"Once upon a time, or maybe twice, there was an unearthly
    paradise called Pepperland..."
 

     In this Pop Art extravaganza, Captain Fred teams up with animated versions
     of The Beatles to take us on a Magical Mystery Tour onboard the aquatic
     vessel of the title track. Their quest takes them through the psychedelic
     seas of Tim, Science, Monsters and Holes where they befriend Jeremy Hillary
     Boob PhD - The Nowhere Man - before they arrive at Pepperland for a
     showdown with the tyrannous Blue Meanies...

     "Yellow Submarine" was the first animated feature to star real people in
     animated form. It famously went into production without a final script, or a
     final storyboard. Pre-production and development lasted 13 months,
     running through 14 different script drafts and utilizing 40 animators and
     140 technical staff. The actual shooting period was then condensed
     into a frantic 11 month schedule.

     Producer Al Brodax had previously produced 40 episodes of ABC's Beatles
     TV series when he got the greenlight for the feature. German poster artist
     Heinz Edelmann was brought in to create the film's amazing Pop Art look,
     which incorporated the influences of 60s artists Andy Warhol, Peter Blake,
     photographer Richard Avedon and surrealist supremos Magritt and Salvador Dali.
     Look closely during the "Eleanor Rigby" sequence and you'll see photos of the
     production team incorporated into the scene, including Al Brodax (man with pipe),
     Dunning and Edelman (men with umbrellas), Alison De Vere (girl taking a snapshot)
     and even the landlord of the crew's favourite pub (man in phone box, man
     with leaping dog).

       

     There are 12 Beatles songs in the film, including 4 specially written for the
     soundtrack : "It's all too Much", "Only a Northern Song", "Altogether Now"
     and "Hey Bulldog" - the latter was actually edited from the initial release, and
     only reinstated in recent years. 

     The film has recently experienced a major revival on the back of a 30th anniversary
     re-release. A splendid DVD is available, stuffed with extras, including the
     informative making-of documentary "The Mod Odyssey", McFarlane Toys have
     produced 2 excellent series of collectible figures, plus there are new china tea
     sets, cookie jars and much more.
       
     "Yellow Submarine" remains a technical marvel. It melds live-action photography
     with animation, reinvents the technique of rotoscoping, experiments with an array
     of lens and filter effects, toys with the rules of pacing and narrative and produces
     a glorious animated rainbow of tricks and delights which still influence today.
     It's a Pop Art "Fantasia", if you will, and it arguably takes the art of animated
     expression into a more exploratory realm than even Uncle Walt...

 

     In the news
   
    The Hound: April 2004
     Yellow Submarine picture book forthcoming...

 

     Yellow Submarine on DVD

     Yellow Submarine
                Region 2 / MGM / February 2000

     Yellow Submarine
                Region 1 / MGM / September 1999

 

     director:                 George Dunning
    producer:               Al Brodax
    line producer:         John Coates
    design:                   Heinz Edelmann
    background sup:     Alison De Vere
    writers:                  Lee Minoff and Al Brodax
                                 Jack Mendelsohn and Erich Segal
                                 from an original story by Lee Minoff
                                 based upon a song by John Lennon
                                 and Paul McCartney
    mus. dir:                George Martin
    starring:                Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
    voices:                  John Clive (John)
                                 Geoffrey Hughes (Paul)
                                 Peter Batten (George)
                                 Paul Angelis (Ringo, Chief Blue Meanie)
                                 Dick Emery (Lord Mayor, Nowhere Man, Max)
                                 Lance Percival (Old Fred) 

 

      On the web


      Animation World
      There are lots of film reviews out there on the Great WWW, so I'll skip those
      and suggest this fine article from Animation World Magazine in 1998. It's
      text-only, but features some interesting reminiscences before detailing the
      on-going histories of the film's crew...