. . . 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.

Maybe the repeated line "Yob! Yob! Where's my Yob?" gets a little tiring and less funny eventually, that aside Rocket-Bye Baby is excellent. It looks great, the stylised look is coloured strikingly and drawn with a wacky elegance that is in keeping with the tone and Chuck Jones' style. The standout here was the facial expressions of the characters, beautifully done and often priceless. The music is energetic and characterful, more importantly it fits with what we see in the animation and goes even further in enhancing the fun factor. The writing is fresh and witty, but in a way that is natural in alternative to forced, and the gags are very imaginative and cleverly staged. The chase sequence and the one with the elderly lady's using a harmoniser to get her scream right were particularly well done. The characters are not iconic but work excellently in their own way, the father is the best character while the baby is cute without being in a sickly way. The mother doesn't get much to do though. The voice acting is wonderful, there's no Mel Blanc but Rocket-Bye Baby doesn't suffer from that seeing as Daws Butler and June Foray are just as talented as voice actors and do a wonderful job in their roles. To conclude, beautifully done and as a cartoon it's excellent. 9/10 Bethany Cox

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.

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!