Yellow Submarine (film)

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Yellow Submarine

Original U.S. movie poster
Directed by George Dunning
Dennis Abey
(live action sequence)
Produced by Al Brodax
Written by John Lennon
Paul McCartney
George Harrison
Ringo Starr (songs)
Lee Minoff (short story)
Al Brodax (screenplay)
Jack Mendelsohn
Erich Segal
Starring Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, epilogue: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
Voices: Paul Angelis, John Clive, Dick Emery, Geoffrey Hughes, Lance Percival and Peter Batten
Music by The Beatles
George Martin
Cinematography John Williams
Editing by Brian J. Bishop
Distributed by Apple Films Flag of the United Kingdom, United Artists Flag of the United States
Release date(s) June 6, 1968
Running time 90 min. (USA)
Country U.K.
Language English
Budget £250,000
Preceded by Magical Mystery Tour
Followed by Let It Be
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Yellow Submarine is a 1968 animated feature 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, with the Beatles characters in the film voiced by other actors.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Pepperland is a cheerful music-loving paradise under the sea, protected by Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, which falls under a surprise attack by the music-hating Blue Meanies; the attackers seal the band inside a music-proof bubble, then turn the Pepperlanders into statues and drain the country itself of colour.

Pepperland's elderly Lord Mayor sends Old Fred (whom the mayor calls "Young Fred") off in a yellow submarine to get assistance. Old Fred travels to Liverpool, where he follows the depressed and aimless Ringo and persuades him to help. Ringo collects his "mates" John, George and finally Paul. The five journey back to Pepperland in the yellow submarine, passing through several episodes:

  • Sea Of Time - where time flows both forwards and backwards to the tune of "When I'm Sixty-Four",
  • Sea Of Science - where they sing "Only a Northern Song",
  • Sea Of Monsters - where the dreaded "vacuum cleaner" beast sucks up the entire landscape and then itself,
  • Sea of Nothing - where they pick up a rather helpful "nowhere man" named Jeremy Hilary Boob PhD, and sing the song "Nowhere Man" . Ringo takes pity on him and takes him aboard the submarine.
  • Foothills of the Headlands (or Sea of Heads) - where they get separated from the submarine and John sings "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds",
  • Finally, Sea of Holes - where Jeremy is kidnapped by one of the Blue Meanies. When Ringo jumps on to a green hole (which turns into 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, the original Sgt. Pepper's band is released (thanks to a hole in Ringo's pocket from the Sea Of Holes), and Pepperland is restored. The Blue Meanies are forced to retreat, but John extends an offer of friendship, and the Chief Blue Meanie has a change of heart and accepts. An enormous party ensues, with everyone living happily ever after.

At the end, the real Beatles (in a live-action sequence), having returned home, playfully show off their souvenirs. George has the submarine's motor, Paul has "a little love", and Ringo still has half a hole in his pocket because he gave the rest to Jeremy. However, John spots "newer and bluer Meanies in the vicinity of the theatre" and cheerfully comments there's only one way to go out: "Singing!" The quartet obliges with a reprise of "All Together Now" which ends with various translations of the song's title appearing in sequence on the screen.

[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. The recurring line "It's all in the mind" is taken from The Goon Show.

As with many 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 a 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 poet 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 corporations, who force their wills on good people (Pepperlanders), and carelessly deplete and ruin the natural environment, resources, colour and landscape[citation needed]. They are carefree about their destructive 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 play on "Jew," not as a reflection of any anti-Semitism on the part of the filmmakers, but rather as a commentary on the stereotypical 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 moustache. 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, as well as the orchestral breaks earlier in the movie, also from "A Day in the Life".

[edit] Animation

The movie's style contrasts greatly with the efforts of Disney Feature Animation 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). It also paved the way for Terry Gilliam's animations for Do Not Adjust Your Set and Monty Python.

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, but the film's art director was 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, Cam Ford, Anne Jolliffe, Tony Cuthbert, Geoff Collins, Jim Hiltz, Ron Campbell and Hester Coblenz.

A Yellow Submarine Toy
A Yellow Submarine Toy

[edit] Music

In addition to the existing title song "Yellow Submarine," five new songs were commissioned for the movie: "All Together Now", (a football-crowd favourite); "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 instrumental 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] The Beatles' participation

The Beatles themselves were not enthusiastic in participating in a motion picture at the time. Their enthusiasm during the production of their second feature film Help!, waned after they had just produced and starred in the disastrous TV special Magical Mystery Tour. They did, however, see an animated film as a favourable 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, black background remained in the final film.

[edit] Voices

[edit] Songs in Yellow Submarine

The original soundtrack album consisted of Beatles tracks and some orchestral pieces by George Martin on the second side:

Another soundtrack, the Yellow Submarine Songtrack, was released in 1999 to contain all but one of The Beatles' songs from the film:

The one remaining song from the film, "A Day in the Life", was not included in the Yellow Submarine Songtrack because EMI did not want too many songs from The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to be included.

The orchestral pieces were also used in the short NASA Apollo 9 mission film, which they made for every mission.

[edit] Release history

VHS and DVD cover
VHS and DVD cover

[edit] Original theatrical release

The movie was originally distributed worldwide by United Artists in two versions. The version shown in Europe included an extra musical number, "Hey Bulldog", heard in the final third of the movie. For the U.S. version, the number was replaced with alternate animation due to time constraints. It was felt that at the time, American audiences would grow tired from the length of the movie. Of all The Beatles films released by UA, this is the only one UA retained the rights to, leading up to its purchase by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1981. In 2005, Sony Pictures Entertainment led a consortium that purchased MGM and UA, and thus SPE now handles theatrical distribution for MGM, while 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment is responsible for home video distribution, although the most recent home video release is now out of print.

[edit] Initial home video releases

With the dawn of the home video era came an opportunity to release Yellow Submarine on VHS and LaserDisc. However, it was held up for some years due to music rights issues that UA had to clear in order for the film to be issued on video by what was then MGM/UA Home Video in 1987. This was presented in its U.S. theatrical release (sans the "Hey Bulldog" scene), with a simulated stereo mix of the film's original mono soundtrack. After a couple of years, the video was pulled from release, and for many years mint copies of the initial home video pressing were considered collectibles.

[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 colour. 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. As already mentioned, it is currently out of print (it is up to UA and Fox to decide when it will be released again, pending new licensing fee issues). Used copies are being sold for a premium on the Internet and new copies, although hard to find, are available through collectors.

The "With A Little Help From My Friends" sequence originally erroneously had John Lennon singing the song and this was edited out of the 1999 re-release.

[edit] Parody

A parody of the cartoon appears in the 1978 mockumentary The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, directed by the Monty Python member Eric Idle. The submarine appears sandwich-shaped. The short cartoon is accompanied by the Rutle song "Cheese and onions", written by Neil Innes in pastiche of the Beatles' style.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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