Yellow Submarine

The music of the Beatles had galvanized an army of very creative artists who have accomplished the impossible, and created the movie that parallels the elegance and beauty of the music that inspired it. Many people feel that this film is a miracle, and I have the same feeling, especially when I'm watching it breathlessly from the beginning to its end.

Similar to the way the Beatles themselves have created many of their masterpieces, this film is the result of a "controlled chaos". Lennon remarked that many of his imagery and lyrics were just conceived off the top of his head, which is precisely the thing that gives them the freshness and spontaneity we adore. Same is with the rich and fulfilling imagery of this film -- it is obviously an outcome of the 'shoot from the hip' approach. It sounds unbelievable, but the film's ending (the most brilliant piece of all), was thrown in during one hectic weekend! Knowing this, it is not surprising to learn that the principal artist who designed the look and feel of the "Yellow Submarine" movie, almost went blind after finishing it (he set a grueling schedule of sleeping only four hours every other night during the making of the film! -- it took him several years to regain his health)

On a personal level, this film works as some kind of revelation for me. It is impossible to put it into words, but the film stirs the deepest, most contradictory emotions in me. It transcends space and time, and has the ability to bring me into the state where the regular, everyday thoughts do not apply. In that respect, it is as strong as the best Beatles songs.

Many criticisms of this movie are sadly missing the point. To criticise the animation as being jerky and unrealistic amounts to criticising Picasso for not painting more photo-realistic canvases. Misses the point entirely. To criticise the understatement-laden dialogue is to miss the finer points of comedy, insisting on the Three Stooges slapstick only. To say that the story line is incoherent is to betray the sitcom-infested mind in the sad state of commercial-induced eating disorder.

I must confess that I had approached the viewing of this film with a huge dose of skepticism. I thought it's going to look and feel lame, with a dated and naive hippy/psychedelia cliches. Boy, was I in for a shock!

My rating: 11 out of 10

Next to FANTASIA, YELLOW SUBMARINE is one the best animated feature films ever made. We will always remember the sixties pop-art imagery along with some of the best dialog to grace cartoon-land ("I haven't had so much fun since Pompeii....""I'm a born lever puller.") not to mention some of the best music to come from the best set of musicians the 20th century has produced! This is a kid's film at heart (wild adventures in strange distant lands, weird monsters, loud over bearing villians....) My only criticism is in the re-mastering, in 1999. The song "Hey, bulldog..." is added toward the end (A scene where the fab four meet up with a bunch of the Blue Meanies' bulldogs, and defeat them with the power of music.) The scene looks hastily slapped together,like something out The Beatles cartoon series (which was hated by the real life Liverpool lads. That's why they were originally not too thrilled with the announcement of this animated film.) There is a reason why these scenes are deleted, to allow classics like this to flow so easily on the screen. Anyway, a great, great classic.

After learning that my girlfriend had only see Yellow Submarine while stoned, and seemed convinced that was the reason she liked it, I insisted she watch it unstoned. She still liked it, and it was every bit as good as I recalled.

The story makes no sense, as the movie struggles to turn a bunch of random songs into some sort of narrative, but that hardly matters. The pun-filled script is blithely entertaining, the scenarios are wonderfully imaginative, the songs are terrific (of course), and the visuals are beyond amazing. The animation has a lose, experimental feel that was extraordinary at the time and is even more so in the days of digital animation.

Surprisingly, the weakest aspects of the movies are the Beatles' contributions, which consists of four of their lesser songs (although I do really like Only a Northern Song even though my girlfriend points out it's quite similar to Harrison's previous If I Needed Someone). None of the new songs really helped with creating the story and thus feel a little shoehorned in.

The first time I saw this movie I was 10 years old and I loved it. Now I'm 58 and I still love it. It is a gloriously colorful display of 60s pop art that should be seen by anyone who loves animation, the Beatles, or weird psychedelic art.

"Yellow Submarine" is a great film but it's not because of the plot or even the whimsical, non-sequitur filled dialogue. "Yellow Submarine" works best as a series of loosely connected music videos that pre-date MTV by 12 years.

If you grew up with MTV and you think that most music videos consist of 80's Hair-Metal bands "in concert" or rappers in hot tubs with women in bikinis, take a look at some of the musical numbers in "Yellow Submarine".

You have "Only a Northern Song" which is presented with Andy Warhol style pop-art images. "Nowhere Man" is a whimsical, trippy, rainbow colored cartoon. "When I'm Sixty Four" is illustrated by a "Sesame Street" style numerical countdown. Even "All Together Now", for which The Beatles themselves actually appear on screen, contains little camera tricks and quick cut edits that are common tools of more recent music videos.

The two best segments in the movie, in my opinion, are "Eleanor Rigby" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". "Eleanor Rigby" uses black and white still photos of what is apparently Liverpool rotoscoped with occasional splashes of color to illustrate the dreariness of the lives of "all the lonely people." The full-color rotoscoped images for "Lucy", such as the can-can dancing chorus line and the horse running in the field, are beautiful.

If you are a fan of The Beatles, great animation, or music video, this film is for you.

I bet you're thinking, "another Beatles movie?" but that's not really what this is. A wonderfully vibrant and gorgeous cartoon, and a treat for the eye and ear. This is how vivid and bright all cartoons should be. Great soundtrack of course, and the Beatles make a real cameo at the very end. Watch if you are a Beatle fan like me, or simply if you want a fun cartoon. They did a wonderful job remastering and cleaning it up.