Yellow Submarine is a 1968 animated musical film inspired by the music of the Beatles, directed by George Dunning with art direction by Heinz Edelmann. Initial press reports stated that the Beatles themselves would provide their own character voices. However, apart from composing and performing the songs, the real Beatles' only participation was in the closing scene of the film; the voices of their animated counterparts were provided by voice actors.
The film received widespread acclaim from critics and audiences alike. Filmmaker and former Pixar and Disney chief creative officer John Lasseter has credited the film with generating wider interest in animation as a serious art form, as in the West it had been generally considered a children's medium at the time. Time commented that it delighted "adolescents and aesthetes alike". Half a century after its release, it is still regarded as a landmark of animation and among the greatest animated films of all time.
Plot Pepperland is a music-loving paradise under the sea, home to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The titular Yellow Submarine rests on an Aztec-like pyramid on a hill. At the edge of the land is a range of high blue mountains.
The land falls under a surprise attack from the music-hating Blue Meanies, who live beyond the mountains. The attack starts with a music-proof glass globe that imprisons the band. The Blue Meanies fire projectiles and drop apples (a reference to the Beatles' then-new company Apple Corps) that render Pepperland's residents immobile as statues, and drain the entire countryside of colour.
In the last minutes before his capture, Pepperland's elderly Lord High Mayor sends Young Fred to get help. The Apple Bonkers "bonk" the Mayor with several large apples as Fred takes off in the Yellow Submarine ("Yellow Submarine"). He travels to Liverpool ("Eleanor Rigby") (depicted in late 1960s), where he follows a depressed Ringo to "The Pier", a building on the top of a hill, and persuades him to return to Pepperland with him. Ringo collects his mates John, George, and Paul. The four decide to help Young Fred, and journey with him back to Pepperland in the submarine ("All Together Now"). They pass the Sea of Time ("When I'm Sixty-Four"), the Sea of Science ("Only A Northern Song"), and the Sea of Monsters, where Ringo presses the forbidden panic button, and gets swept out of the submarine. John, Paul and George manage to save Ringo with a rescue button, bringing him back before a vacuum creature sucks away the whole Sea of Monsters and itself, leaving the group in Sea of Nothing. Crash landing, they meet Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D., a short and studious creature ("Nowhere Man"). Boob repairs the submarine's tiny motor, and Ringo invites him to join them. They arrive at the Foothills of the Headlands ("Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds"), where they are accidentally separated from the submarine and Fred. They then find themselves in the Sea of Holes, where Jeremy is kidnapped by a Blue Meanie, and Ringo picks up the hole that Jeremy was previously stuck in and puts it in his pocket. Then when he steps on a green hole, it turns into the Sea of Green, which brings the group to Pepperland.
Reuniting with Young Fred and reviving the apple-bonked Lord Mayor, they look upon Pepperland's now-miserable, grey landscape. The Beatles dress up as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, steal some instruments, and rally the land to rebellion ("Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "With A Little Help From My Friends"). The Chief Blue Meanie retaliates by sending out the Dreadful Flying Glove, which John defeats ("All You Need Is Love"). Pepperland is restored to colour as its residents revive and flowers re-bloom. Ringo uses the hole in his pocket to release the Lonely Hearts Club Band, and they join the Beatles in combating the Meanies' multi-headed dog ("Hey Bulldog"). Ringo then rescues Jeremy, who performs some "transformation magic" on the Chief Blue Meanie, causing the Meanie to bloom roses and sadly concede defeat. John extends an offer of friendship, and the Chief Blue Meanie has a change of heart, sheds a tear and accepts, confessing that he is related to the Bluebird of Happiness. The Beatles, the Blue Meanies and the Pepperlandians then celebrate their new peace and love ("It's All Too Much").
The film ends with a segment featuring the real Beatles, who playfully show their souvenirs from their journey: George has the submarine's motor, Paul has "a little 'love'," and Ringo has "half a hole" in his pocket (having apparently given the other half to Jeremy, though Paul recommends to "fix it to keep his mind from wandering"). John, looking through a telescope, tells the group, and the audience, that "newer and bluer Meanies have been sighted within the vicinity of this theatre" and that everyone will need to sing to ensure the audience escapes. The Beatles then lead the audience in a sing along to "All Together Now", which ends with translations of the song's title in various languages appearing in sequence on the screen.
