Yellow Submarine

Yellow Submarine
November 13, 1968
Apple Films
Musical, Fantasy
DVD
B

It's fair to say I grew up with this movie, which is just a few months younger than I am.  Not only was it on TV pretty often, but its influence was felt all over early '70s American children's television, from the Children's Television Workshop to the Krofft brothers to Hanna-Barbera and beyond.  (Not to mention my favorite Huey Lewis video, for "Heart & Soul.")  That TV version of the film (and apparently any copy outside the British premiere) was missing my favorite song of the soundtrack, "Hey, Bulldog," although I finally got to see it when the movie was rereleased to theaters in the late '90s (and of course is on the DVD).  It's obviously hard for me to be any more objective about this movie than about The Wizard of Oz, although I do think, one, it's not a children's movie per se (and not just because it's what they would've called a "head movie" in the '60s), and, two, it's got flaws that I saw even as a teenager.

To begin with, the writing could be sharper.  Yes, there are some funny lines, mostly by or about Ringo.  But the script is as meandering as the sub's journey.  You think that it's over and that good has triumphed, but, no, not quite yet.  Also, the voice characterisation isn't particularly strong.  If the Beatles didn't keep addressing each other by first name, you wouldn't be able to tell who's speaking if he's not onscreen.  (Again, Ringo is a partial exception.)  Pepperland is sort of bland, so it's hard to get too upset about its being conquered.  (And how ironic that the villains use green apples to "bonk" the Pepperites.)

Still, the movie remains a musical and visual delight.  The music represents more of the '66 to '67 period of the Beatles, but the flower-power era translates better to buoyant animation than the increasingly tense times of '68 and '69.  (Tense for both the Beatles and the world at large.)  There are no weak links in the songs, and I like how the dialogue and an occasional note will reference more, like Old Fred's cry for help.  If you can watch this movie without singing along (at least in your head), you might as well turn in your Beatles fan card.  As for the visuals, they're a mix of everything from Art Nouveau to Peter Max to Escher to I don't know what.  The "Eleanor Rigby" sequence, with its use of photography, is probably my favorite.  Many times during the songs, colors change, pulsating, which is as appealing to little kids as to, well, potheads.

Most important is the playfulness of the movie, not just in the humour-- it took me years to get Ringo's "lever-puller" pun-- but in the way it's as serious about whimsy as Lewis Carroll would be.  That I can have seen this movie so many times and still be surprised by random details shows that.  When the "real" Beatles show up at the end, none of them looking much like their cartoon counterparts, they're just as silly and exaggerated and, yes, animated.

Outdoing Cerberus and Fluffy by one head.