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"\r\n \r\nThe Muppets, the first new Muppet movie in 12 years (in theaters November 23rd), features original songs written by Flight of the Conchords&amp;apos; Bret McKenzie. McKenzie is hilarious, soulful and tuneful, but can he write great Muppet songs?\r\nAs an unauthorized Muppet historian, I&amp;apos;ve looked into the creative processes of the classic Muppet songwriters, the guys who gave us &amp;quot;Bein&amp;apos; Green,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Rainbow Connection,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Couldn&amp;apos;t We Ride,&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Saying Goodbye,&amp;quot; that infectious Fraggle Rock theme, and a hundred others. I&amp;apos;ve found five PoMs, or Predictors of Muppetationality: creative freedom, radical collaboration, ability to get into a Muppet&amp;apos;s head, full understanding of Kermit&amp;apos;s complexity and resolve to not talk down to kids.\r\nIn the following charts, I compare the process of classic Muppet songwriters to McKenzie&amp;apos;s. Then, I took my best guess: Will the new songs be Muppetational?\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;Jim Henson gave you more freedom than anybody I&amp;apos;ve ever worked with in my life. I said, &amp;quot;You want to hear the songs as we&amp;apos;re writing them?&amp;quot; He said, &amp;quot;No. I&amp;apos;ll hear them in the studio. I know I&amp;apos;m gonna love them.&amp;quot; You just don&amp;apos;t get that kind of freedom on a project these days.&amp;quot;  &amp;#x2014; Paul Williams, songwriter for Emmet Otter, The Muppet Movie, and A Muppet Christmas Carol\r\n\r\n &amp;quot;In order for a comedy song to work you can&amp;apos;t have too much production because if it goes too big you lose the comedy. So within the Muppets film when it gets big it goes right back down.&amp;quot; &amp;#x2014; Bret McKenzie, Music Supervisor for The Muppets\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n  MuppetationalIt sounds like the studio didn&amp;apos;t force a bland movie-score sound where it wasn&amp;apos;t needed.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;We literally sat down with Jerry Juhl, Jim Henson, myself, and Kenny Ascher and a bunch of guys in a room. It was kind of like, &amp;apos;What&amp;apos;re we gonna write about for The Muppet Movie?&amp;quot;  &amp;#x2014; Paul Williams\r\n\r\n McKenzie said he had specific song placements requested for the movie.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n  UnMuppetationalWe&amp;apos;d like to hear about more collaboration between script and songwriting.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;We thought... Kermit is like &amp;apos;every frog.&amp;apos; He&amp;apos;s the Jimmy Stewart of frogs. So how do we show that he&amp;apos;s a thinking frog, and that he has an introspective soul, and all that good stuff? We looked at his environment, and his environment is water and air&amp;#x2026; and light. And it just seemed like it would be a place where he would see a rainbow. But we also wanted to show that he would be on this spiritual path, examining life, and the meaning of life&amp;#x2026;I think the song works because it&amp;apos;s more about questions than answers.&amp;quot;  &amp;#x2013; Paul Williams, explaining &amp;quot;Rainbow Connection&amp;quot;\r\n\r\n &amp;quot;Conchords was basically a world whereby everyone had a slightly weird world view,&amp;quot; he said. &amp;quot;You&amp;apos;re in a group of fools, basically, and the Muppets are similar: They are all optimistic but they&amp;apos;re all kind of inherent failures, they&amp;apos;re not good at what they do. I love that about them because you instantly feel for the underdog.&amp;quot;  &amp;#x2014; James Bobin, director of Flight of the Conchords and The Muppets\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n  Neutral MuppetationalThis seems to paint Kermit as foolishly optimistic, instead of wearily and absurdly so.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;The degree to which you&amp;apos;re able to dress up and counterfeit yourself as this person, that&amp;apos;s as good as you are as a writer. I&amp;apos;m pretty good at it, which leaves me tremendous doubts about my own personality.&amp;quot;  &amp;#x2013; Joe Raposo, songwriter for The Great Muppet Caper and &amp;quot;Bein&amp;apos; Green&amp;quot;\r\n\r\n &amp;quot;We see ourselves in the Muppets. They are a group of people who never stop hoping for the best.&amp;quot; &amp;#x2014; James Bobin\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n  Muppetationally MuppetationalIt would be impossible to miss the love this group has for the Muppets.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n&amp;quot;Don&amp;apos;t condescend&amp;#x2026; one of the fallacies is the conviction&amp;#x2026; that it&amp;apos;s a world where everything is rosy and sunny and the only things that are appropriate are sweet and lovely. For myself, I love things that are very gentle and very tender and full of awe and friendship&amp;#x2026; but clearly, childhood can be a very hard place to be and a very cruel place at time, and I don&amp;apos;t see any reason to try and pretend that isn&amp;apos;t the truth.&amp;quot;  &amp;#x2013; Dennis Lee, Lyricist for over 300 songs on Fraggle Rock, including the theme.\r\n\r\n When asked the difference between writing for Flight of the Conchords and The Muppets, McKenzie said, &amp;quot;Less sex jokes.&amp;quot;  McKenzie&amp;apos;s &amp;quot;Life&amp;apos;s a Happy Song&amp;quot; has already been released. It sounds a little over-cheery, but it&amp;apos;s hard to judge without the visuals to put its tone in perspective.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n  Either Muppetational or Muppetation-anathema or maybe something in between &amp;#x2014;  really hard to tell: But we hope it&amp;apos;s great.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n&amp;#xA0;\r\nRelated&amp;#x2022; How Jason Segel Went From Apatow Bro to Master of Muppets"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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