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Last great indie studio holdout (and, full disclosure, one-time Defamer associate editor employer) Lions Gate Entertainment has revealed a bold new logo reimagining, replacing the somewhat baffling (and scary!) "LGF with green smoke and thunder" motif currently preceding their releases. The new logo, pictured above, melds the studio name into one streamlined word. The press release explains that this was no random smushing, but rather a representation of everything the company stands for:

The simplification of the Lions Gate name into the single word Lionsgate represents the ongoing unification of the Company s diversified motion picture, television, home entertainment, family entertainment, documentary film, music publishing and video-on-demand businesses into a single, highly recognizable brand. The Company s official legal name of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. remains unchanged.

Color us confused; we're just relieved they didn't go the hyphen route. A visit to the official studio website greets you with their cutting-edge new animated logo. Let's break it down:
· Wondrous, crescendoing score, la Harry Potter, accompanies dozens of spinning gears of various sizes. Just what is happening here?
· We pull out and through a keyhole, revealing two large gate doors swinging apart. (All those gears just to open some doors?) The light it's blinding!
· The gears have now disappeared, revealing the new logo, floating ethereally in a sea of silvery clouds. A trumpet flourish, and we're out.

Unfortunately, the press release offers no Cliff's Notes for the sequence, leaving us to our own interpretation: Are they trying to tell us that Lionsgate makes mechanical, but ultimately heavenly movies? At least they didn't crassly try to incorporate the year's biggest hits by having two saw-wielding maniacs meet through a fender-bender, then spend an hour discussing racism.