User reviews

Over 35 years later, this is still an innovative animated film: colorful, clever and different. In fact, you'd have to look hard to find a more colorful film ever made.

The Beatles characters are fun, spouting a number of good puns and inside jokes concerning lyrics from some of their past songs. The bad guys here, the "Blue Meanies," are also fun to watch and really different from anything you've seen.

This is wild stuff which can appeal to adults even more than kids. The only improvement I would have made would have been to shorten it a bit. Even at a fairly short 90 minutes, some could have been trimmed.

The DVD is fine, except for the last 30 minutes when it gets grainy. However, the 5.1 surround sound more than makes up for that, affording the viewer to hear all these famous Beatles songs in a better format that surrounds you as a CD could never do.

I consider myself fortunate to have seen "Yellow Submarine" in London right after its world premiere in July 1968. I was a young teenager at the time, and my father had brought my sister, brother, and me to Europe for our first visit. The picture was showing at a large cinema called the London Pavilion in the heart of Piccadilly Circus, and The Beatles themselves had attended the opening just a few days before. It was great to see this movie on a big screen with a good sound system. We loved the music and vivid colors. When we saw it again in Boston a few months later, we were angry that the "Hey Bulldog" number and a few other bits had been cut to reduce viewing time. I think the "Eleanor Rigby" number is best. The animated montage shown during the "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" number was partly taken from the 1933 Hollywood musical "Dancing Lady" and in 2006 I saw this old film on Turner Classic Movies, instantly bringing back memories of "Yellow Submarine." The girl on the merry-go-round horse was none other than the leading actress Joan Crawford .... who was beautiful indeed in 1933, despite becoming a horror much later. No wonder John Lennon's character in the cartoon liked her so much in his psychedelic dream!

'Yellow Submarine' is a visual stunner and an extremely well-scripted movie. There are lots of Beatles in jokes, George's fascination with Indian music and John's fascination with scientific theories are lampooned, the Beatles' power is joked about ("Nothing's Beatle Proof!") and poor old Ringo is just plain made fun of. The movie itself is arguably the most psychedelic ever made. The Beatles' descent into Pepperland is just one psychedelic scene after the other. The animation isn't great, but everything is just done so strange and fun that it becomes absolutely irresistible. The colors, landscapes, and creatures are just really different and vivid and vibrant. The songs are fit in very, very well (although "Nowhere Man" is undoubtedly the best sequence). Overall this works great as a musical or as an animated film, and there's definitely a lot of priceless, subtle dialog. I would name it one of the top 20 animated films of all time, really. Definitely worth watching, just because there simply isn't any movie like it.

10/10

if this is a magic land, then this is Pepperland. If this is a magic film about this magic land, then this is Yellow Submarine. I believe, and many will agree with me on that, YS is the cleverest and most wonderful artifact of the hippie era. Here, you see no blatant drug references, no rude words, no endless acid space jams. No, here, the essence of the Flower Power time is represented as a smart, vivid, multicolored fairy tale. The idea that music may save the world and that the yellow submarine may be an escape from bleak, dull gray world is great. But even if we put this philosophizers aside, we view hilariously funny, colorful, brisk movie, with The Fab Four as a brilliant cast. And the lines! They are great, as when Ringo does exactly what the captain told him not to, or when The Nowhere Man starts his unforgettable gibberish, or when at the very end the real Bealtled appear, with all those quips and jokes. This is like a sweet, long, and very kind dream. May it never end!

The otherworldly Pepperland has been taken over by the ruthless music hating Blue Meanies. The people are immobilized and the colors drained. Old Fred escapes on the Yellow Submarine and recruits the members of The Beatles to bring back the music. They meet a strange creature named Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D. They arrive in Pepperland and revive the mayor. The guys go off to battle the Blue Meanies and their minions with music.

This is most noted for its psychedelic colors and imagery. The story is pretty basic with some great Beatles tones. It has the Blue Meanies and all the rest. The first hour is a meandering adventure in various crazy locations. The guys finally meet the Blue Meanies in the last half hour. It has some of the most imaginative vibrant visuals.

This could have been poorly done had it not been for a sense of quality that seemed to be a part of the Beatles and their people. This is the wonderful story of society that develops over time and come under threat. But it is not the usual "save the world" kind of thing but rather the creation of a world like we've never seen. There is a surreal being to it. It is colorful and engaging. Of course, what is most impressive is the integration of Beatles music into the plot. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a great example of psychedelic visuals. But overall, it is a movie that never bores. Its images are striking and there is an array of the most wonderful characters.

