Oscar-winning film successfully mimics walking through Dundas Square

Oscar-winning film successfully mimics walking through Dundas Square

One of our current obsessions is Logorama, the bright and brash winner last Sunday of the Oscar for best animated short film. The movie creates a cityscape completely constructed of and peopled by corporate logos. Witness a shootout between Michelin Man cops and a hostage-taking Ronald McDonald, who escapes on the Grease motorcycle (actually Grease 2, which, of course, makes it all the funnier). The seemingly made-for-the-Web movie was on its way to becoming a viral hit before it was pulled from YouTube and other video sites. (We managed to locate a video library that, at least for now, has the full-length edition.)

While primarily using recognizable American brands, the creators (French collective H5) didn’t shut out Canadian companies. McCain products are on offer at a restaurant frequented by two horny Pringles men; the restaurant itself is located near a Shoppers Drug Mart. And in an especially surreal zoo, two pandas huddle ironically under the arched logo of oil sands operator Canadian Natural.

The zoo is also home to Lacoste crocodiles, Playboy bunnies, an indecent Green Giant, a flamboyantly gay Mr. Clean and a dozy MGM lion that looks about as exhausted as the studio actually is. No wonder the Republican elephant seems in such a hurry to break free. Watching it, we could almost hear the Downtown Yonge BIA sigh with envy: someday.