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Friday, May 19, 2006

The Pointless Forest

In Fred Wolf's 1971 animated feature The Point (story and music by Harry Nilsson and narration by Ringo Starr*), little Oblio is born with a round head in the Land of Point, where every person has a pointed head, and every building has a point on top, and every animal, and so on. It's the law. Oblio is allowed to live in the Land of Point with a pointed hat on his head, but when he embarrasses the evil Count's evil son, he is banished to the Pointless Forest with his trusty dog Arrow. But Oblio discovers that everything in the forest is pointed; the Pointed Man, who appears at of thin air at opportune moments, has three faces and lots of points, all over his body and outfit. But "having a point in every direction is the same as having no point at all," he says. So this is my Pointless Forest tie, with a point in every direction. The maker is the mysterious Creative Company, and the fabric is Microfil. There are several products called Microfil on the market; one is for preserving post-mortem tissue, another for filtering liquids, and yet another one for dispensing pharmaceuticals. But I suspect that this Microfil is the product that is usually "meltblown" into a fiberfill for use as a hypoallergenic down substitute in comforters.

Oblio, by the way, learns many Important Lessons in the Pointless Forest, which he brings home in a triumphant return to the Land of Point, sparking a major paradigm shift.

* Ringo Starr is the narrator on the home video release, but in the movie's original airing as an ABC Movie of the Week, Dustin Hoffman was the narrator, while on broadcast reruns it was Alan Thicke.

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