Movie Notes: Yellow Submarine

March 16th, 2008

Yellow Submarine

= 4 stars

Starring The Beatles (sort of)
Directed by George Dunning, Dick Emery, Dennis Abey

Yes, Yellow Submarine is rather thin on plot, but that’s irrelevant. It aims to capture the spirit of the Beatles during a pivotal point in time, the late ’60s, when it seemed the power of the people could actually make a difference, and everyone was trying to escape from the past, while unsure of the destination. Crazy things were going on in art, music, and film, as if their societal influence was undeniable.

Therefore it’s a bit backwards that the future the ’60s strove for feels condemned to the past. Nothing in The Yellow Submarine
seems particularly modern or “Way Out”. But the ambition is palpable - that the movie pushed the envelope, paving the way for music videos, adult cartoons, and serious music.

And it’s ironic that the Beatles didn’t have much to do with the movie. They had just come off the widely panned Magical Mystery Tour and still owed United Artists one more film after A Hard Day’s Night and Help. Yellow Submarine was produced independently by producer Al Brodax and a team of animators. A few ideas as well as the songs came from the Beatles’ mouths themselves, but pretty much all of the visuals were “Beatle inspired.” Maybe it’s a testament to inspirational power of the Beatles’ music that the film seems to bear their genius.

There are some great songs with inventive visuals. The Nowhere Man sequence is a personal favorite, as are the sequences featuring Eleanor Rigby and Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds. One realizes how imaginative and colorful the Beatle’s lyrics are when backed by colorful, far-out cartoons.

Unfortunately, many of the songs written specifically for the film aren’t so good. All Together Now is the best, with Hey Bulldog coming an easy second. But then we get the truly confusing throwaways Only a Northern Song and All Too Much. In both, George chants away as in Blue Jay Way, with the other Beatles throwing in every pot-induced sound imaginable, hoping something will stick. But for these weaker songs, the animators compensated with trippier and stronger, mind-blowing graphics. The Only a Northern Song sequence features color-simplified illustrations that resemble today’s web graphics, paired with a truly retro oscilloscope wiggle. It’s a sixties-style iTunes visualizer.

Yellow Submarine is a scrapbook of what was new in the art-world at the time, from Warhol’s Pop Art to Pushpin Studios advertising. It’s a pastiche that feels had me wonder if everyone was stoned and riding on a creative stream of consciousness. But I suppose, that was the whole point, that by being true to feelings, minds would be blown and society would improve. And that hope certainly produced some still-inspiring art, so “they” weren’t completely wrong about changing the world.

IMDB: Yellow Submarine
Wikipedia: Yellow Submarine
Rotten Tomatoes: Yellow Submarine 95%