Yellow Submarine

How can I describe this film. Imagine taking LSD, weed and Marijuana all at the same time. Being a Saturday night, I believe half of you are stoned right now or half have a hangover from yesterday. Well, imagine that and then you decided to sneak into a low budget British animation studio and just for the hell of it, you made a film. It would be sober compared to this film (which is ironic considering the people who wrote this were sober). 

Based on some songs written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, Lee Minof and Erich Segal took ques also from contemporary writings of poet Roger McGough, included puns, double entendres, in-jokes and pop-culture references. Also included are an assortment of psychedelic rock hits including "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds", "All you need is love" and the title song "Yellow Submarine" (one of my personal favourites, if I do say so myself). Also prevalent are memorable characters, imaginative landscapes and locations and, apparently, social and political satire.

The plot, (yes, it actually has one that makes sense this time!), tells the tale of "Young Fred" sent from Pepperland to find help after an army of Blue Meanies invade. He comes across the Beatles and asks each one for their help. They agree and race back to Pepperland and save it's inhabitants for the dreaded Blue Meanies. Along the way the pick up Hitchhiker Jeremy Hillary Boop PhD. They journey through the sea of monsters, the sea of time, the sea of nothing and the sea of holes. It's all in your mind you know. After hi-jinks ensue, they battle the forces of the Meanies with the most important things in the world...(Acid?) no it's music and love.

I find this to be one of the trippiest films I have ever seen. Wild imagery, crazy characters and bizarre situations. And that is why many like me, love this film. It is just like a Beatles song integrated with the mad mindscape of miyazaki. The visuals, the humour (oh the humour, let me tell you, if you have ever seen a recording of the Beatles performing, seen them performing or watched A Hard Days Night, the film captures it perfectly with pinpoint precision) and the Beatles immortalized on film as cartoons. The film brought a whole new outlook on animation. It can be taken seriously and it can be adult orientated (not in the way you are thinking...mind like a sewer you've got) but it can be aimed at just the mature. By now the humour is quite tame and it can be viewed by pretty much anybody. The reason it has such a huge Cult following is because of it's distinct animation style, it look's as though each frame were drawn on paper, like pages of a book then flipped creating a flowing motion. All the characters have their own walk and persona. Paul is a young Beethoven, George is a deep, guru type and poor Ringo feels like a pair broken drum-sticks. Of course the other characters like Sam and Jeremy are a lot of fun, both are eccentric and over-the-top and so enjoyable to watch. For some unknown reason I always think of communism when I see the Blue Meanies (well that or the Joker off of Batman the animated Series). I think that would have been very apt. The non-conformity of a universal grayness in the environment, lack of appreciation for art or expression, etc, etc, etc. I mean there is such an atmosphere to this, everywhere feels exciting and dangerous, the characters are eccentric and quirky, the locations are vast and impressive and the music.

GOOD GOD! the music is among the best I have heard. My personal favorites are "Hey Bulldog" and "When I'm sixty-four". The song sequences are probably the opposite of The Prince of Egypt, less of expressing the characters feelings and more for just putting in the songs. But this only heralded the age of music videos and lead to greater creativity. Now of course I have two problems with the movie. One, like I said, the song sequences have little to no point except for a brief interlude of song, so you could probably skip a few, but they entertain so I recommend you to watch them. My other is that the Beatles had little involvement except for allowing the use of their songs and for cameos at the end. But by this point they were tired and just wanted to do music. Out of all the films with the Beatles name, this and Hard days night are my favourite. Is it for everybody? No, but fans of The Beatles and lovers of animation will love it. It is certainly better than many other movies about singers just to exploit their image for money (Ahem...Never say never...ahem..Justin Bieber...Ahem!), the animators and the studio took it seriously, so we took it seriously.

This video is owned by The Beatles. All rights to them.