Sara Houghton I am a babysit often and recently I babysat for a family who had this movie. I watched it with the 5 and 3 year old kids and I was thoroughly creeped out.It was actually quite disturbing. The art art was odd and shaky, the plot was confusing and it was all made worse by strange music. The entire time i was watching it I kept thinking that the writers must have been high, and then I became sure they were high when the three headed man and the three bouncing, fat plum ladies came on screen; and lets not forget the dream that kid had, the air must be made of meth there. Yes, the movie does have good message about the point of life and self worth, but you can give your kid the same message by reading the Starbelly Sneeches by Doctor Seuss, or putting on My Little Pony Friendship is Magic, or Sesame Street. Something that won't give them nightmares. So maybe forty years ago this movie was cream of the crop, but nowadays if you want to put on a movie for your kids, you can do better than "The Point."

flapdoodle64 I have a fragmentary recollection of seeing this film when I was a kid and liking it back in the 1970's when it played on network TV. I recently re-watched it with my nephew Max, who is in 2nd grade and will be 8 years old in two months.Probably the most important thing to say is that the movie held Max's attention very well, his eyes were riveted to the screen, and that he liked it very much, except for some of the musical interludes, which he thought were 'wierd,' especially the song where the whale dies and decomposes. (Of course, me being a sophisticated adult, I thought that song was probably the most profound and poetic, but I can see where Max was coming from.) Based on the fact that Max appears to be a fairly typical real kid, who plays games on the Wii, who normally watches Adventure Time, the Ninja Turtles, and Sponge Bob, I would say that it is likely that other real world kids of today are likely to enjoy this movie as well.As an adult, I find a number of reasons to recommend this movie for grown-ups and kids to watch together: 1. It's nice to find a kid-friendly film that isn't part of a mass merchandising campaign, which is now always the case regarding Disney and Pixar and Shreck movies, not to mention crap like GI Joe, Transformers, and My Little Pony. After watching this, it's unlikely your kid is going be asking for an Oblio action figure, and if he does ask, you won't find that action figure at the Target store.2. Animation: This film has full-animation as opposed to the cheap-looking 'limited' animation that you see in the Hanna Barberra stuff from this period. Also, the drawing and coloring appears to have been done all by hand, giving the moving images a hand-made kind of quality, which is endearing to adults, and which might serve to inspire kids to pursue their own artistic endeavors. All in all, it's a refreshing change from computer animation and the other super-perfect stuff made today.3. The narration and dialog is often clever and amusing, even insightful at times. The voice actors are all good, in particular, Mike Lookinland, who sounded so much like a real and natural kid, I did not recognize him as being one of the sickeningly saccharine Brady Bunch kids. A lot of the reviewers her on IMDb lament that Dustin Hoffman's original narration has been lost, and I of course always regret when a piece of art is not preserved intact, but Ringo Starr, besides being an old friend to the adults, tends to be popular with kids as well (hence his former gig as the narrator for Thomas the Tank Engine).4. I'm dubious that all of the songs will appeal to kids, but at least they didn't cause Max to walk out. As an adult, and being ambivalent about a lot of Harry Nilson's music, I can say that most of the musical numbers I quite enjoyed. At least with the musical numbers, that is a good time for the kid to go the bathroom or to put some fruit or Ritz Bitz on a little plate for him.5. The morals of the fable, regarding the somewhat arbitrary criteria we use to determine whether an activity has a 'point,' and regarding tolerance and acceptance of the differences between persons, are good morals for kids to learn.On the whole, I found this to be a fun, sincere, unique, surprising and heartfelt piece of video that grown-ups and kids can watch together.

baorkin Absolutely wonderful animated film. Great to watch with kids from 4 to 104. The version with Ringo Starr as the narrator has recently been re-released. I personally prefer the versions narrated by Dustin Hoffman and Alan Thicke but Ringo is fine, as well. Great birthday or holiday gift for a child from 4-12. It can be watched over and over. I first saw it at age 17 and used it as the starting "point" for a high school retreat. I started watching it with my children when they were toddlers, and I am seeing it again with with my youngest who is now 15 and seeing it for his 3-4th time. He asked to watch it with his younger cousin who had not seen it yet. A gem.

pidlezen What a spectacular movie! I was lucky enough to have seen it when it first aired on TV... and looked for years to find it.The whole POINT to the movie is not only a great one, but adding the music of Harry Nilsson, makes this a great flick for anyone It features the songs "Me and My Arrow," "Think About Your Troubles", and "lifeline." It's a great one for grownups and kids. My kids grew up on it and "The Yellow Submarine" I'd also throw in the animated movie "The Iron Giant" in this genre.Great tunes, great story , and great moral.. what more could you want? make a point of seeing "The Point."