Yellow Submarine (film)
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| Yellow Submarine Feature-Length Animated Movie |
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| Directed by | George Dunning Dick Emery Dennis Abey (live action sequence) |
| Produced by | George Dunning |
| Written by | The Beatles (title song) Lee Minoff (short story) Al Brodax (screenplay) Jack Mendelsohn Erich Segal |
| Starring | The Beatles (epilogue) Paul Angelis, John Clive, Dick Emery, Geoffrey Hughes, Lance Percival, Peter Batten (voices) |
| Music by | The Beatles George Harrison John Lennon George Martin |
| Cinematography | John Williams |
| Editing by | Animators: John Challis Jim Hiltz Dick Horn Diane Jackson Jack Stokes |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
| Release date(s) | June 6, 1968 |
| Running time | 85 min. (USA) |
| Country | U.K. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | n/a |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
- For the song, see Yellow Submarine (song). For the soundtrack, see Yellow Submarine (album).
Yellow Submarine is a 1968 animated film based on the music of the Beatles. It is also the title for the soundtrack album to the feature film, released as part of the Beatles' music catalogue. The film was directed by Canadian-born animation producer George Dunning, and produced by United Artists and King Features Syndicate. The Beatles themselves appear only in the closing scene of the film.
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[edit] Plot
Pepperland is a cheerful music-loving utopia located "80,000 leagues under the sea", and is named after and protected by Sergeant Pepper of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band fame. It is attacked by the music-hating Blue Meanies who seal the Band inside a musicproof sphere, then turn the Pepperlanders into statues and drain the country itself of colour.
Pepperland's Lord Mayor sends Old Fred (named "young Fred" by the even older Mayor) off in a yellow submarine in order to get help.
Travelling to Liverpool, Fred begs for help from the depressed and aimless Ringo Starr, who agrees and rounds up his three mates: Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison. The five of them journey back to Pepperland in the submarine, passing through:
- the Sea of Time - where they go forward and backward in time and sing "When I'm 64",
- the Sea of Science - where they sing "Only a Northern Song",
- the Sea of Monsters - where the dreaded "vacuum flask" beast sucks up the entire landscape and then itself,
- the Sea of Nothing - where they pick up a rather helpful "nowhere man" named Jeremy Hilary Boob, Ph.D. and sing the song of the same name,
- the foothills of the "Headlands" or Sea of Heads - where they get separated from the submarine and John sings "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds",
- and finally the Sea of Holes - where Jeremy is kidnapped by the Blue Meanies. When Ringo jumps on to a green hole (the Sea of Green), they arrive in Pepperland.
Reunited with Old Fred and the submarine, they imitate Sgt. Pepper's band, and "rally the land to rebellion". Jeremy is rescued, colour and flowers rebloom, and Pepperland is restored. In the end, the heroes make peace with the Meanies, and everyone lives happily ever after.
[edit] Production
Released at the height of the psychedelic pop culture period of the 1960s, the movie Yellow Submarine was a box-office hit, drawing in crowds both for its lush, wildly creative images, and its soundtrack of Beatles songs. The original story was written by Lee Minoff, based on the song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and the screenplay penned by four collaborators including Erich Segal.
As with most motion picture musicals, the music takes precedence over the actual plot, and most of the story is a series of set-pieces designed to present Beatles music set to various images, in a form reminiscent of Walt Disney's Fantasia (and foreshadowing the rise of music videos and MTV fifteen years later). Nonetheless, the movie still presents an entertaining modern-day fairy tale that caters to the ideals of the "love generation".
The dialogue is littered with puns, double entendres, and Beatles in-jokes, many scripted by Roger McGough. "Blue Meanies" is sometimes used as a slang term for the police, although many viewers will have missed this (see List of slang terms for police officers). The term "Blue Meanies" is actually a metaphor for bad people in government and corporate, who force their wills on good people (Pepperlanders), and carelessly deplete and ruin the natural environment, resources, colour and landscape. They are carefree about their destruction ways and will do whatever necessary to crush those (The Beatles) who oppose them.
