Although the conversation around this year’s Oscars snubs remains both ongoing and fractious, it still pales in comparison to the outcry that broke out last year, when a true travesty was unleashed on the movie-viewing world: The snubbing of Gabriel Gundacker’s “Zendaya Is Meechee” from consideration for Best Original Song. And sure, the L.A. comedian’s ode to the cast—and characters!—of otherwise forgettable yeti movie Smallfoot wasn’t technically commissioned by Warner Bros., or included in the film, or in any other way actually viable for the award. Still, though: Zendaya! Meechee! Danny DeVito! Dorgle! It was the feel-good-about-Smallfoot hit of the year!
But that was then, and this is now—when yet another family movie with very famous people playing characters with names like “Dab-Dab” and “Plimpton” is looming over theaters. And so Gundacker has gone back to his “smiling in front of billboards” musical roots, releasing his latest track via Twitter: The Dolittle-themed “Rami Malek Is Chee-Chee.”
And don’t get us wrong: “RMIC-C” is a more complex, if also more subdued, composition than the original, even going so far as to lift several themes from the work of John Cage, if John Cage was really into web sites for corporate-owned lemon-lime sugar beverages. The end result is no less refreshing, though, even if one does get the sense that Gundracker is already starting to feel the weight of the viral expectations that currently rest heavy on the head of poor Demi Adejuyigbe every time September 21st starts to roll around.