Momentum of the Muse

I have seen the Vancouver 2010 mascots around for ages, and assumed Quatchi was a sasquatch but the others were lost on me. Today, I watched this official video that introduces them all as pokemon. Miga is the one who confused me the most – orca/beluga, but the tiniest of the bunch? And what’s with the emo haircut? Then Sumi I thought was a bear, until he grew three times in size and flew from Whistler to Vancouver with a sasquatch and a walking orca/beluga on his back. They communicate to one another speaking their names over and over, so immediately I thought, pokemon.

I started to write the post about them as pokemon and then realized this was probably old news. A quick search on google found about ten bajillion results. Apparently everyone was super choked about these ridiculous pokemon mascots and would have preferred a cuddly-and-cute spirit bear.

Then, it was clarified that the mascots were inspired by First Nations. Miga is actually part spirit bear, part orca, except the cuddly-and-cute component is completely negated by the emo hair cut. Squatchi IS a sasquatch so one point for me. Sumi wears the hat of an orca whale, has Thunderbird wings, and black bear legs. Then there’s Mukmuk, who is a Vancouver Island marmot. Mukmuk isn’t actually a mascot, though – he’s their agent.

I was looking through the blog of the design company Meomi and it looks like they’re the same people who make the cute little notebooks I like to buy at the Vancouver night market. Happy Together! I’m an elephant/tree/Cousin It! Happy happy happy happy! Granted, this one appeared to be grammatically sensical. No “Happy bear make love for you/ cute smiles for all life!” type of thing going on.

And Sumi is apparently the guardian of Whistler, but his dream is to share his forest and mountain land with the world. He is the shittiest guardian ever.

Sure. Ok. All of this is well and good. It’s educational for children.