following 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) – 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

In other media

The Simpsons episode "A Tree Grows in Springfield" (season 24, episode 6) ends with a vignette inspired by Logorama, called Logomania.[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2518614/movieconnections/?tab=mc&ref_=tt_trv_cnn "The Simpsons" A Tree Grows in Springfield (TV Episode 2012) -Connection - IMDB]

A catalog inspired by the short, titled Logobook and written by the film's co-director Ludovic Houplain, was published by Taschen in 2013.{{cite web |title=LOGORAMA: From a Book to a Short Film |url=http://alfalfastudio.com/2015/12/10/logorama-from-a-book-to-a-short-film/ |access-date=18 July 2019 |website=Alfalfastudio.com |archive-date=18 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190718032428/http://alfalfastudio.com/2015/12/10/logorama-from-a-book-to-a-short-film/ |url-status=dead }}