Rocket-bye Baby (1956)

A cosmic mix-up results in a Martian baby being delivered to Earth, while an Earth baby is sent to Mars. Joseph Wilbur and his wife try to raise the green-skinned, ingenious Martian tyke as... See full summary »

Director:

Chuck Jones

Writer:

Michael Maltese (story)

Stars:

Daws Butler, June Foray

Cast

Uncredited cast:
Daws Butler	...	Narrator / Joe Wilbur / Capt. Schmideo / Lecturer (voice) (uncredited)
June Foray	...	Hospital P.A. / Martha Wilbur / Old Lady (voice) (uncredited)

Storyline

A cosmic mix-up results in a Martian baby being delivered to Earth, while an Earth baby is sent to Mars. Joseph Wilbur and his wife try to raise the green-skinned, ingenious Martian tyke as if he were an Earthling. But the kid builds his own spaceship and flies away, and Wilbur must find him and bring him back, or he'll never be able to make an exchange with the Martian parents for his own boy.

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Plot Keywords:

martian | baby | merrie melodies | surrealism | mistaken identity | 

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Genres:

Animation | Sci-Fi | Family | Short | Comedy

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 August 1956 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros

Technical Specs

Runtime:

7 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Quotes

[first lines]
Narrator: This is the planet Mars. In the summer of 1954, this planet passed extremly close to Earth, so close that a cosmic force was disturbed and a baby intended for Earth was delivered to Mars, while a Martian baby went by mistake to Earth.

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Connections

Spoofs Captain Video and His Video Rangers (1949)

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Soundtracks

"Ain't She Sweet"
(uncredited)
Music by Milton Ager

User Reviews

Amusing stuff with good voice work

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!