Yellow Submarine

Yellow Submarine
Airdate	October 29, 1972
Written by	Lee Minoff, Jack Mendelsohn, Erich Segal, Al Brodax
Directed by	George Dunning (overall supervision), Jack Stokes, Bob Balser (animation directors)
Network	CBS
Style	87-minute animated musical
Company	Apple Films, The Hearst Corporation (King Features division), Subafilms Ltd., TVC London
Origin	Great Britain

Yellow Submarine (MPAA rating "G") is an animated musical made in Great Britain starring cartoon versions of The Beatles, based on a song that first appeared on their 1966 album Revolver. It first premiered in Great Britain in July 1968 and then in the United States in November 1968. It made its television premiere October 29, 1972 on CBS and was screened again on July 5, 1974 and July 4, 1975 before going into syndicated runs.

Plot Overview

Once upon a time (or maybe twice), an unearthly paradise 80,000 leagues beneath the sea called Pepperland existed. It was a bright, colorful land that enjoyed music, an enjoyment that a group of creatures--the Blue Meanies--hated. The Chief Blue Meanie sends his hordes (consisting of Apple Bonkers, Butterfly Stompers, Hidden Persuaders, Countdown Clowns, and the dreaded Flying Glove) to stomp out and "ob-blue-terate" the landscape. The Lord Mayor sends an old salt named Old Fred (he calls him "Young Fred") to seek help in the vessel that the founding fathers used to found the land--the Yellow Submarine.

Upon landing in Liverpool, Old Fred first encounters Ringo who is touched by his story, and later in a rather surrealist house, they round up John, Paul and George. Old Fred and the Beatles take off in the submarine where they traverse through the Sea of Time (where they regress to infancy then grow older), the Sea of Science, the Sea of Monsters (where Ringo gets lost then rescued), the Sea of Nowhere (where they encounter Jeremy Hilary Boob, Ph. D., the "Nowhere Man"), Phrenology (where the Sub takes off without the Beatles and the Boob), Holes (the gateway to Pepperland--the Boob is suddenly kidnapped), and finally they arrive in Pepperland. It is rent asunder by the Meanies. Old Fred arrives with the Sub and the boys revive the Lord Mayor (knocked cold by Bonker apples). The Lord Mayor sees the boys as the exact lookalikes of Sgt. Pepper's band, so he entreats them to impersonate them and rally the land to rebellion.

The Beatles carefully infiltrate to Meanie compound and locate the tower where the instruments and uniforms are kept. Once in disguise, they sneak through the hordes of Meanies and begin singing their way through reviving Pepperland's good people. The Chief Blue Meanie is angered and sends his Flying Glove to do his worst. The Glove's worst isn't enough as John's "All You Need Is Love" comes out word for word and overcomes the beast. The boys discover Sgt. Pepper's band in a bowl of blue glass (Ringo: "Must be from Kentucky") and they release them with a hole Ringo took from the Sea of Holes. Ringo finds and rescues the Boob, who finds the Chief Blue Meanie sobbing over the turn of events before. The Boob is about to be turned into Boob-burger until he reads a passage from a book that causes pink carnations to grow all around the Chief, who runs into the hills with his minions. John entreats the Meanies to join the Pepperlanders, and eventually they do (Chief: "I never admitted it before, but my cousin is the Bluebird of Happiness.") After a splashy celebration, the real Beatles appear to alert patrons that singing will stave off any future Meanie attacks.

Trivia

In the song, the incidental voices during the bridge and backing vocals on the final refrain were by the Rolling Stones.

Western Publishing Company's comic book arm Gold Key published an adaptation of Yellow Submarine in 1969, which was scripted by Paul S. Newman. It followed the basic premise of the movie but its continuity and storyline were completely different as it was derived from an earlier script for the film. A more faithful comic adaptation was being developed in the late 1990s (as the DVD re-release was coming out) but Apple nixed it. Bongo Comics published an official adaptation in 2018 for the movie's 50th anniversary. Bill Morrison wrote and drew it.

Lance Percival, the voice of Old Fred, was the voice of Paul and Ringo in The Beatles cartoon show on ABC.

John Clive, the voice of John in Submarine, tells of how he was in Los Angeles assisting in a movie production the night that John Lennon was killed in New York City on December 8, 1980. His daughter Hannah, then 7 years old and who absolutely loved the film, was grief stricken upon thinking it was her dad who was dead. Clive spent fifteen minutes on the phone trying convince Hannah he was still alive.

Peter Batten was the first voice of George. But Paul Angelis (Ringo and the Chief Blue Meanie) replaced Batten after he was arrested on military desertion charges.

Behind the Scenes

The Beatles had a three-picture commitment to United Artists, they first thought that having an animated film would fulfill that commitment. After the stinging of criticism from their TV special "Magical Mystery Tour," they wanted to disassociate themselves with Yellow Submarine, but after seeing the finished product, they got excited and chose to do the live ending. Paul still embraces the film ("It's witty, it's clever, and it's trippy") as have George (up till his death in 2001) and Ringo. George went so far as to say the voice artists for the film did a better job at voicing the group than the group themselves could have.

