Oscar Prediction Countdown: Song & Score
Will the Academy prefer muppets or songbirds for Best Song? And is ‘The Art’s’ score too rapey?
In advance of the Academy Award ceremony on Feb. 26, Screen Grab will predict the winners in all categories over the next three weeks.
Best Original Song: “Man or Muppet”’ from The Muppets, Bret McKenzie; “Real in Rio” from Rio, Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown, and Siedah Garrett.
For reasons so complicated that they nearly defy explanation (but Popcornworld’s David Cornelius gives it a go), there are only two Best Song nominees this year. My favorite is “Man or Muppet” by a mile. Like the other songs in The Muppets, it’s written by Bret McKenzie of Flight of the Conchords, and its satire of soulful, self-dramatizing pop makes it the closest to a Conchords song of any tune in the movie. Compared The Muppets’ big, showstopper, “Life’s a Happy Song” (which wasn’t nominated), “Man or Muppet?” might be too weird for the Academy, and “Real in Rio’s” Siedah Garrett has a previous Oscar-nomination in the category, for Dreamgirls’ “Love You I Do.” “Real in Rio” benefits from vibrant Brazilian instrumentation and could pull an upset, but it’s otherwise pretty dull.
Prediction: “Man or Muppet.”