Yellow Submarine (1968)

Director:

George Dunning

Writers:

Lee Minoff (story)
Lee Minoff (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

13 November 1968 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Music

Tagline:

The forces of good! The forces of evil!

Plot:

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

Plot Keywords:

Beatles | The Beatles | Submarine | Psychedelic | Rock Music

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

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)

Also Known As:

The Beatles' Yellow Submarine (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

90 min | USA:85 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

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

Certification:

Singapore:PG | Canada:F (Ontario) | Canada:G (Manitoba/Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Iceland:L | Canada:G (video rating) | Finland:S | France:U | Sweden:11 | UK:U | USA:G | West Germany:6 (nf) (w)

Filming Locations:

Studios of TVC London, London, England, UK

Company:

Apple Corps

Trivia:

When the producers approached The Beatles about this film, the group, which hated the TV cartoon show of them, agreed to it only as an easy way of completing their movie contract. As such, they contributed only a few old songs and four quickly produced numbers: "Only a Northern Song", "Hey Bulldog", "All Together Now" and "It's All Too Much". However, when they saw the finished film, they were so impressed by it that they decided to appear in a short live action epilogue to the film.

Quotes:

[opening a door to find King Kong abducting a woman]
George: Do you think we're interrupting something?
John: I think so.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Powerpuff Girls: Just Another Manic Mojo/Mime for a Change (#1.11)" (1999)

Soundtrack:

All Together Now

Still Innovative, Unbelievably Colorful

Over 35 years later, this is still an innovative animated film: colorful, clever and different. In fact, you'd have to look hard to find a more colorful film ever made.

The Beatles characters are fun, spouting a number of good puns and inside jokes concerning lyrics from some of their past songs. The bad guys here, the "Blue Meanies," are also fun to watch and really different from anything you've seen.

This is wild stuff which can appeal to adults even more than kids. The only improvement I would have made would have been to shorten it a bit. Even at a fairly short 90 minutes, some could have been trimmed.

The DVD is fine, except for the last 30 minutes when it gets grainy. However, the 5.1 surround sound more than makes up for that, affording the viewer to hear all these famous Beatles songs in a better format that surrounds you as a CD could never do.