The Point! (Wolf, 1971)

The Point! (Fred Wolf, 1971) is an animated feature film based on a story and music by Harry Nilsson. It stars the voice talents of Ringo Starr of the Beatles (for the home video release at least, the various telecast talents include: Dustin Hoffman, Alan Barzman, and Alan Thicke). This is an interesting connection because the animation is very reminiscent of Yellow Submarine (George Dunning, 1968). I could not find any common animators between the two, but they are very similar in style, and even content.

The Point is about a father telling his son a story about a place where everything and everyone "has a point", except one little boy named Oblio. Oblio is banished for having a rounded head, and him and his dog get sent to the Pointless Forest.

It is a pretty simple story, clearly derived from a drug trip. It is rather fun though. The Harry Nilsson music acompanying some pretty crazy animation sequences are awesome.

It's a solid allegory for the civil right movement. You really pull for the kid that is shunned for being different. He realizes that he is not really different than anyone else. He realizes everything's got a point, even in the pointless forest, and himself with his rounded head.