Submarine Qartulad
Anais Wachowski
Yellow Submarine (also known as The Beatles: Yellow Submarine) is a 1968 animated jukebox musical fantasy adventure comedy film inspired by the music of the Beatles, directed by animation producer George Dunning, and produced by United Artists and King Features Syndicate. Initial press reports stated that the Beatles themselves would provide their own character voices.[6] 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, in contrast to the Beatles' previous film venture Magical Mystery Tour. Pixar co-founder and former chief creative officer John Lasseter has credited the film with generating wider interest in animation as a serious art form, it had been generally considered a children's medium at the time.[7] Time commented that it "turned into a smash hit, delighting adolescents and aesthetes alike".[8] Half a century after its release, it is still regarded as a landmark of animation.[9]
Pepperland is a cheerful, 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)[10] 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 Fred to get help. The Apple Bonkers "bonk" the Mayor with several large apples as Fred takes off in the Yellow Submarine. He travels to Liverpool, 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 Old Fred, and journey with him back to Pepperland in the submarine. In the Sea of Nothing, they meet Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D., a short and studious creature. Ringo invites the Boob to join them aboard the submarine. They arrive at the Foothills of the Headlands, where they are accidentally separated from the submarine and Fred. They then find themselves in the Sea of Holes, where Ringo picks up a hole and puts it in his pocket. Jeremy is kidnapped by a Blue Meanie, and the group finds their way to Pepperland.
Reuniting with Old 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 and steal some instruments. The four rally the land to rebellion. The Chief Blue Meanie retaliates by sending out the Dreadful Flying Glove, which John defeats. 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. 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 and accepts, confessing that he is related to the Bluebird of Happiness.
We then see the real Beatles, who playfully show us their souvenirs. 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). Ringo points out John looking through a telescope, which prompts Paul to ask what he sees. John replies that "newer and bluer Meanies have been sighted within the vicinity of this theatre" and claims "there is only one way to go out.... Singing!" There is a short reprise of "All Together Now", which ends with translations of the song's title in various languages appearing in sequence on the screen.
The Beatles were not enthusiastic about participating in a new motion picture, having been dissatisfied with their second feature film, Help! (1965), directed by Richard Lester. 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, but the documentary film Let It Be (1970) was not connected to the original three-picture deal.[12]
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 Starr and McCartney still looked the same as their animated counterparts, Lennon's and 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 John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and the screenplay was penned by four collaborators including Erich Segal. George Harrison's character's recurring line "It's all in the mind" is taken from The Goon Show.
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, 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, 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.[13] 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.
The Beatles' animated personas were based on their appearance during the Sgt Pepper's press party at Brian Epstein's house, on 19 May 1967. The film also includes several references to songs not included in the soundtrack, including "A Day in the Life," the lyrics of which are referenced in the "Sea of Holes" scene; the orchestral breaks earlier in the film are also taken from the song.
American animators Robert Balser and Jack Stokes were hired as the film's animation directors.[14][15] Charlie Jenkins, one of the film's key creative directors, was responsible for the entire "Eleanor Rigby" sequence, as well as the submarine journey from Liverpool, through London, to splashdown. Jenkins also was responsible for "Only a Northern Song" in the Sea of Science, plus much of the multi-image sequences. A large crew of skilled animators, including (in alphabetical order) Alan Ball, Ron Campbell, John Challis, Hester Coblentz, Geoff Collins, Rich Cox, Duane Crowther, Tony Cuthbert, Malcolm Draper, Paul Driessen, Cam Ford, Norm Drew, Tom Halley, Dick Horne, Arthur Humberstone, Dennis Hunt, Greg Irons, Dianne Jackson, Anne Jolliffe, Dave Livesey, Reg Lodge, Geoff Loynes, Lawrence Moorcroft, Ted Percival, Mike Pocock, Gerald Potterton, and Peter Tupy, were responsible for bringing the animated Beatles to life. The background work was executed by artists under the direction of Alison de Vere and Millicent McMillan, who were both background supervisors. Ted Lewis and Chris Miles were responsible for animation cleanup.
George Dunning, who also worked on the Beatles cartoon series, was the overall director for the film, supervising over 200 artists for 11 months. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was Dunning's idea, which he turned over to Bill Sewell, who delivered more than thirty minutes of rotoscoped images. By that time, Dunning was unavailable, and Bob Balser, with the help of Arne Gustafson, edited the material to its sequence length in the film.
The animation design of Yellow Submarine has sometimes been incorrectly attributed to famous psychedelic pop art artist of the era Peter Max, as his art style greatly resembles the style used in the film, but the film's art director was in fact Heinz Edelmann. Edelmann, along with such contemporaries as Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast, pioneered the psychedelic style for which Max would later become famous, but according to Edelmann and producer Al Brodax, as quoted in the book Inside the Yellow Submarine by Hieronimus and Cortner, Max had nothing to do with the production of Yellow Submarine.[16]
Edelmann's surreal visual style contrasts greatly with the efforts of Walt Disney Animation Studios and other animated Hollywood films that had been previously released at the time (a fact noted by Pauline Kael in her positive review of the film[17]). The film uses a style of limited animation. It also paved the way for Terry Gilliam's animations for Do Not Adjust Your Set and Monty Python's Flying Circus (particularly the Eleanor Rigby sequence), as well as the Schoolhouse Rock vignettes for ABC and similar-looking animation in early seasons of Sesame Street and The Electric Company. (Only one of the animation staff of Yellow Submarine, Ron Campbell, contributed subsequent animation to Children's Television Workshop.)
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