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Yellow Submarine (film)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| 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 | John Lennon Paul McCartney George Harrison Ringo Starr (epilogue) Paul Angelis John Clive Dick Emery Geoffrey Hughes Lance Percival Peter Batten (voices) |
| Music by | The Beatles 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 |
| Preceded by | Magical Mystery Tour |
| Followed by | Let It Be |
| All Movie Guide 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.
Contents |
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; they 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 home and persuades him to help. Ringo collects his friends, 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 of the same name. 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, moments ahead of Old Fred and the submarine.
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 from the reviving Pepperland, but John offers friendship to them if they wouldn't try anything mean again. The Chief Blue Meanie has a change of heart and agrees to join them, and 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 had "a little love", and Ringo still had 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.
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 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 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 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[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".
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; 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, Cam Ford, Anne Jolliffe, Tony Cuthbert, Geoff Collins, Jim Hiltz, Ron Campbell and Hester Coblenz.
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.
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 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 background remained in the final film.
- John Clive - John
- Geoffrey Hughes - Paul
- Peter Batten - George (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, Phud (Ph.D.)), Max
- Lance Percival - Old/Young Fred (Lance Percival also provided the voices of Paul and Ringo 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)
The original soundtrack album consisted of Beatles tracks and some orchestral pieces by George Martin on the second side:
- "Yellow Submarine"
- "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 Blue Meanies" (George Martin)
- "Pepperland Laid Waste" (George Martin)
- "Yellow Submarine in Pepperland" (Lennon/McCartney, arr. by George Martin)
Another soundtrack, the Yellow Submarine Songtrack, was released in 1999 to contain all but one of The Beatles' songs from the film:
- "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"
- "Nowhere Man"
- "It's All Too Much"
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.
 |
This short section requires expansion. |
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.
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.
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.
- Yellow Submarine at the Internet Movie Database
- Album Lyrics
- Review of Yellow Submarine by Roger Ebert
- h2g2 Yellow Submarine - the Film Edited Guide Entry