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Yellow Submarine Details

1968 Certificate U
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 1144 members

In this animated tale featuring the Fab Four, the magical Pepperland is invaded by the Blue Meanies who have declared war on all that is good--especially music. At the request of a befuddled emissary from Pepperland, the lads from Liverpool take a ride in their yellow submarine to aid the besieged residents in their battle. .. Read more

Starring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr
Director George Dunning
Genres Music/Musical

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Yellow Submarine

In this animated tale featuring the Fab Four, the magical Pepperland is invaded by the Blue Meanies who have declared war on all that is good--especially music. At the request of a befuddled emissary from Pepperland, the lads from Liverpool take a ride in their yellow submarine to aid the besieged residents in their battle. Peter Max designed the distinctive look of the animation, and the Beatles themselves appear in a brief sequence at the film's end. The film includes songs "Yellow Submarine," "It's All Too Much," "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," "Eleanor Rigby," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Nowhere Man," "All Together Now," and others, as well as several orchestral numbers by noted Beatle producer George Martin. YELLOW SUBMARINE was the first feature-length animated British film in 14 years.

Starring John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Paul Angelis
Director George Dunning
Studio MGM ENTERTAINMENT
Run time DVD: 1 hr 30 mins
Certificate Certificate U
Genres Music/Musical
Language DVD: English
Dubbed German, Italian
Hearing-impaired English, German
Released DVD: not available
Production year: 1968
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (3) of Yellow Submarine

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  • 4 stars out of 5

    After the critical mauling that greeted Magical Mystery Tour and the failure to get the Joe Orton-scripted Up against It off the ground, the Beatles had little to do with this amazing animated feature (although they do crop up at the end). Directed by George Dunning and boasting Love Story's Erich Segal among the screenwriters, this is an endlessly inventive picture that blends 1960s psychedelia with such diverse styles as pop art and Art Deco to create the fantastical world of Pepperland and its bizarre inhabitants. The mix of new songs and old favourites works a treat, but George Martin's superb score is also worth a listen.

    • Radio Times
  • "[Now available in a] suitably momentous video reissue, with both its songs and its trippy images vibrantly remastered....Enough inspired surrealism to hold up 30 years later..." -- Rating: A-

    • Entertainment Weekly
  • Most helpful member's review of Yellow Submarine

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  • 4 out of 4 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 5 stars

    In a town, where I was born, lived a man, who sailed to sea.....

    Yes, we all know the words as we all sang them in Junior School but have we all seen the film?

    It is seemingly on every Boxing Day on BBC2 but incredulously enough I had never seen it (I am 28, it is not like I lived in the 60s). Now I am a big Beatles fan, and love Hard Day's Night, Help! and Magical Mystery Tour so I thought, I know I will stick Yellow Submarine on my list.

    If you are a Beatles fan you will know that the soundtrack is a bit dodgy, one side killer, the other filler (songs on side A including Yellow Submarine, Your Mother Should Know, Hey Bulldog to mention a few, instrumental music on side B) so I thought the film would be about the same. After all, the story goes that the Beatles were non too chuffed with the idea of a cartoon, and only pledged their allegiance to it after the event.

    The premise of the film is that the Beatles (the goodies) have to overcome the Blue Meanies (the baddies) and restore order to Pepperland. Sounds simple enough but not if it is 1968 and you may or may not have take lots of LSD during production. It is full of lots of Beatles classics too to sing along with like Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Eleanor Rigby and obviously Yellow Submarine (I can guarentee by the end you will be swaying in your seat singing)

    It is a fun film, not the greatest of plots, but it is a cartoon after all, and it does provide a fascinating snapshot of 60s life in all its psychedelic glory. I wouldn?t say you need to be a Beatles fan to enjoy it but I am sure that it helps. If you are toying with sticking this on your list, go on, you won?t regret it!

    And when Boxing Day 2004 comes around, and you see that Yellow Submarine is on BBC2, I know I will be sitting on my settee, mince pie in one hand, glass of Bailey?s in the other.

    Luckily you don't have to wait till then, go on add it to your list now!

      • sarah b from london
  • Most recent members' review of Yellow Submarine

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  • 1 out of 1 person found this review helpful

    Rated - 4 stars

    It shouldn't work...

    ...but it does. A Paul McCartney novelty song transformed into a witty and psychedelic full-length animation, a piece of 60's memorabilia for those who either were too young or too spaced-out to remember what they were doing in 1968.

    Just be glad that they didn't try to repeat the trick with Octopus's Garden.

      • Bananer from Devon
  • News and features

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    A Christmas Carol

    Zemeckis wants Starr and McCartney for Yellow Submarine remake

    • 08 Nov 2009

    Moviemaker Robert Zemeckis wants surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to play themselves in his planned remake of the Fab Four's animated classic Yellow Submarine. Zemeckis and Disney bosses have brokered a deal that would allow them to rework the 1968 film and create a performance-capture 3-D digital production. And Zemeckis - the man behind The Polar Express and Jim Carrey's new animated version of A Christmas Carol - wants to get the Beatles involved. He tells MTV, "We havent... Read more

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Rating breakdown

1,144 Member ratings
  • 100
182
  • 90
128
  • 80
182
  • 70
166
  • 60
169
  • 50
110
  • 40
78
  • 30
54
  • 20
50
  • 10
25

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    • Yellow Submarine
      In this animated tale featuring the Fab Four, the magical Pepperland is invaded by the Blue Meanies who have declared war on all that is good--especially music. At the request of a befuddled emissary from Pepperland, the lads from Liverpool take a ride in their yellow submarine to aid the besieged ...