Animated children’s movies. The place people with crazy ideas go to make movies that are strange bordering on worrisome. Talking fish? No problem. Evil stepmothers/sisters/witches? We’ve got them by the bushel. We have all seen our fair share of children’s films. As a kid your favorite film made you laugh and was a special treat when you ate all your veggies. Have you watched it after turning 14? Chances are you will be taken aback by how twisted and strange it truly is. Disney, I am looking at your right now, don’t try and pretend that all that sexual humor was mistakenly included.

For my family, our favorite twisted tale remains to this day The Point!. Never heard of it? That’s probably because it came out in 1971. Ringo Starr narrates the home video that was written and scored by Harry  Nilsson. The story is about a boy named Oblio who lives in a world in which everything must have a point – a physical point that is. He, being horribly rotund, is forced to wear a pointed cap so that he fits in. Nilsson has been quoted describing his moment of inspiration as: “I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized that they all came to points…and the houses came to points. I thought, ‘Oh! Everything has a point, and if it doesn’t, then there’s a point to it.'”

Man’s a genius.

To get to the point (pun fully intended), The Point! is the only children’s film I have ever watched that actually makes more sense when viewed as an adult. As a kid I was mesmerized by Ringo’s dulcet tones, strange psychedelic animation, and loopy music. I understood the story line but never consciously got the moral undertones. And the moral undertones are pretty awesome.

All of the cool kids are freaks. They just need to learn how to rock it.