As he encounters kooky characters of various pointel-age, Oblio earnestly searches for his purpose with his porcupine-esque, blue dog Arrow at his side. Our hero’s journey through lands less pointed is a dreamy indictment of the people, institutions, and forces that can make Western World existence suck at any age and in any decade. It is never explained why child neglect is universally accepted.Īnd yet Oblio’s free-wheeling story needs little justification. A pointy, plum-colored Count (Lennie Weinrib) eventually convinces the king to exile the spherical bastard to a life of lonely wandering. When Oblio attempts to join in some triangle-style reindeer games with the other neighborhood kids, he’s bullied relentlessly - and yes, his biggest tormentor is voiced by the same kid who famously asked an owl how many licks it takes to reach the center of a Tootsie Pop. It was reportedly dreamed up by Nilsson while he was on acid - and that shows. Narrated by the silliest Beatle in most versions (Dustin Hoffman was used one time in the original broadcast), “The Point!” is almost eerily well suited to the anxiety-ridden masses of today. “That’s the way it always has been and for all anybody knew, that’s the way it always would be,” Ringo Starr says in a Seussical-esque explanation of society’s cyclical failings and maddening complacency. Oblio is the only circular-skulled person in the Pointed Village: a conformist, capitalist hellscape where everything has to have a literal point. The throwback children’s TV special features the voice of Mike Lookinland (aka Bobby Brady of “The Brady Bunch”) as Oblio, an 8-year-old boy with a heart of gold and a big ol’ round head. But as the years passed and the horrors continued to mount, a simpler, sadder hook emerged in my mind as what we disgruntled newsies really wanted to say: What’s the point?Īn animated expansion on Harry Nilsson’s 1970 rock album of the same name, “The Point” answers that dark philosophical quandary with smart wordplay, surprising depth, and the comforting warmth of an actual analog hug. The joke worked for years, effectively acknowledging the vast, unending awfulness of modern life before hand-waving it away to make room for the Best Tweets of the Week… or whatever. Denis Villeneuve Calls IMAX Releases ‘the Future of Cinema’
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