Yellow Submarine (1968)

The Beatles agree to accompany Captain Fred in his Yellow Submarine and go to Pepperland to free it from the music hating Blue Meanies.

Director:

George Dunning

Writers:

Lee Minoff (story), Lee Minoff (screenplay),

Stars:

The Beatles, Paul Angelis, John Clive

3 wins & 2 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
The Beatles	...	Themselves (as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band)
Paul Angelis	...	Chief Blue Meanie / Ringo (voice)
John Clive	...	John (voice)
Dick Emery	...	Jeremy Hilary Boob, Ph.D - Nowhere Man / Lord Mayor / Max (voice)
Geoffrey Hughes	...	Paul (voice) (as Geoff Hughes)
Lance Percival	...	Young / Old Fred (voice)

Storyline

The singing group, The Beatles, at the height of their popularity, made this cartoon of a land that is taken over by the Blue Meanies. They are recruited by an escapee to come and bring joy (and music) back to the land. The techniques are quite psychedelic in the cartoons and much care was taken to have the walks and mannerisms of the individual Beatles cartoons match the originals.

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Plot Keywords:

submarine | the beatles | song | psychedelic | singer | 

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Taglines:

The forces of good! The forces of evil!

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Genres:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Fantasy | Musical

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

UK USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 November 1968 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Beatles' Yellow Submarine

Filming Locations:

Studios of TVC London, London, England, UK

Box Office

Budget:

£250,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Apple Corps, King Features Production, TVC London

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

DTS (re-release) Dolby Digital (re-release) Mono (original release) (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When the film was being restored for DVD, the producers obtained The Beatles' permission to remix the songs in order to produce a proper 5.1 music track. Engineer Peter Cobbin went back to The Beatles' original four-track work tapes and assembled true multi-track masters for each of the 15 songs, enabling him to achieve stereo effects and adding clarity that had never previously been possible. Many Beatles fans objected to this, although the surviving Beatles themselves reportedly approved the new mixes.

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Goofs

In the closed captions during the George Harrison song "It's Only A Northern Song", the captions instead read "It's Only A NORMAL Song". George used the word Northern because he wanted to complete his contract with Northern Songs.

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Quotes

John: It appears to be a group of fellas.

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Crazy Credits

The lyric "All Together Now" is shown in several different languages while the song plays at the end.

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Connections

Referenced in Quantum Leap: Revenge of the Evil Leaper - September 16, 1987 (1993)

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Soundtracks

"All You Need Is Love"
Performed by The Beatles
Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
Published by Apple Records
Courtesy of Apple Records

User Reviews

Nothing comparable--EVER!

What COULD compare? Yellow Submarine is 130,000 frames (90min x 60sec x 24 frames/sec) of classical, pop, tribute (to earlier animation styles), and original art from Da Vinci to Warhol to Picasso to Popeye to unbridled hallucination, drawn to a best-of-Python screenplay of non-sequiturs, puns, and pokes at institutions from cold-war antagonists to (governor) Reagan's paranoid National Guard deployment against counterculturists.

It's a feast for the senses and sensibilities. One can revel in the flashing, dancing colors and art styles--most of which well-shame anything Disney ever attempted and make today's phony-depth digital claptrap look like spilled esophageal reflux. The soundtrack is a condensed spectrum of the range with which Lennon/McCartney/Harrison composed, from deeply contemplative (Eleanor Rigby) to near-post-adolescent exuberance (Harrison's contributions) to silly-love-song filler showtunes (All Together Now). The dialog exchanges keep viewer's verbal senses on the edge of their seats. The theme undercurrents lightheartedly appeal nostalgically to those who were drawn to it in its theatrical release, historically to those who still wonder 'what the 60s was all about', without getting in the way of sheer artistic ebullience.

If you're an adult, it helps to like animation and British-invasion-era music (or Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Rodgers & Hammerstein, for that matter). If you're an adult watching it with your kids (there's nothing offensive), be prepared for them to groan at Disney/Pixar/Nickelodeon rubbish from then on, and say "I want more of THAT!"