Harry Nilsson - The Point! (1970)

 

Psychedelic Pop / Baroque Pop / Sunshine Pop / Soundtrack

RIYL: The Beatles, The Zombies, Van Dyke Parks

★★★★

My parents definitely knew what was up, as the animated movie component of Harry Nilsson's The Point! project was practically on repeat on the television throughout my childhood. As such, it was both a nostalgic and energizing experience to revisit the film after my later-in-life exposure to Nilsson's classics Aerial Ballet and Nilsson Schmilsson which bookend The Point! chronologically. I instantly recognized the vibrant characters, memories of which were long-dormant inside my head, the narrative voiceover courtesy of Ringo Starr, and the distinctively quivering, hand-drawn style of animator Fred Wolf, but the musical component completely escaped my recollection, perhaps unnervingly so.

Maybe it's because as a child I was predisposed to pay more attention to the plot (which is mostly just a children’s bedtime story constructed around the double meaning of the word "point" as both a physical shape and an existential purpose) and the colorful pastel visuals, but this time around the music managed to bring the feature to life more so than any other aspect. If you’ve read anything about The Point! elsewhere you might know that Nilsson extrapolated the entire project from a random idea that popped into his head while tripping on acid. If not, don't worry: it becomes readily apparent when listening to the lazily psychedelic sunshine pop melodies and even more so when digesting the somewhat nonsensical lyrics that reference a decomposing whale ("Think About Your Troubles"), some sort of sporting match between a Poli-technical high school and its rival ("Poli High"), and literal gibberish echoing into a void ("Life Line"), Wolf's dream-like animations of which I found to be even more gripping than the plot points they connected.

The recorded version also contains narrative tracks that abbreviate the story of Oblio, his dog Arrow, and their exile to the Pointless Forest in search of a point to it all, but it’s really Nilsson's songwriting that keeps the patchwork sequence afloat. Revisiting essential experiences from my childhood as a jaded adult doesn't always prove to be this fruitful, but The Point! has one for all ages, and if I end up having any children of my own someday I'll definitely be passing its quirky charm along to the next generation.