Yellow Submarine

The Beatles: Yellow Submarine original movie poster

With The Beatles Yellow Submarine contracted to making a third movie for United Artists (after A Hard Day's Night & Help), they OK-ed Canadian George Dunning, the award winning animator, who'd also directed their US Beatlemania cartoon series for TV (presently unavailable), to hobble together a story linking together tracks from:

...as well as some unreleased ones that hadn't managed to make their way onto albums:

It's Only A Northern Song

"...It was at the point that I realized Dick James had conned me out of the copyrights for my own songs by offering to become my publisher. As an 18 or 19-year-old kid, I thought:Great, somebody's gonna publish my songs! but...it was just a blatant theft. By the time I realized what had happened...they were...making all this money out of (my) catalog...I wrote 'Only A Northern Song' as what we call a 'piss-take,' just to have a joke about it..." George Harrison 1999 (see Beatles quotes about The White Album, below)

It's All Too Much

"...I just wanted to write a rock 'n roll song about the whole psychedelic thing of the time:

Sail me on a silver sun
Where I know that I'm free
Show me that I'm everywhere
And get me home for tea

...(laughs) Because you'd trip out, you see, on all this stuff, and then whoops! You'd just be back having your evening cup of tea!..."

Hey Bulldog &

"...We now have an unreleased video of Hey Bulldog...When we were in the studio recording 'Bulldog,' apparently it was at a time when they needed some footage for...some other record (Lady Madonna), and a film crew came along and filmed us...But it was Neil Aspinall who found out that when you watched and listened to what the original thing was, we were recording 'Bulldog.' This was apparently the only time we were actually filmed recording something, so what Neil did was, he put (the unused footage) all back together again and put the 'Bulldog' soundtrack onto it, and there it was!..." George Harrison 1999 (see Beatles quotes about The White Album, below)

The Beatles: Hey Bulldog

All Together Now "...I enjoyed it when football crowds in the early days would sing 'All Together Now'..." John Lennon 1980 (see Beatles quotes about The White Album, below)

Yellow Submarine Trailer

What Dunning actually came up with was a minor masterpiece, a phantasmagorical acid, trippy feelgood story, which:

pitted good against evil, with The Beatles definitely being on the side of good
reinterpreted psychedelia, so threatening in 1967...as being understandable... especially when lived by cartoon Beatles &
somehow extended the Beatlemania myth by suggesting they were still a group, despite the distinctly SOLO feel of The White Album which had come out shortly before

How all this was done was by inviting viewers to The Yellow Submarine with The Beatles and be open to the then-state-of-the-art techniques used to create worlds upon worlds of cartoon Beatle music videos...at a time when there were no videos.

I'm sure you'll get an idea of what to expect from the videos so I won't bother to detail The Beatles adventures in Pepperland, other than to say:

Beware of the blue meanies!

The Yellow Submarine soundtrack album contained the tracks listed above, plus:

Yellow Submarine
All You Need Is Love &
George Martin's instrumental score. However, with the remastered version, Martin's score is gone and the other Beatles songs used in the Yellow Submarine film have been inserted, so it's all Beatles now!

Yellow Submarine DVD

"...Yellow Submarine depicts the conflict between the Blue Meanies (representing authoritarianism, be it Fascism, Communism, or whatever) and the peaceful residents of Pepperland. The Blue Meanies employ a means of weaponry to freeze the residents of Pepperland...(and)...ultimately the Beatles arrive to save the day..." Amazon reviewer Todd B. Frary

"...Director George Dunning's "Yellow Submarine" (1968) represents a landmark achievement in the history of animation. Like the Beatles' music, the film has a timeless quality. Though the Fab Four's association with the project certainly helped, it was the endless imagination of Dunning, designer Heinz Edelmann and numerous animators that propelled the film to remarkable visual heights..." Amazon reviewer Scott Rivers

"...The restoration of this film is incredible. It is a visual feast for the eyes with its vivid, intricate, original artwork- and the sound could not be better. Together they make perfect alchemy..." Amazon reviewer Oakshaman

While hardly being a mandatory purchase, the soundtrack does have its delights. It originally contained the tracks listed above, plus:

Yellow Submarine
All You Need Is Love &
George Martin's instrumental score. However, with the remastered version, Martin's score is gone and the other Beatles songs used in the Yellow Submarine film have been inserted, so it's all Beatles now. In fact, the album is called the songtrack, not the soundtrack!

Yellow Submarine songtrack

"...My kids grew up listening to this and still sing it 21 yrs later!..." Amazon reviewer Dennis "planet-d"

"...I'm not a sound engineer, but I know when something sounds better than the original, and THIS IS IT! Forget that they deleted all the 'filler' symphononic tracks of the original album and open your ears: all these tracks are worth buying especially if you already own the original versions... Amazon reviewer J. Jacob

"...My only concern lies in just how great the record sounds. For me, Yellow Submarine was the last CD I needed to complete my Beatles collection, a collection I had already completed in LP form. Now I am wondering if all the Beatles' recordings will be remastered. If they are, I fear that I am going end up buying them all over again..." Amazon reviewer Tom Schouweiler

Inside The Yellow Submarine book

introduction by George Martin & foreword by Yellow Submarine scriptwriter, Erich Segal

"...YS was a trailblazer opening new graphic directions for mainstream animation entertainment, just as the Beatles did musically.

Dr. Bob's book is far more than an excellent collection of remarkable first-person interviews, it sheds much needed light on many facets of the creative genius and innovative spirit involved in the film's creation, by a team of artists who, in the words of the late director, George Dunning, "Were brought together from all over the world and who seemed to be at a peak in their creative powers". (Chuck Jones/PBS 1980's memorium to George Dunning).

If you're at all interested in animation, its history, trends and processes--and particularly if you've wondered about the creative people involved in it's construction and launching, this book (and hopefully subsequent volumes yet to come!) is a 'Must Have' for your reference shelf; be it innovative animation or inspiring creativity..." Amazon reviewer Norman Drew