I should love Yellow Submarine. I'm a baby boomer (or at least I was born at the very tail end of the baby boom "generation"). I love the Beatles' music. I love surrealism. I love animation. Heck, I'm even an artist who paints primarily cartoonish, surreal works in bright colors. I'm a fan of the dada aesthetic. I like intentional silliness, absurdity and nonsense. In elementary school, I was obsessed with Edward Lear's Book of Nonsense. I'm still obsessed with Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Charlie and the Chocolate factory and so on. When I was a kid in the early 1970s, I can still vividly recall watching Yellow Submarine on broadcast television (I can't imagine NBC, ABC or CBS showing this during a prime time slot now) and being entranced by it. But I'm not sure if I've watched Yellow Submarine since then, and this time, it just didn't click with me.

The story, which initially grew out of the lyrics of Yellow Submarine before incorporating ideas from other Beatles songs, begins in Pepperland, which is supposedly located deep beneath the sea, even though nothing there appears wet or underwater. Everything is fine in Pepperland at first, but it's not long before the neighboring Blue Meanies decide to attack Pepperland (it could have been that they just lived in another section--maybe the "ghetto" of Pepperland), primarily with green apple "bombs", which has the result of "freezing" the Pepperland citizens and most importantly stopping their music. Fred (Lance Percival) manages to avoid the apple bombs--he's one of the only persons who remains unscathed, and upon the advice of the Mayor (Dick Emery), he sets off in Pepperland's Yellow Submarine to search for help in fighting the Blue Meanies. He ends up in Liverpool, and runs into Ringo first. Ringo recruits the rest of the Beatles, and they begin a series of misadventures as they work their way towards Pepperland in the Yellow Submarine to see what they can do.

The animation is interesting conceptually. It's strongly psychedelic, of course, which means that it has a surrealist, dreamlike, hallucinatory logic behind it. The colors are bright and garish (which is a good quality to me). Although the animation is nicely varied stylistically, it often resembles a cross between a Peter Max painting and Joan Miro's work from the late 1920s on, with elements of Roger Dean landscapes thrown in for good measure (the Dean element probably wasn't an influence but an example of synchrony unless Dean happened to work on the film some--he was in London, in art school, in 1967).

Given those characteristics, it's no surprise that I love the conceptual basis. However, the realization isn't quite so successful. The main sticking point for me, technically, was that I couldn't get over the glaringly obvious shortcuts continually taken to lessen the workload. There are segments that are just still pictures with maybe one tiny element animated. A lot of the animation consists of repeating segments. The "Nowhere Man" sequence is half-animated, the other half of the song is the first part run in reverse. Pieces of animation reappear throughout the film. Some scenes are just still pictures on a multi-plane system and motion arises only from the planes and camera moving at different rates and angles. Way too much of the film has the feel of super-low-budget Saturday morning cartoons.

On the other hand, even that wouldn't have to sink the film. I'm a big Scooby-Doo fan and the cut-rate animation style from the early years actually has a kind of quirky charm to me.

The problem was more a combination of factors. In Scooby-Doo, the focus is on characterization and story. The discount animation style plays second banana. Yellow Submarine doesn't have much in the way of characterization or a coherent, gripping story. The dialogue is purposefully nonsensical--often it's just a string of arbitrary puns, and The Beatles (whose dialogue is voiced by others) mostly mumble. Even some of the other characters are relatively unintelligible. Instead, we're asked to engage with the film on the more psychedelic level, based largely on the visuals. But the visuals weren't executed well enough to work for me, so I mostly found myself doing three things: thinking "Hey, this stuff is simple enough that I can figure out some basic animation techniques by watching it", intermittently watching my DVD counter while I wondered how long the film would go on, and waiting for the next Beatles song.

The Beatles songs in the film are great, of course. Without them, I surely would have given the film an "F" (a 4 or below). The animation for the songs can even work occasionally, at least until you get to the laborious 1 – 64 count on "When I'm 64", which was like watching my DVD player's clock take over the television screen. If Yellow Submarine were just some loosely tied together music video I might have given it a higher score. A majority of the frames work as drawings/paintings for me, and I actually like quite a bit of the Blue Meanies animation, but on the whole, the film just didn't click. Maybe I wasn't in the mood for it. Maybe next time.

