ANI-MOVIES, *Yellow Submarine

For half a century, Yellow Submarine has been one of the most groundbreaking animated projects ever put to film. Released in 1968, this took advantage of the worldwide popularity of the Beatles, and put forth a series of animated segments highlighting their music loosely strung together by a hazy plot featuring animated versions of The Fab Four. United Features "united" with the comic strip monarchs of King Features Syndicate in this mod odyssey!

Starting off in a sealed off place underneath the sea, a civilization called Pepperland was filled with music-loving folks that gets invaded by the music-hating Blue Meanies. Using unconventional methods of attack like a giant flying glove and multiple-headed canines, the Blue Meanies take over Pepperland quite easily, leaving only the newly promoted Fred to captain the flying vessel, the Yellow Submarine. Fred goes to London to randomly fetch the Beatles for help. The Fab Four use the sub to go through various areas under the ocean, each with their own bizarre set of physics like time moving backwards and lands filled with mismatched monsters. They befriend an eccentric genius named Jeremy who helps the crew fix their sub, and then joins them on their journey to Pepperland. The Beatles revive the Pepperlanders by impersonating the legendary Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band that they later discover are actual counterparts to themselves, and then pacify the Blue Meanies into being friends. John, Ringo, Paul, and George then somehow make it back home for their only actual live-action segment to close out the film.

Unknown to several people at the time, The Beatles themselves didn't actually provide the voices of themselves in the movie for the animated portions of it, just the music, including three new songs premiering in this film. Yellow Submarine was animated mostly by Jack Stokes and Robert Balser(who also worked on Heavy Metal and Narnia), and their legacy has influenced artists like Monty Python's Terry Gilliam, to American productions like Sesame Street and Schoolhouse Rock. It might seem to stretch it's creativity at times, like when they literally take over a minute in time just to countdown in non-animated letters during the When I'm 64 portion, and it takes a sharp mind for modern audiences to catch all the slurry 60's esoteric dialogue. Aside from that, Yellow Submarine is a must-watch for any wannabe animation aficionado, or fan of the 60s Three B's!