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.
"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.
When the kids start selecting players for the triangle toss, they call for Harry, Fred, and Richard. They are in reference to Harry Nilsson (the singer/writer of the movie) Fred Wolf (I) (the director) and Ringo Starr (the narrator, AKA Richard Starkey)
Ringo Starr was asked to re-dub the narration for the home video release because of his close friendship with Harry Nilsson.
Although Ringo Starr narrates the film, Harry Nilsson narrated the original soundtrack album. Fun fact: the soundtrack to "The Point!" was released by RCA Records; on the cover of this album, Nipper, the RCA dog, has a pointed head!!
In a series of television commercials aired during the mid-1980s, Oblio was reinvented as "Sprout" - the little friend of the Jolly Green Giant.
The Point is the name commonly given to one of Montreal's poorest neighbourhoods, Point St. Charles. In this film, the stories of 35 kids from the Point, gathered at scripting workshops, are woven into a narrative structure by screenwriters, and the kids play themselves in front of the camera. The result is a remarkable drama about one fated weekend when the teenagers' lives unexpectedly intersect to solve a mystery that has haunted their neighbourhood for years. A truly collaborative process from page to screen, The Point gives sound and vision to these teenagers born on the wrong side of the tracks. Written by Silo Productions