(In the DVD commentary track, Production Supervisor John Coates adds an additional perspective, stating that "blue" was a pun on "Jew," reflecting not on any anti-Semitism on the part of the filmmakers but rather a commentary on what had been typical casting of Jews as villains. There is also a scene where a Blue Meanie questions some disguised Beatles, asking, "Are you Bluish? You don't look Bluish...") Additionally, the Beatles' appearance in the film was actually based on their music video "Strawberry Fields Forever", with the exception of Paul being without his mustache. The film also includes several references to songs not included in the soundtrack, including "A Day in the Life" where the lyrics are referenced in the 'Sea of Holes' scene.
[edit] Animation
The movie's style contrasts greatly with the efforts of The Walt Disney Company and other animated films previously released by Hollywood up until the time. The film uses a style of limited animation that deliberately defies reality and paints a landscape that could never exist in the real world; something that appealed greatly to the escapists of the 1960s (see also Fantastic Planet).
George Dunning, who also worked on the Beatles cartoon series, was the overall director for the film, supervising over 200 artists for 11 months. He took personal charge of the 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' sequence.
The animation of Yellow Submarine has sometimes falsely been attributed to the famous psychedelic pop art artist of the era Peter Max; the film's art director was in fact Heinz Edelmann. Edelmann, along with his contemporary Milton Glaser, pioneered the psychedelic style for which Max would later become famous, but according to Edelmann and producer Al Brodax, as quoted in the book Inside the Yellow Submarine by Robert Hieronimus and Laura Cortner (2002) (ISBN 0-87349-360-5), Max had nothing to do with the production of Yellow Submarine.
Notable animators who worked on the film included Paul Driessen.
[edit] Music
In addition to the existing title song "Yellow Submarine," five new songs were commissioned for the movie: "All Together Now", (a soccer-crowd favorite); "It's All Too Much", (a George Harrison composition); "Baby You're A Rich Man", a song that made its public debut as the "All You Need Is Love" single B-side; "Only A Northern Song", a Harrison song originally recorded during sessions for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (the partial inspiration for this film); and "Hey Bulldog", a John Lennon piano romp echoing of "Lady Madonna", which was recorded at the same time (this song was originally included only in the European theatrical release, but restored for the US theatrical reissue in 1999).
The film's incidental music was an orchestral score composed and arranged by George Martin. One of the film's cues, heard after the main title credits, was originally recorded as the introduction to "Don't Pass Me By", Ringo's composition for The Beatles (a.k.a. The White Album); it was later released as "A Beginning" on the Anthology 3 album.
[edit] Beatles' Participation
The Beatles themselves were not enthusiastic in participating in a motion picture at the time. They had not enjoyed the production of their second feature film Help!, and had just produced and starred in the disastrous TV special Magical Mystery Tour. They did, however, see an animated film as a favorable way to complete their commitment to United Artists for a third film. Voice actors were hired to imitate the Fab Four's voices in the film. However, the Beatles were impressed after seeing a rough cut of the film, and agreed to make a live-action cameo appearance in the final scene. The cameo was originally intended to feature a post-production psychedelic background, but due to time and budget constraints a blank background remained in the final film.
[edit] Voices
- John Clive - John
- Geoffrey Hughes - Paul
- Peter Batten - George (Actor Peter Batten was arrested during voice recording because he had deserted the British army, so Paul Angelis finished recording his part.)
- Paul Angelis - Ringo, Chief Blue Meanie, George
- Dick Emery - Lord Mayor, Nowhere Man (Jeremy Hillary Boob, Ph.D.), Max
- Lance Percival - Old/Young Fred (Lance Percival also provided voices for the ABC TV Beatles cartoon.)
