YELLOW SUBMARINE 1968 BEATLES IN PEPPERLAND NOTHING IS REAL PSYCHEDELIC ANIMATED FANTASY DVD-R!

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. For the first time in screen history, extremely real and enormously famous people were going to be animated into a feature film. Initial press reports stated that the Beatles themselves would provide their own character voices.[5] 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 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. 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 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, who along with such contemporaries as Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast pioneered the psychedelic style for which Max later became famous. Animators Robert Balser and Jack Stokes were hired as the film’s animation directors. 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. The ever-shifting visual style of The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine was a deliberate creative choice by Art Director Heinz Edelmann. To prevent the film from feeling like a standard cartoon, Edelmann decided to constantly switch up the visual techniques and art direction every five minutes to keep the audience engaged. To complete the deadline, students from local London art colleges were brought in to do night shifts. 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 Beatles’ animated personas were based on their appearance during the Sgt Pepper‘s press party at manager 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. In addition to the 1966 title song “Yellow Submarine“, several complete or excerpted songs, four previously unreleased, were used in the film. The songs included “All Together Now“, “Eleanor Rigby“, “It’s All Too Much“, “Baby, You’re a Rich Man” (which had first appeared as the B-side to “All You Need Is Love” in July 1967), “Only a Northern Song” (originally recorded during sessions for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band) and “Hey Bulldog“. Written by Lennon, this last track was cut from the film before it opened in the US. “Hey Bulldog” was restored for the US theatrical and home video reissue in 1999. The songs in the film were chosen for being best suited to animate in the animation style. The film’s instrumental music was an orchestral score composed and arranged by George Martin. One of the film’s cues, heard after the main title credits, was originally recorded during sessions for “Good Night“. Of all the Beatles films released by United Artists, Yellow Submarine had been the only one to which UA retained the rights, leading up to its purchase by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1981. In 2005, Sony Pictures Entertainment led a consortium that purchased MGM and UA. SPE handled theatrical distribution for MGM until 2012. 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment was responsible for home video distribution when the most recent home video release went out of print until 30 June 2020. For the 50th anniversary of the movie in 2018, it was screened in the UK and Ireland for one day on 8 July 2018, and in the US from 8 July 2018. Amazon negotiated exclusive streaming rights to the film via its Prime Video service, starting 13 July 2018 in the UK, the US, Canada, Germany, Spain, France and Italy under a deal with Apple Corps. The companies declined to disclose the length of Amazon’s exclusive rights.