The film has a 95% score at Rotten Tomatoes.

The film was originally going to be titled "All You Need Is Love." The Beatles rejected it as it sounded too generic to be a movie title. Ringo suggested Yellow Submarine (which he sang on the recording itself) as, in his words, "you can put anything in a submarine."

Lee Minoff did the story outline and then was chosen to write a screenplay. United Artists rejected it as they did a screenplay by Ernie Pintoff. King Features executive producer Al Brodax turned to Jack Mendelsohn, who was working at Hanna-Barbera, and upon taking a leave of absence he turned out an accepted screenplay in three weeks. (Mendelsohn was a scripter for The Beatles cartoon show). At that point, Brodax brought in Erich Segal (who penned the novel "Love Story") to punch up the screenplay. From that point, Segal was the guy who had been taking the credit for writing the screenplay since he was with Brodax at the time and the last man on the screenplay. (Brodax's name is in the credits under screenplay because animated films do not fall under the same jurisdiction as live films when it comes to credits, allowing producers to put in whoever they want.) Segal relates that he didn't know anything about what Sgt. Pepper was about, and how he was hesitant about writing for a cartoon until Brodax's price was right. Liverpool poet Roger McGough contributed most of the Beatles’ dialogue; he was not credited. Heinz Edelmann, the movie’s designer, says there was never just one script—more like 20.

George Dunning, who is the credited director, had already animated the beginning and ending. He simply told Jack Mendelsohn to write everything in between and for Jack Stokes and Bob Balser (animation directors) to fill in the visuals from those points.

The four songs new to Submarine--"All Together Now," "Only A Northern Song," "Hey Bulldog" and "It's All Too Much," all recorded during the Sgt. Pepper sessions--were delivered via taxi from EMI studios to Heinz Edelmann at TVC-London with a note from John Lennon that read "Can you use any of these?"

CBS's screenings of the movie were never kind--it was chopped to ribbons to accommodate a 90-minute broadcast window (the "Only a Northern Song" segment was eliminated altogether). Syndicated screenings generally showed the entire film.

The first home movie release was on VHS and LaserDisc in 1987 by MGM/United Artists. A dispute between MGM and UA ran till 1999 when a new, cleaned-up edition was made ready for DVD and VHS release. In the 1999 re-release, the "Hey Bulldog" segment (where the Beatles and Sgt. Pepper's band flummox the Meanies' multi-headed dog) and other footage not used in the American 1968 release were restored. George, Paul and Ringo were said to have been very impressed with the film's new 5:1 Dolby stereo remix.

Robert Zemeckis had been prepping a motion-capture remake of Yellow Submarine for a summer 2012 release but Disney, which was to have backed and released it, has scuttled the movie citing budget and deadline issues. The poor box office showing of Zemeckis' 2011 feature Mars Needs Moms was also cited. The film (now owned by Apple) was re-released to selected theaters on May 10, 2012 for a special engagement. It was released on DVD (second DVD release) and Blu-ray on June 5, 2012. The film had another theatrical engagement in July 2018 in commemoration of its 50th anniversary.

Songs from the Movie

• Yellow Submarine
• Eleanor Rigby
• Love You To (opening instrumentals only)
• A Day in the Life (ending instrumentals only)
• All Together Now
• When I'm Sixty-Four
• Only a Northern Song
• Nowhere Man
• Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
• Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
• With a Little Help from My Friends (partial)
• All You Need Is Love (abridged)
• Baby, You're a Rich Man (partial)
• Hey Bulldog (unused in 1968 release; restored in 1999)
• It's All Too Much (abridged)
• All Together Now (reprise)

A snatch of "Think for Yourself" was used in the film, as such the song itself was included in the 1999 CD Yellow Submarine Songtrack.

The following background musical orchestrations by George Martin were included in the 1969 LP release:

• Pepperland
• Sea of Time/Sea of Holes
• Sea of Monsters
• March of the Meanies
• Pepperland Laid Waste
• Yellow Submarine in Pepperland

Quotes

• George: It's all in the mind.

(John actually used the line first in the 1967 TV cartoon "Strawberry Fields." Before that, it was a catch phrase on the BBC comedy The Goon Show.)

• John: Nothing is Beatle-proof.
• Ringo: Liverpool can be a lonely place on a Saturday night...but this is only Thursday morning.
• The Boob: Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo. So little time, so much to know.
• Chief Blue Meanie: Pepperland is a tickle of joy on the blue belly of the universe. It must be scratched.

DVD Release

Title	Release Date	#
Yellow Submarine (remastered)	September 14, 1999	1
Yellow Submarine (remastered for Blu-Ray and DVD)	June 5, 2012	1

The movie was originally released on VHS and LaserDisc on October 20, 1987.

Awards and Accolades

• Nominated for 1969 Best Dramatic Presentation Hugo Award.
• Winner of 1968 New York Film Critics Circle Award.
• Nominated for 1970 Grammy for Best Original Score Written for Television or Motion Picture.
• 95% score at Rotten Tomatoes.