Cast
Voice cast The Beatles as The Beatles (singing voice) (as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) Paul Angelis as Opening Narrator / The Chief Blue Meanie / Ringo Starr / George Harrison (additional dialogue) John Clive as John Lennon Dick Emery as Max / Lord Mayor / Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D. Geoffrey Hughes as Paul McCartney (as Geoff Hughes) Lance Percival as "Young / Old" Fred Peter Batten as George Harrison (uncredited)
Voice cast notes According to the special features section of the Yellow Submarine home media release, Peter Batten provided the voice of George for about the first half of the film. Before he finished recording for the film, he was discovered to be a deserter from the British Army of the Rhine in West Germany, and was arrested. His part was completed by Angelis, who was also the voice of Ringo and the Chief Blue Meanie. Percival also provided the voices of Paul and Ringo for the United States ABC TV cartoon series The Beatles. As in their previous films, the animated Beatles are fictionalised versions of themselves. They live alone together in a large house in Liverpool, despite their real-life counterparts by then being married, having children, or living on their own. They are referred to only by their first names; “Beatles” is spoken only once, by Paul when he shouts “Beatles to Battle!”
Live-action
George Harrison as himself (uncredited) John Lennon as himself (uncredited) Paul McCartney as himself (uncredited) Ringo Starr as himself (uncredited)
Production Development The idea for the film came from Al Brodax, who had previously produced the animated series The Beatles. Animation was commissioned from the London-based studio TVC by the film division of the American publisher King Features Syndicate, which had previously collaborated with Brodax on the series. The film was also financed and distributed by the American major studio United Artists, which had distributed the Beatles' two previous films, A Hard Day's Night (1964) and Help! (1965), both directed by Richard Lester. Brodax envisioned the film as a straightforward children's movie, similar to the earlier animated series, but director George Dunning and his team wanted to create a more artistically ambitious film that would also appeal to an adult audience.
The Beatles were not enthusiastic about participating in a new motion picture, having been dissatisfied with their second feature film, Help!, and the animated series, and were wary of having the film made by the same team. However, they saw an animated film as a favourable way to complete their commitment to United Artists for a third film. Many fans have assumed that the cartoon did not meet the contract's requirements, since a later live action movie was produced, but the documentary film Let It Be (1970) was not connected to the original three-picture deal.
George Martin recalled, “The Beatles were against the idea from the beginning. The Beatles clearly thought it was going to be yet another rip-off and wanted nothing to do with it. They loathed the idea of the cartoon characters because they had visions of Popeye or this kind of quite crude animation.” George Harrison said, “The thing I like the most about the movie was that we didn’t really have anything to do with it.” John Lennon reportedly remarked, “Nothing’s too good for the film. So that’s what we’ll give them—nothing!” He also insisted that any song considered substandard would be given to the film. Nevertheless, the Beatles made occasional visits during production, particularly Paul McCartney, who was especially interested in animation.
Asked about the film's creative team, John Lennon called the artists “gross animals”, except for Heinz Edelmann, whom he praised as “the guy who drew the painting”. He also accused them of using the Beatles' ideas without credit, including the Blue Meanies, which he claimed as his own creation, as well as the machine that sucks people up and the Flying Glove. Lennon was further irritated by the artists attending rehearsals at Abbey Road Studios to observe the Beatles.
The Beatles make a live-action cameo appearance in the final scene, which was filmed on 25 January 1968, shortly before the band's trip to India. This was done primarily to fulfil their contractual obligation to United Artists to actually appear in the film. The cameo was originally intended to feature a post-production psychedelic background and effects, but because of time and budget constraints, a blank, black background remained in the final film. While Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney still looked the same as their animated counterparts, John Lennon's and George 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 mutton-chop sideburns.
The original story was written by Lee Minoff, based on the song by Lennon and McCartney, and the screenplay was penned by four collaborators including Erich Segal. Harrison's character's recurring line "It's all in the mind" is taken from The Goon Show and was also said by John in The Beatles animated series in the episode "Strawberry Fields".
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. Nonetheless, the film still presents a modern-day fairy tale representing the values of its intended hippie audience.
The dialogue is littered with puns, double entendres and Beatles in-jokes. In the DVD commentary track, production supervisor John Coates states that many of these lines were written by Liverpudlian poet Roger McGough (who, coincidentally at that time, was married to Thelma Pickles, a former girlfriend of both Lennon and McCartney), though he received no credit in the film.
In the DVD commentary track, Coates states that the Meanies were always intended to be coloured blue. However, background supervisor Millicent McMillan recalls that 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. Coates acknowledges in the commentary that the "Are you Bluish? You don't look Bluish" joke in the film is a pun on the then-contemporary expression "You don't look Jewish", but that it was not intended to be derogatory. It was a reference to how most villains in movies were played by Jewish actors.
Animation