The point!

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The point! is a concept album and animated film released in 1971 basedon an idea by American songwriter Harry Nilsson . The story of the boy Oblio is told in the style of a fairy tale, who is the only round head in a village full of pointed heads, in whose company everything and absolutely everything has to come to a "point" by law. In English, Nilsson plays with the double meaning of "the point", which can mean point or point, but also meaning ("have a point"). He described his inspiration for the album as follows: "I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized that they all came to points, and the little branches came to points, and the houses came to point. I thought, Oh ! Everything has a point, and if it doesn't, then there's a point to it ". In 2009 the tribute album "Songs from The Point!" Released with cover versions of the songs by Nilsson.

story

Round head Oblio has had to wear a pointed hat since he was born to hide his round head from his pointed roommates. Despite its roundness, it is accepted until one day the son of an evil count, rather by chance, is dishonored by Oblio and challenges Oblio to a duel in triangle throwing, where the players have to catch the triangles with their pointed heads. Oblio wins thanks to the help of his dog Arrow and his pointed snout. The enraged count reminds the actually good-natured king angrily of the law according to which pointless individuals are to be banished to the pointless forest. There is no way out: Oblio and Arrow are banished.

In the Pointless Forest, the couple soon discovered oddities, including giant bees, a "pointed man" who points in all directions ("points"), a rock man, dancing fat sisters and the leaf man who explains to Oblio that everyone has a point, only you don't always recognize it immediately.

After their night in the Pointless Forest, they discover a stone hand pointing to their destination, which turns out to be the return to the starting point - point land - where they are greeted with joy. Only the enraged count is angry, which does not earn him any points with the suddenly resolute king. Oblio now sums it up: Somehow somewhere everything has a point, including the dotted forest and, yes, himself too. Suddenly, Oblio sprouts a point on his head. For this, the point tips and heads suddenly round off around him.

album

In the album The Point! Nilsson tells the story and lends his voice to all characters.

Track list

Side one:

  1. Everything's Got 'Em - 2:25
  2. The Town (text) - 1:31
  3. The Game - 1:49
  4. Poli High (Walsh) - 2:41
  5. The Trail and Banishment (text) - 2:49

Side two:

  1. The Pointed Man (text) - 2:42
  2. Lifeline - 2:21
  3. The Birds (text) - 1:58
  4. POV Waltz - 2:12
  5. The Clearing in the Woods - 1:53
  6. Are You Sleeping? - 2:17
  7. Oblio's Return (text) - 3:08

Cartoon

The film version of The Point! was first broadcast on February 2, 1971 as ABC Movie of the Week on ABC. Fred Wolf was the artistic director and Murakami-Wolf Films produced the film in collaboration with Nilsson House Music. The film version has a frame story in which a father tells his son a bedtime story. The father's voice was spoken by Dustin Hoffman in the first version , later a new setting was necessary for legal reasons. There are now versions with different speakers, the best known being the one in which Ringo Starr speaks the father.

musical

In the mid-1970s, Esquire Jauchem, artistic director of the Boston Repertory Theater created a musical version of The Point! ; Another stage version was presented in 1977 at the Mermaid Theater in London, starring Davy Jones and Micky Dolenz of the Monkees .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alan Jacobson: What's The Point? The Legendary 1971 Animated Feature on DVD . In: Bright Lights Film Journal . No. 44, May 2004, ISSN  0147-4049 .