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The Point! is a fable by American songwriter and musician Harry Nilsson about a boy named Oblio, the only round-headed person in the Land of Point, where by law everyone and everything had to have a point. more...

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"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.'" -- Harry Nilsson

There have been, so far, at least three different renditions of The Point!, each featuring songs written by Nilsson to accompany the story. There has been an animated film, an album, and a musical play.

The animated film

The film version of The Point! first aired February 2, 1971, at 7:30pm on the ABC television network as a "movie of the week." The film was directed by Fred Wolf and produced by Fred Wolf Films in association with Nilsson House Music. In this version, there is a framing device of a father telling his son the fable as a bedtime story. In its initial airing, the voice of the father was provided by Dustin Hoffman, but for contractual reasons later airings of the film could not use Hoffman's voice and it had to be re-recorded. The VHS and DVD releases feature Ringo Starr as the father. The voice of the son, and of Oblio, was provided by Mike Lookinland, an actor best known as young Bobby Brady on the television series The Brady Bunch. Alan Thicke also narrates a version on VHS as the father of Oblio.

The album

The Nilsson album called The Point! features the same songs as the film, and the same basic fable. However, the framing device of the father and son is discarded, and Nilsson himself tells the story directly to the listener, providing all the characters' voices as well as the narration.

A comic storyboard was included with the vinyl album when it was first released, enabling the listener to be more engaged in the story. Though Oblio has had to wear a cap to conceal his "pointless" condition, towards the end of the storyboard, his cap is removed, revealing a point on top of his head, and that the points of others in The Land of Point disappeared, implying that those who shunned Oblio are now pointless.

Track listing

All music and lyrics by Harry Nilsson

"Everything's got 'em" – 2:25; The town (narration) – 1:31; "Me and my arrow" – 2:04; The game (narration) – 1:49; "Poli high" – 2:41; The trial & banishment (narration) – 2:11; "Think about your troubles" – 2:49; The pointed man (narration) – 2:42; "Life line" – 2:21; The birds (narration) – 1:58; "P.O.V. Waltz" – 2:12; The clearing in the woods (narration) – 1:53; "Are you sleeping?" – 2:17; Oblio's return (narration) – 3:08;

Read more at Wikipedia.org