After learning that my girlfriend had only see Yellow Submarine while stoned, and seemed convinced that was the reason she liked it, I insisted she watch it unstoned. She still liked it, and it was every bit as good as I recalled.

The story makes no sense, as the movie struggles to turn a bunch of random songs into some sort of narrative, but that hardly matters. The pun-filled script is blithely entertaining, the scenarios are wonderfully imaginative, the songs are terrific (of course), and the visuals are beyond amazing. The animation has a lose, experimental feel that was extraordinary at the time and is even more so in the days of digital animation.

Surprisingly, the weakest aspects of the movies are the Beatles' contributions, which consists of four of their lesser songs (although I do really like Only a Northern Song even though my girlfriend points out it's quite similar to Harrison's previous If I Needed Someone). None of the new songs really helped with creating the story and thus feel a little shoehorned in.

The first time I saw this movie I was 10 years old and I loved it. Now I'm 58 and I still love it. It is a gloriously colorful display of 60s pop art that should be seen by anyone who loves animation, the Beatles, or weird psychedelic art.

The Beatles were at the height of their popularity in 1968 when this animated feature was made. The fab four are taken through a series of wild and comic adventures which mostly involve riding inside a yellow submarine. The plot, what there is of it, involves saving the fun-loving inhabitants of Pepperland from the Blue Meanies – cruel and gloomy beings who have conquered and enslaved the populace. Along the way they gain the assistance of Nowhere Man, who seems to be an incompetent `wet blanket' but later turns quite useful.

Although the images are memorable, the animation is jerky; obviously not much money was spent on that aspect. Also the humour is a bit dated, though nostalgic. Still this is one of the best animated features of the 1960's.

The style of cartooning is simple and vivid enough that children will like it immediately, but grown-ups will appreciate hearing Beatle-songs (eleven of them) they remember from their own youth, and savouring the many puns. The images (invented by Bohemian artist Heinz Edelmann) defined and illuminated the spirit of the times, and originated the psychedelic art that was so popular in the early 1970's. Nowadays we are used to seeing images where every object looks like an over-inflated tire, but this is where it started.

What COULD compare? Yellow Submarine is 130,000 frames (90min x 60sec x 24 frames/sec) of classical, pop, tribute (to earlier animation styles), and original art from Da Vinci to Warhol to Picasso to Popeye to unbridled hallucination, drawn to a best-of-Python screenplay of non-sequiturs, puns, and pokes at institutions from cold-war antagonists to (governor) Reagan's paranoid National Guard deployment against counterculturists.

It's a feast for the senses and sensibilities. One can revel in the flashing, dancing colors and art styles--most of which well-shame anything Disney ever attempted and make today's phony-depth digital claptrap look like spilled esophageal reflux. The soundtrack is a condensed spectrum of the range with which Lennon/McCartney/Harrison composed, from deeply contemplative (Eleanor Rigby) to near-post-adolescent exuberance (Harrison's contributions) to silly-love-song filler showtunes (All Together Now). The dialog exchanges keep viewer's verbal senses on the edge of their seats. The theme undercurrents lightheartedly appeal nostalgically to those who were drawn to it in its theatrical release, historically to those who still wonder 'what the 60s was all about', without getting in the way of sheer artistic ebullience.

If you're an adult, it helps to like animation and British-invasion-era music (or Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, Rodgers & Hammerstein, for that matter). If you're an adult watching it with your kids (there's nothing offensive), be prepared for them to groan at Disney/Pixar/Nickelodeon rubbish from then on, and say "I want more of THAT!"

Just finished watching The Yellow Submarine on BBC.. Last time I watched this must have been Xmas a few years ago,thats the only time it seems to be shown... Anyway again I enjoyed it.For a animation that was made over 30 years ago it has definately stood the time ( most classics do ) Probably the best film the Beatles even done.( seen the rest ? ) Basically the films covers the triumph over good over evil with a hint of surrealism..and a excellent musical score.

My dad figured that I should see this for reference reasons, so he checked it out from the library.

So I popped it in and it started out with Pepperland being overrun by Blue Meanies, so this guy(cant remember his name) goes off in search of help and comes upon this house that I assume was some kind of mod-apartment where he meets our musical heroes, The Beatles, and they go off to save Pepperland.

I did not like this film, I did not dislike it either, It was just so strange.

However there are some good scenes, like when they go to find George and you see him standing on top of that screen(?). It just looks very cool the way it was animated. There is also the Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds thing which is very well animated and just nice to watch.

