Edgar Allan Pooh . . . is why the phrase "Dog gone it!" perversely resonates with Believers, but what happens to the "boy" when you play the White Album in reverse? This is exactly what the Looney Tuners speculate about during the 1950s Warner Bros. animated short ROCKET-BYE BABY. It must have tickled the Old Gang's Funny Bones to draw Mrs. Joe (Martha) Wilbur as one of the three most buxom chicks in Classic Cartoon History, since Mork--Er, make that "Mot"--sports the sort of pointy antennae that would have punctured Martha's Hot Stack Implants every feeding time. That's assuming that the young Martian turned out to be a "Bon Mot" (or "good boy") when it was nursing hour, and not some sort of interstellar Freddie Kruger. Since the Martian Authorities named the actual Wilbur offspring "Yob" (which is "Boy" reversed), their message seems to be that Master Wilbur will be a dimmer bulb than the Wilburs' nag, Mr. Ed, whom passed away in the midst of the Microencephallic Olympic Year, 2016. So welcome to the Big Leagues, Mot.

slymusic "Rocket-Bye Baby" is a good sci-fi cartoon directed by Charles M. "Chuck" Jones. It seems that a cosmic force disturbs the pathways of two infants, resulting in a martian baby winding up on Earth, and vice versa. Oh, what fun this situation can create! My favorite scenes: The most memorably hilarious spoken line in this short occurs when Mr. Wilbur (voiced by Daws Butler) sees his martian baby for the first time and softly says, "Somebody goofed." Equally hilarious is the elderly lady (voiced by June Foray) who wishes to see the baby (to the musical accompaniment of "Ain't She Sweet"), then upon discovering that the baby is not normal, she offers a subtle sideways glance, blows on a pitch pipe, and screams while her bobby pins fly out of her hair."Rocket-Bye Baby" raises an interesting question: How would YOU react to a cosmic mix-up in the deliverance of your baby?

phantom_tollbooth Chuck Jones's 'Rocket-Bye Baby' is an example of the "domestic" cartoons of the late 50s and 60s but with a sci-fi twist. Beginning with the strange concept that a cosmic disturbance resulted in an Earth baby being delivered to Mars and vice versa, 'Rocket-Bye Baby' never really finds its feet. Sharing more in tone with campy sitcoms like 'Bewitched' than with the average Warner Bros. cartoon, 'Rocket-Bye Baby' follows the progress of the Martian baby and his bewildered parents. Jones makes a wise decision in opting for the highly stylised animation which reflects the strangeness of the plot but, while there's the odd amusing moment, 'Rocket-Bye Baby' is largely caught between unfunny sitcom and self-conscious cartoon. An interesting but not especially memorable short which hasn't quite worked out the logic of its own universe.

bob the moo One year, the planets Mars and Earth passed closer than ever in orbit around the sun and an astronomic anomaly means that a baby bound for Earth ends up on Mars and a baby bound for Mars ends up on Earth. In a general hospital on Earth a father goes to see his baby to be confronted by a green child - one that has amazing abilities too!At the start this film looks like it is going to be more silly than anything else and that it won't do anything with the set up. Happily it manages to be quite funny anyway with some clever gags and generally an imaginative sense of humour. This can be seen in little things - like instead of a woman just screaming, she blows a little tuner horn to help her get her pitch right first. Or baby's various projects around his bedroom.The characters look basic but the voice work of the father is really good and it makes him so much more than the rather rough sketch that he appears to be. The mother is fairly anonymous throughout but the baby manages to have just enough cheeky humour on him to overcome the fact that he is simply a green cute baby with all the character problems they come with!The short is basic no doubt but it was different enough to make me laugh once or twice. The ending is a nice twist but needed a mock-dramatic tone to it to make it work as well as it should have done. Nevertheless this cartoon works despite the lack of any famous characters and the presence of that potential cinematic kiss of death, the cute cheeky baby!