It seems like everyone has been throwing in their two cents on the mascots for our Olympic Games. Generally, either people hate them or like them, but I definitely think their reception has been far better than that of the Inukshuk logo.

Going into this, I imagined we would choose a few BC animals to represent different “things”: i.e. the Spirit Bear for the Earth, the Orca for the water, the Raven for the air. I knew, of course, that there would be a native spin to the animals, but I think doing so is quite suiting. The many aboriginal groups of BC have been here a long time, and I think their relationship with the animals is very unique and should be, and was properly, reflected in the mascots.

That said, I was surprised when I first saw them. The whole idea of a Sasquatch… it isn’t the first animal that pops into your mind when you think Vancouver, but I feel it’s actually very cool, beyond just the beer factor as has been mentioned to death. I mean, it’s a completely legendary animals after all! Besides, Quatchi pulls off the big huggable bear factor like Sully from Monsters Inc. I think as the most definable of the three, he will be liked by the most amount of people.

I didn’t know what Miga was to begin with. Just the colours and his (or her?) size in relation to Quatchi had me thinking it was a baby panda. I actually really enjoy how they merged two of the most requested animals, the orca and the spirit bear, into one. Even better though is it fits perfectly into aboriginal folklore, so there is some amount of basis for a transforming mascot.

Sumi is the weirdest for sure. It’s not clear what he is (a spirit it turns out), and the multiple features of his body (wings of a thunderbird, legs of a bear, etc.) are almost too minute of details to notice upon first look. Considering Sumi is the official mascot of the Paralympic Games, I think it would’ve been better if they had made this distinction a bit more clear, and I think the character would’ve been a bit more defined by this. I do like how he pulls of the whole Yoda thing though.

Overall, I’m very pleased with what they’ve produced. Some have been annoyed at the style of the characters calling them Pokemon. However, I think there seems to be a trend in making the mascots simply more and more cartoony and plain, which you can view for yourself in the slideshow below. Besides, there’s no distinct form of Canadian art anyways.

The mascots must possess two key features: be marketable and sellable to the public, especially children; and representative in some way of the host city, the Olympics games, or the Earth. Our mascots have succeed excellently in balancing both these aspects, and I think time will prove they are among the best Olympic mascots yet.

Here’s the Olympic mascots of past and present:

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