I guess I'd give it five out of ten and remain neutral.

"Yellow Submarine" is a great film but it's not because of the plot or even the whimsical, non-sequitur filled dialogue. "Yellow Submarine" works best as a series of loosely connected music videos that pre-date MTV by 12 years.

If you grew up with MTV and you think that most music videos consist of 80's Hair-Metal bands "in concert" or rappers in hot tubs with women in bikinis, take a look at some of the musical numbers in "Yellow Submarine".

You have "Only a Northern Song" which is presented with Andy Warhol style pop-art images. "Nowhere Man" is a whimsical, trippy, rainbow colored cartoon. "When I'm Sixty Four" is illustrated by a "Sesame Street" style numerical countdown. Even "All Together Now", for which The Beatles themselves actually appear on screen, contains little camera tricks and quick cut edits that are common tools of more recent music videos.

The two best segments in the movie, in my opinion, are "Eleanor Rigby" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". "Eleanor Rigby" uses black and white still photos of what is apparently Liverpool rotoscoped with occasional splashes of color to illustrate the dreariness of the lives of "all the lonely people." The full-color rotoscoped images for "Lucy", such as the can-can dancing chorus line and the horse running in the field, are beautiful.

If you are a fan of The Beatles, great animation, or music video, this film is for you.

Watching Yellow Submarine, you get the feeling that your not in for your average animated musical. The animation takes you on a trip and plays with your mind. Layered images blend together to make a very colorful, and always moving picture. The puns hold up well, and the music, well you just can't help yourself and sing along with John, Paul, George and Ringo. I especially like the message it sends on how positive music is. As long as we have music with us, we will be safe from the Blue Meanies.

Although they do not appear -unless the three final minutes count-,this is my Beatles favorite film by far.Dunning 's dazzling work revolutionized the cartoons as Walt Disney did thirty years before with "SnowWhite" .I love everything happening in it:the musical world of the most influential group of all time -it will infuriate the Velvet Underground's fans but sorry ,the Beatles are second to none when it comes to influence the whole world- on the screen .I do not care if "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was written for Julian Lennon's school friend,in the movie ,it is psychedelic fireworks.The Blue Meanies might be a nod to the Mouse House as they look like big Mickeys .The humor ,the puns and a sense of absurd ,of nonsense are true delight.It has often been mooted that the original songs were undistinguished:but "hey bulldog" is vintage Lennon and the two Harrisongs have madness going for them.Paul' s "all together now' is a good campfire song,it 's sometimes useful.George Martin's soundtrack -which was on side two of the original album and was replaced by songs included in the films (but which had already appeared on the Beatles albums )- was made with taste and respect for the audience.

The yellow Submarine is dying to take you away!A splendid time is guaranteed for all!

This is one of the closest things to seeing a dream on screen. There is so much visual imagination and wacky scenarios. You never really know where things will go. The story itself is simple but I guess that's not the point. It was enjoyable even for a non-Beatles fan but it was clearly made just for them.

"Yellow Submarine" is my favorite movie of all time! The animation is a perfect psychedelic display that would make Peter Max proud, and rival anything out of the Disney studios. This movie made me love the Beatles, and might just do the same for you. And, if you can, be sure to see the version with the "Hey Bulldog" sequence. I'd never seen that one until recently, during its revival. So that was a special bonus!

A masterpiece of a cartoon. The 60's captured in animation. Yellow Submarine paved the way for much of the crazy cartoons we see today. You can't help but see bits and pieces of British literature dropped throughout the film. A journey into a far off land, we see moments of C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien just in the first 5 minutes. The ending is s special treat where we get to see the Fab 4 talking to us, the audience. Still young, still here with us, the Beatles make an appearance as 4 care-free, easy-going boys from Liverpool. Timeless, universal, perfect. They are the Beatles!

This film contains some of the most obnoxiously groan-worthy "jokes" you'll ever hear, for minutes upon minutes at a time before finally breaking into a nonsensical musical sequence. Every line of dialogue uttered by a Beatle is physically painful.

However, the animation and the characters aside from the Beatles/Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band are a lot of fun, with the visuals being absolutely gorgeous and uniquely 70s. The plot is irrelevant to the experience, but the movie insists on having the Beatles shove it along with their half-assed banter up to the conclusion.

Basically, whenever it's just the Beatles onscreen, feel free to skip it. You won't miss anything.