- John Lennon - John (singing voice)
- Paul McCartney - Paul (singing voice)
- George Harrison - George (singing voice)
- Ringo Starr - Ringo (singing voice)
[edit] Songs in Yellow Submarine
The original soundtrack album consisted of Beatles tracks and some orchestral pieces by George Martin on the second side:
- "Yellow Submarine"
1969 album cover - "Only A Northern Song"
- "All Together Now"
- "Hey Bulldog"
- "It's All Too Much"
- "All You Need Is Love"
- "Pepperland" (George Martin)
- "Sea of Time" (George Martin)
- "Sea of Holes" (George Martin)
- "Sea of Monsters" (George Martin)
- "March of the Meanies" (George Martin)
- "Pepperland Laid Waste" (George Martin)
- "Yellow Submarine in Pepperland" (George Martin)
The album was later re-worked and by 1999 consisted of:
- "Yellow Submarine"
- "Hey Bulldog"
- "Eleanor Rigby"
- "Love You To"
- "All Together Now"
- "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"
- "Think For Yourself"
- "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
- "With a Little Help from My Friends"
- "Baby You're A Rich Man"
- "Only A Northern Song"
- "All You Need Is Love"
- "When I'm Sixty-Four"
- "It's All Too Much"
- "Nowhere Man"
The orchestral pieces were also used in the short NASA Apollo 8 mission film, which they made for every mission.
[edit] Release history on VHS and DVD
[edit] The 1999 film and soundtrack re-release
In 1999, United Artists and Apple Records digitally restored the audio of the film for theatrical and home video re-release. Though the visuals were not digitally restored, a new transfer was done after cleaning the original film negative and rejuvenating the color. A soundtrack album for this version was also released, which featured the first extensive digital stereo remixes of Beatles material.
The film was also re-edited to its original European theatrical release version, with the "Hey, Bulldog!" number restored, whereas the U.S. version deleted this song and replaced it with alternate animation.
The DVD that was released also featured a "soundtrack only" version, in which the dialogue is removed, leaving only the music and the songs. It is currently out of print. Used copies are being sold for a premium in the Internet and new copies, although hard to find, are available through collectors.
[edit] Trivia
- The submarine's chronometer stops in the Sea of Time at the year 2009.
- When Old Fred frantically presses various buttons to deploy some defense against the boxing beast in the Sea of Monsters, assorted paraphernalia appears from the Yellow Submarine, among them a banner which partially reads "THE ROLLING STONES!"
- Many of the Blue Meanies wear Mickey Mouse ears throughout the film, an obvious reference to the Walt Disney Company. This could be attributed to the Beatles failed relations with the company in years prior. Early versions of Disney's 1967 film 'The Jungle Book' featured music by the Beatles and the group themselves voicing the four vultures that appear near the end of that film. Disney and the Beatles argued over the direction of the film, resulting in the Beatles exiting the production. All that remains to suggest Beatle involvment in 'The Jungle Book' are the haircuts on the vultures, a shaggy 'mop top' stereotypical of the Beatles at the time.
- The Beatles mockumentary The Rutles spoofs the movie in the sequence "Cheese and Onions".
- The film was parodied in the Powerpuff Girls episode Meet the Beat-Alls. Another episode Mime for a Change spoofs the ending of Yellow Submarine.
- The hallway sequence is parodied in a chase scene in the Teen Titans episode Mad Mod.
- In The Simpsons episode Last Exit to Springfield Lisa is put under narcosis by her dentist. She dreams hallucinogenic visions which resemble the movie Yellow Submarine. Even the Beatles themselves fly by in a zeppelin, and one of them cries out "Look over there lads! It's Lisa!".
- Gnarls Barkley referenced the movie in their music video for Smiley Faces.
- In the cult trilogy Illuminatus!, Hagbard Celine's submarine the Lief Erikson is yellow and he makes a reference to it being 'from a rock song'.
- Other than screaming, there are no female speaking roles whatsoever.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Yellow Submarine at the Internet Movie Database
- Album Lyrics
- Review of Yellow Submarine by Roger Ebert
- h2g2 Yellow Submarine - the Film Edited Guide Entry
