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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 animation producer George Dunning, and produced by United Artists (UA) 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.
[edit] PlotAt the beginning of the story, Pepperland is introduced by a narrator as 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, who seal the band inside a music-proof bubble, turn the Pepperlanders into statues, and drain the countryside of colour. In the last minute before his own capture, Pepperland's elderly Lord Mayor sends Old Fred, a sailor, (whom the mayor calls "Young Fred") off in the Yellow Submarine to get help. Old Fred travels to Liverpool, where he follows the depressed and aimless Ringo and persuades him to return to Pepperland with him. Ringo collects his "mates" John, George and finally Paul. The five journey back to Pepperland in the yellow submarine, passing through several episodes:
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 carried 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 (partly due to some "transformation magic" performed by Jeremy), and accepts. An enormous party ensues, with everyone living happily ever after. At the end, the real Beatles, having returned home, playfully show off their souvenirs, whereof George has the submarine's motor, Paul has "a little LOVE", and Ringo still has half a hole in his pocket (having supposedly given the other half to Jeremy). John sees "newer and bluer Meanies being sighted within the vicinity of this theater" and announces that there is 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] ProductionReleased in the psychedelic pop culture 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 deplete and ruin the natural environment, resources, colour and landscape. They are uncaring about their destructive ways and will do whatever necessary to crush those who oppose them. This negative view of corporations may also be reflected by many of the Blue Meanies having Mickey Mouse ears, reflecting a negative commerical pervasiveness of Disney Corporation, or alternatively an in-joke reference to Fantasia (described above). The imagery, character names, and vocalisations include numerous in-jokes, such as the character Max being blue and having a German accent, possibly being a reference to the 1966 movie "The Blue Max", who also refers to escaping to Argentina, as some Nazis had done. 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..." However, this is speculative, since the Blue Meanies were originally supposed to be red, or even purple, but when Heinz Edelmann's assistant accidentally changed the colours, the film's characters took on a different meaning.[1] The Beatles' animated persona was based on their appearance in the promotional film for the song "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] AnimationNational and foreign animators were assembled by TVC. Bob Balser and Jack Stokes were animation directors. Charlie Jenkins, one of the film's key creative directors, was responsible for the entire Eleanor Rigby sequence, as well as the submarine travel from Liverpool, through London, to splashdown. Jenkins also was responsible for "It's Only a Northern Song" in the Sea of Science, plus much of the multi-image sequences. Australian Anne Joliffe was a key animator. The background work was executed by artists under the direction of Alison De Vere and Millicent McMillan who were both Background Supervisors. Ted Lewis and Chris Miles were responsible for Animation Clean Up. George Dunning, who also worked on the Beatles cartoon series, was the overall director for the film, supervising over 200 artists for 11 months. "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" was George Dunning's idea, which he turned over to Bill Sewell, who delivered more than thirty minutes of rotoscoped images. By that time, George Dunning was not available, and Bob Balser, with the help of Arne Gustafson, edited the material to its sequence length in the film. 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 Hieronimus and Cortner, Max had nothing to do with the production of Yellow Submarine.[2][page needed] The movie's style, created by creative director Heinz Edelmann, 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. [edit] MusicIn 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" (the first song recorded specifically for this film, but which made its first appearance as the B-side to the "All You Need Is Love" single); "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 U.S. 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 during sessions for "Good Night" (an album track for The Beatles, aka the "White Album") and would have been used as the introduction to Ringo's composition "Don't Pass Me By", also on the "White Album"; it was later released as "A Beginning" on the Anthology 3 album. [edit] Beatles' participation The Beatles' live-action cameo at the end of the movie, with John Lennon "looking" for more Blue Meanies in the theater. The Beatles were not enthusiastic about participating in a motion picture. They were displeased with their second feature film Help!, and were discouraged by the disastrous reception of their self-produced 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. (Ultimately, due to their relatively small roles and the fact it was animated, United Artists still considered them to owe another movie; Let It Be would be the third film to complete their contract with the studio.) The Beatles were impressed after seeing a draft of the film, and agreed to make a live-action cameo appearance in the final scene, which was filmed in early February 1968 upon the band's return from India. The cameo was originally intended to feature a post-production psychedelic background and effects; but due to time and budget constraints, a blank, black background remained in the final film. While Starr and McCartney still looked the same as their animated counterparts, Lennon and Harrison's physical appearances had changed by the time the cameo was shot. Both were clean-shaven, and Lennon had begun to grow his hair longer with accompanying lamb chop sideburns. In The Beatles Anthology video, the surviving Beatles (including Harrison) all admitted that they truly liked the film. Ringo also revealed that for years he was approached by children and asked "Why did you press the button?", referring to when his character curiously pressed the panic button ejecting him from the submarine into the sea of monsters. Lennon also implied that his son Sean first realized his father had been a Beatle because of the film. After seeing Yellow Submarine at a friend's house, Sean came home asking why his father was a cartoon. [edit] Voices
[edit] Songs in Yellow SubmarineAll tracks written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney except where noted.
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 missing song is "A Day In The Life", whose orchestral crescendo was used in the film):
The orchestral pieces were also used in the short NASA Apollo 9 mission film, which NASA made for every mission. [edit] Strawberry Fields Forever (semisequel)Planned as a semisequel to Yellow Submarine, Strawberry Fields Forever was going to be the first all computer-generated film (decades before Toy Story) and was to feature The Beatles music. Al Brodax was to be the producer. The filmmakers went so far as to produce 10 minutes of test footage. According to 'Ray Pointer' on www.animationshow.com (who says he was the movie's production manager)[citation needed]:
Ray points out later in the site that the movie was not so much a sequel, but more of a follow up, given that the animation is quite different and the Beatles never even appear. However, this is not the only story of what the plot is. [edit] Release history[edit] Original theatrical releaseThe movie was 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. As of 20 April 2009[update], the Internet Movie Database gave it a "MovieMeter" score of 7.1 out of 10, meaning "favorable".[3] [edit] Initial home video releasesWith 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 (without 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] 1999 film and soundtrack re-releaseIn 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, and some of the additional animation removed. This included a very short "closure" shot of Old Fred and the Lord Mayor dancing in celebration. 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.[citation needed] [edit] RemakeVariety reported in August 2009 that Disney and director Robert Zemeckis were negotiating to produce a computer-animated remake of the film. Performance capture would be used, as with Zemeckis's previous animated films The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol. According to the story, Disney hopes to release the film in time for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.[4] Disney and Apple Corps Ltd. officially announced the remake at the inaugural D23 Expo on September 11, 2009.[5] [edit] Artists
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