To celebrate Canada’s 150th anniversary of Confederation this week, the city of Ottawa called upon French robotics and puppetry company La Machine to pull an amazing performance which involves a giant spider called Kumo and a mythical dragon, dubbed Long Ma. Rightly, it should be quite a spectacle because after all, it did involved the eight-eyed, water-spraying, 40-ton robotic arachnid slugging out with a robotic dragon, but it did not go down well with many catholics because the said spider not only roamed the street packed with curious onlookers, but it also ‘scaled’ the walls of Ottawa’s Notre Dame Cathedral, perched on top of the church before making its way down.
All these were done with a help of a crane, of course, else it would be a scene straight out of horror movies and we should be freaking out, and the catholics should too instead of frowning. As a geek, I was definitely impressed by the scale of the performance and to this end, religion will not take the geek away from me. Then again, I am no catholic. However, by allowing Kumo to take a ‘hike’ up a sacred building was considered by some catholics as a desecration, much to the disappointment of archbishop Pendergast who thought it was a show of Catholic church can be fun too.
Obviously, many devotees weren’t amused. At the end, the poor archbishop, who had anticipated some objections but not to this extend, had to apologize to his congregation. Oh man. Can’t people just loosen up a little and enjoy the show? It was not even a real monster. I mean, seriously, it was not like the archbishop had summoned creature from hell, isn’t it? Oh wait. Did he? Skip past the jump for the video captured by one YouTube user John Whelan. BUT… don’t watch it if you have irrational fear for spiders. You have been warned (but it is really nothing, really).
Images: La Machine.
via Inverse.
