[2] The Michael Maltese story follows the adventures of a baby from Mars who ends up on Earth after the planets pass close to each other and create a 'cosmic force'.
The transit of the green one is followed as it flies through Earth's atmosphere, above hundreds of homes with strange-looking TV antennas, ultimately arriving inside a hospital.
While he is not looking, the baby startles Joseph by crawling up onto the stroller's hood and beeping; then he scampers onto a wall and communicates with a bee sitting on a nearby flower.
We are also shown a model of the solar system made from a basketball and Christmas ornaments hung from the ceiling with string, and a graph on a chalkboard titled "Hurricane Possibilities for Year 1985".
Agreeing that "he should play more", Joseph sits the baby in front of the TV, where "Captain Schmideo" is displaying a toy flying saucer being offered as a promotion for Cosmic Crunchies (although the screen identifies it as "Ghastlies") the "new wonder cereal made from unborn sweet peas".
The baby retrieves a T-square and triangle, measures the dimensions of the saucer displayed on the TV screen, and retires to his room, where he builds "his own toy spaceship".
The message, from "Sir U. Tan of Mars" (a reference to a popular vegetable laxative, "Serutan"), explains how events occurred resulting in a baby-switch, adding that the Martian baby's name is "Mot".
The scene fades and wavers to the PA in the hospital waiting room, where it is revealed that all prior events were a bad dream Joseph had; he had apparently fallen asleep while reading a science magazine carrying the lead story: "Can we communicate with Mars?".
Shaenon K. Garrity writes, "Rocket-Bye Baby finds Chuck Jones pushing away from the Warner Bros. house style and toward his own modernist sense of design, influenced in part by the UPA animation studio.
If the gentle gags lack the breakneck comedy of some of Jones' other work from this, his greatest period, Rocket-Bye Baby is still one of his best-looking shorts, a beautiful piece of animation and design.
It also features some of the director's funniest reaction shots, including a little old lady who pauses to tune her voice on a pitch pipe before screaming.