Beaker's "Ode to Joy" Nominated for Webby Award

Beaker's "Ode to Joy" video, which hit the web back in July, has been nominated for a Webby! The viral video was nominated under the Online Film & Video section in the Music category.

Hailed as the "Internet's highest honor" by the New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet.

"Ode to Joy" is the result of a creative collaboration between Disney's The Muppets Studio and Soapbox Films. Beaker's take on Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was an Internet sensation. The video raced to more than 2-million views in its first two weeks of release and currently boasts over 5-million views. The five-star rated clip ranks as YouTube's #33 Top Favorited Entertainment video of all time.

"Nominees like 'Ode to Joy' are setting the standard for innovation and creativity on the Internet," says David-Michel Davies, executive director of the Webby Awards. "It is an incredible achievement to be selected among the best from the nearly 10,000 entries we received this year."

As a nominee, "Ode to Joy" is also eligible to win a Webby People's Voice Award, which is chosen online by the global web community. From now until April 30th, fans of "Ode to Joy" can cast their votes in The Webby People's Voice Awards at pv.webbyawards.com.

Winners will be announced on May 5th, 2009 and honored at a ceremony in New York City on June 8th hosted by comedian Seth Meyers. We'd like to say congratulations on the nomination (and good luck at the awards and in the voting) to Beaker, the Muppets, Soapbox Films, Beethoven, and everyone else involved in creating these wonderful Muppet videos!