Cannes Film Festival 2013

Listen: 'Flight Of The Conchords' star Bret McKenzie discusses songwriting for 'The Muppets'

Plus Scott loves Jonah Hill and we play some more Movie God

<p>This is a candid photo taken during the recording of the soundtrack for 'The Muppets,' and was not staged in any way.  Seriously.</p>

This is a candid photo taken during the recording of the soundtrack for 'The Muppets,' and was not staged in any way.  Seriously.

Credit: Walt Disney Company

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Wow.  I really screwed this up.

Until someone asked me about it on Twitter last night, I was under the impression that I had published both the pre-Thanksgiving and post-Thanksgiving podcasts, and I even distinctly remember putting together the article for the first one.  But when I went back to look, I realized that I seem to be going soft in my old age.

It's a shame, too, so I'm going to publish not one… not two… but three podcasts in the next 9 hours.  It's going to veritably rain podcasts down on you people.  And all three of them are overloaded with goodness, so hopefully that will make up for my apparent brain damage.

This first podcast features an interview with Flight of the Conchords member Bret McKenzie, and it's a real treat to talk to him about his work on "The Muppets."  He's at an interesting point in his career right now, and they don't really make a ton of movie musicals.  Still, I'd say he more than proved he's up for the task, and I hope more filmmakers reach out to him and build some projects around the work he does.

It's a very Muppet-centric episode, as Scott and I end up talking about our memories of Henson from growing up.  Also, as usual, we had some of you guys call in to play Movie God and Remake This!, and I love the way it's going so far.  By having you guys really try to push us each week, the game's become exactly what I want it to be, a test of your priorities as a film fan.

Here's a quick rundown of this episode:

00:00 - 06:45 / Introduction
06:45 - 23:00/ New Trailers W/Scott
23:00 - 30:00 / In The News
30:00 - 44:40 / Bret McKenzie interview - "The Muppets"
44:40 - 1:00:00 / Muppet Memories
1:00:00 - 1:11:00 / Movie God and Remake This!
1:11:00 - 1:16:35 / Thanksgiving wrap-up

You can either play the embedded podcast, download it here, or find us on iTunes under "Motion Captured Podcast."  I appreciate all of you who expressed interest, and I hope these next few episodes justify the wait for you.

"The Muppets" is playing in theaters now.

The Motion/Captured Podcast S2E18: Bret McKenzie on songwriting for 'The Muppets'

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  • Default-avatar

    lis

    Your time-based rundown is missing 18 minutes of content. And I suspect it's skewed b/c I'm 12 minutes in and you're still talking about trailers.

    December 12, 2011 at 4:11PM EST Reply to Comment
  • Default-avatar

    Just Drawn that Way

    Were there gay characters on Sesame Street? I know Ernie and Burt got tagged with that but I always thought that was born out of (some) viewers homophobic paranoia more then it being an intention on behalf of the creators. I’ve got a lot of respect for Jim Henson and what he did but unfortunately I was eight when he died so (while I have vivid memories of watching Muppets Take Manhattan) the whole phenomenon pretty much passed me by and was the product of an older generation. I agree with you that if he’d lived he would have been a proponent of digital technology. But I think the fundamental difference in his approach (as oppose to someone like George Lucas) would have been that it was more actor centric. The key (for me) to your example of the dragon with the real head and digital body was that he actually bothered to build the head and give the actor’s something to interact with. Whereas Lucas approach on the Star Wars movies was to have them interact with a spray painted X on a piece of cardboard.

    December 12, 2011 at 8:03PM EST Reply to Comment
  • A_talkback_profile

    belinda

    love the interview with Bret about the muppets and the hobbit musical.

    December 13, 2011 at 11:06AM EST Reply to Comment
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    tgnome57

    R&R H.S. - You could use The Arctic Monkeys for your band. Allison Brie as your girl.

    December 13, 2011 at 12:16PM EST Reply to Comment

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