It was 50 years ago today that Pepperland fell into disarray. The Blue Meanies came to town, and not a song could be found. Old Fred manages to get away, to find some heroes to save the day. So, may we introduce to you, the trippiest Beatles adventure ever put to the screen with the Yellow Submarine Anniversary Restoration!
The Beatles on-screen escapades range from the iconic (A Hard Day’s Night) to the shambolic (Help!). The band themselves were not too keen on starring in another live-action adventure following their experience on Richard Lester’s Help!. But, contractual obligations being as they are, they still had to produce another film for United Artists. Animation was the answer (albeit with a quick live action appearance at the end to ensure their contract was fulfilled), and the resulting film is one of the more outlandish animated offerings of the 60’s, still as visually arresting and mind-boggling as it was 50 years ago.
There’s very little plot driving Yellow Submarine. The Fab Four go on a journey aboard a Yellow Submarine to save Pepperland from the music-hating Blue Meanies. That journey is used as an excuse to embark upon a series of far-out musical sequences set to some of your favourite Beatles tracks. Thankfully, these sequences carry with them a fascinating surreal artistry, with many of the film’s sequences using a variety of different art forms to bring to life Beatles tracks in a manner which sets your imagination on fire.
The film brings together a vast team of artists to bring to life these musical sequences, hitting a sense of surrealism that brings to mind the lunacy of Terry Gilliam’s animated segments found within the halls of Monty Python not too long after. The stand-out sequence within Yellow Submarine has to be the early ‘Eleanor Rigby’ sequence, designed by Charlie Jenkins (who was a key animation director across a number of the segments). It is a deeply melancholic, multi-image sequence that is probably the film at its most artistically profound. The rest of the film has a brighter, more hyper-surreal style, inspired by the creative direction of Heinz Edelmann, offering a stark contrast to other animation titles from the 60’s, beckoning in an age of animation that wasn’t just targeted towards children and families.
Beyond that, the sequences have a tendency to be a little forced, a little gratuitous, but it gives a chance to listen to a lot of exceptional Beatles tracks set to some mind-bending, occasionally frightening, visuals. ‘When I’m 64’ plays over a journey through the Sea of Time, ‘Nowhere Man’ accompanies a meeting with a strange being in the Sea of Nothing, while ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’ is sung at the Foothills of the Headlands, causing a series of sneezes that leads the band to their final destination in Pepperland, battling the Blue Meanies with ‘All You Need Is Love’. It may all be a little episodic, occasionally a little plodding, but for any Beatles fan, it is a joy to listen to some of the most iconic tracks set against imagery that is impossible to predict.
It is not hard to see why Yellow Submarine is adored. It comes to represent one of the more mainstream forms of 1960’s psychedelic pop-culture, blurring the lines of who exactly the target audience is while offering a unique experience in which to devour the music of The Beatles. It’s like diving into a surrealist pop-up book that just so happens to have a Beatles soundtrack accompanying it; it’s bonkers, bizarre and in love with its own creative spirit. That creative spark and joy is infectious, making Yellow Submarine a trip well worth taking with the brand new restoration on screens July 8th, ensuring that the film has never looked or sounded better. It is an absolute must for Beatles fans, so make sure you don’t miss the ride!
