A father reads his son a bedtime story about young Oblio, who is banished from the fantastical kingdom of pointed heads and things for having no point.A father reads his son a bedtime story about young Oblio, who is banished from the fantastical kingdom of pointed heads and things for having no point.A father reads his son a bedtime story about young Oblio, who is banished from the fantastical kingdom of pointed heads and things for having no point.
- Narrator
- (voice)
- …
- Oblio's Father
- (voice)
- …
- Count
- (voice)
- (as Lenny Weinrib)
- Rock Man
- (voice)
- Count's Son
- (voice)
- Oblio's Mother
- (voice)
- Oblio
- (voice)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAlthough Sir Ringo Starr narrates the movie, Harry Nilsson narrated the original soundtrack album, which was released by RCA Records. Nipper, the RCA dog, has a pointed head on the cover.
- Quotes
Narrator: Once upon a time, a long way from here, and a long way from now, there was a tiny village where everything, the houses and the carts, the bridges and the barns, everything, all had points on them. In fact, it was so full of points, that even the people had points! The people, right there on top of their heads! And it didn't seem strange at all, because that's the way life was in the village. That's the way it always had been, and for all anybody knew, that's the way it always would be.
- Alternate versionsThe TV version features a narration by Dustin Hoffman; the Video Tape and Laser Disc releases are narrated by Ringo Starr.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) (2010)
- SoundtracksEverything's Got 'Em
Written and Sung by Harry Nilsson
They had consciously experimented with new forms based on underlying mechanics that today would be called "new age" and considered bogus. Their White Album was based on the kabbalistic structure of Alice in Wonderland, obfuscated by superficial stories and elaborated by hallucinogenic dynamics.
One of the "best friends" during this period (friends of John and Ringo) was Nilssen. Out of that relationship came this.
It preserves some of the mechanics: the relationship of small form song narrative to a larger assembly; the hallucinogenic imagery in word and film; the references to Pepperland and Alice, and even after a period of fighting for Ringo, he appears as the narrator. But as Harry was essentially a sweet drunk, it lacks the underlying ambition of The Beatles: to re- invent the common cosmology around less destructive geometry.
Taymor would mine this for her visual exploration of the Beatles.
And because Nilssen was a sex addict as well, much of the key imagery follows that, allowing for the transmission through the director/artist. (This whole thing was written during a series of sexually enhanced acid trips.) For instance, the first "pointless" thing with a point after the stoned guy is three dancing fecund redheads. Check out redheaded Marijke, the Beatles' Tarot reader of this period.
As with Beatles songs, this is appreciated for its small form sweetness, and the larger aspiration is ignored or discounted as naive.
Except for perhaps the inescapable notion of going to the forbidden, unknown and risky "forest" to discover self.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
- tedg
- May 3, 2008
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