"Rocket-bye Baby" is a 1956 Merrie Melodies theatrical cartoon directed by Chuck Jones.
In the summer of 1954, an alignment between Earth and Mars causes a cosmic disturbance in which a human baby bound for Earth and a Martian baby bound for Mars collide and end up swapping destinations. On Earth, the expecting father, Mr. Joseph Wilbur, is shocked to find his son is green and has antenna. At the behest of his wife, Martha, Joseph tries to treat the situation normal, despite the child communicating with bees and his appearance freaking people out. When the baby shows remarkable intelligence for his age, Joseph and Martha are concerned, but find it adorable when he starts building his own miniature spaceship based off a television show. Then, one night, they receive a message from Mars, and, after realizing the implications, learn of the mix-up, with the Martians promising to exchange their real baby, Yob, with the Martian baby, Mot, but warning them to protect Mot until then. However, when Mot takes off in his spaceship, Joseph has to chase after him if he is to have any hope of getting his real baby.
Years later, Mot is a playable character in Looney Tunes Collector: Martian Alert! wherein his goal in his level is to find what he needs for his ship while avoiding his parents, who if they see him, will send him back to his room and take away a heart.
"Rocket-bye Baby" provides examples of:
- All Just a Dream: Joe chases Mot off a building and falls, but then wakes up still in the waiting room, and realizes he just dreamt the whole thing after reading a science magazine.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: As was common in 50's science-fiction, Martians have green skin.
- Brainy Baby: Mot shows advanced intelligence by Earth standards. He has made a DNA molecule out of Tinkertoys, spelled out Einstein's mass-energy conversion formula on building blocks, made a model of the solar system, drawn a chart predicting hurricane possibilities in 1985, filled out the family's tax forms, and drawn plans for a better mousetrap and a better mouse.
- Cassandra Truth: After Mot communicates with a bee, Joe expresses his concern over the chance of Mot talking to any strange bees he might meet. Martha thinks that Joe is just making up excuses to not take Mot out.
- Cheerful Child: Despite his strange behavior, Mot is shown as a very happy, pleasant baby.
- Competition Coupon Madness: The Show With In A Show had a contest to give away a toy spaceship by having kids send in twelve boxtops from Cosmic Crunchies. Mot didn't need to enter as he took measurements of the spaceship to build his own.
- Conveniently Close Planet: Earth and Mars aligning so close caused Mot and Yob to switch destinations and be born on each other's planet.
- Cry Laughing: The lecturer chides the audience for believing in aliens and laughs, but it turns to crying as Mot flies by in his flying saucer.
- Delayed "Oh, Crap!": When Joe and Martha receive a message from Mars, they act casual about it until the realization hits them.
- Delayed Reaction: An old lady has a two-fer. Upon seeing Mot, she initially dotes on him, until she realizes he's green. Mot doesn't help by pulling her glasses off with his antennae to try them on. Then while Joe hightails it back to his house, she just stands there flabbergasted for a while, before playing a pitch pipe followed by screaming.
- Little Green Men: Fitting with science fiction of the era, Mot is a little green boy from Mars— although we don’t see any adult Martians, so perhaps he might not be so “little” once he grows up.
- Or Was It a Dream?: When the Wilburs' son is brought out, a close-up of his bracelet reveals that he's named Yob.
- Panicky Expectant Father: Joe when waiting for his child to be born, complete with Cigarette of Anxiety, in a room full of other men doing the exact same thing.
- Properly Paranoid: Joe was reluctant to take Mot out, worried about how other people would react, but Martha insisted that Mot needed fresh air. Sure enough, Joe's fear was justified as an old lady had a Freak Out upon realizing that Mot was green.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Martian naming conventions seem to work this way. The Martian baby is named Mot, which is Tom backwards, while the Martians named the Earth boy Yob.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: At one point, Mot communicates with a bee.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: While not the least bit malevolent, Mot is much smarter than the average human infant (or most adults for that matter), and his idea of play consists of complex, scientific and mathematical projects, which worries both Martha and Joe.Martha: Darling, it worries me so. I don't think it's good for a baby to concentrate so much.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: When the Martians send a letter to the Wilburs, Joe doesn’t seem bothered by a letter arriving at night, delivered by a miniature plane.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Martha is furious with Joe's reluctance towards Mot, since neither have a reason to think he's not their natural child at this point.
- Word, Schmord!: One scene has a Show Within a Show, titled Captain Schmideo.
