The beloved song “The Rainbow Connection” sung by Kermit the Frog didn't win the Academy Award for Best Original Song when it was nominated in the '80s. Now, Kermit has been vindicated as the ditty “Man or Muppet” from Disney's new comedy “The Muppets” has just bagged the Oscar for its songwriter Bret McKenzie.
“It’s a power ballad that deals with a man/Muppet identity crisis,” McKenzie says. “We’ve all been there. I hammered it out on the piano, imagining I was Eric Carmen.” The song required strong vocal performances from both castmembers Jason Segel and Walter. “Luckily, they did an amazing job,” says McKenzie, who also serves as music supervisor.
“I know Bret from ‘Flight of the Conchords,’ says director James Bobin. “We used to watch ‘The Muppet Show’ quite a lot when we were writing ‘The Conchords’ together. We’d watch ‘Mah Na Mah Na’ and ‘Hugga Wugga’ during breaks. In one of our ‘Conchords’ episodes, we even included a Muppets tribute. So we love the Muppets. We thought about songs from the previous movies and how that would feel now. The music is incredibly important because of the rich tradition of Muppet music.”
