Yellow Submarine ***** (1968, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr) – Classic Movie Review 6153

Director George Dunning’s stupendous 1968 animated feature Yellow Submarine is a hugely enjoyable psychedelic cartoon film of The Beatles’ surreal journey with Captain Fred and his Yellow Submarine to save Pepperland from the music-hating Blue Meanies. On the visual front, it is incredibly colourful (fittingly so with a Yellow Submarine and Blue Meanies) and breathtakingly imaginative in its Sixties Pop Art way.

It features excellent animations of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, with excellent vocal performances too, a dazzling array of psychedelic art, a barrage of amusing puns, word plays and jokes, and of course top Beatles tunes. A precious icon of the era, it is a work of art too, every frame of it. As a movie, it sustains its dynamism throughout, a tricky thing to pull off in a surreal, fanciful, non-story film that at heart is there to serve and link the classic songs. It pulls this trick off without strain, bombarding the audience with mind-bendingly crazy images and words.

Dunning earns the credit for the direction and the lads for ‘All You Need Is Love’,  ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’, ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’, ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’, ‘Hey Bulldog’, ‘Eleanor Rigby’, the closing song ‘All Together Now’, ‘Baby You’re a Rich Man’, ‘Nowhere Man’, ‘A Day In the Life’ (written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney) ‘Love You To’ (written by George Harrison), ‘Think For Yourself’ (written by George Harrison), ‘It’s All Too Much’ (written by George Harrison), Only a Northern Song (written by George Harrison) and of course the ‘Yellow Submarine’ title number. Is the haunting ‘Eleanor Rigby’ sequence the film’s best? It has a strong claim to be.

The four real live-action Beatles finally appear at the end (hooray!), looking young, fresh and eager, cracking a couple of jokes and singing ‘All Together Now’, the title shown 27 times in 16 languages: English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese, Italian, Hebrew, Greek, Swedish, Russian, Japanese, English, Greek, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish, Farsi, Swahili, Sanskrit, French, Hebrew, Swedish, Chinese, German, Japanese and English. You’d think this repetition might get annoying, but somehow, like the rest of the film, it’s just fun.

Paul Angelis (voice of George and Ringo), John Clive (voice of John), Dick Emery (voice of Jeremy Hilary Boob PhD – Nowhere Man / Lord Mayor /Max), Geoffrey [Geoff] Hughes (voice of Paul) and Lance Percival (voice of Old Fred) provide the vocal treats. Paul Angelis sings a tiny portion of ‘Tiptoe thru’ the Tulips with Me’ (music by Joseph A Burke, lyrics by Al Dubin), as ‘Tiptoe through the Meanies’. Angelis created the Chief Blue Meanie’s chattering teeth by knocking  a pair of saucers.

The original story is by Lee Minoff, based on the song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The screenplay is written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Erich Segal, with added Scouse dialogue by an uncredited Roger McGough, and the film is produced by Al Brodax for Apple, Subafilms, TVC London and King Features. It cost only £250,000 to make.

Yellow Submarine is directed by George Dunning, runs 90 minutes, is produced by Apple Films [Apple Corps], Subafilms, King Features and TVC London, is distributed by United Artists, is written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Erich Segal, from an original story by Lee Minoff, based on the song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, produced by Al Brodax, with songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, musical direction by George Martin and Art Direction by Heinz Edelmann.

‘Hey Bulldog’was deleted from the American release, which also has a different, softer ending with the conversion of the Chief Blue Meanie to love, peace and music. But the full 90-minute original British version of this blissful flower-power treat was digitally restored and re-released in 1999. The 1999 renovation has image restoration with six-track digital print mastering and a re-worked soundtrack, with the songs remixed by engineer Peter Cobbin to produce a proper 5.1 music track.

Yellow Submarine was first released on 17 July 1968. The newly restored version is screening across the UK on 8 July 2018 to celebrate the film’s 5oth anniversary. It is in beautiful condition with brilliant sound.

The Beatles hated the TV cartoon show of them (The Beatles, 1965), also produced by Al Brodax and George Dunning), but were impressed by Yellow Submarine and agreed to appear in the short live action epilogue to the film.

Allegedly, Nowhere Man is based on Jonathan Miller. Dunning had only 11 months to complete Yellow Submarine when a Disney animated feature of the time took four years. ‘Only a Northern Song was written for the Sergeant Pepper album, and of course refers to The Beatles’ music publishing company Northern Songs.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6153

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