DVDFile

"It's all in the mind ..."

The Yellow Submarine is one of my favorite movies, partly because it's so vividly unique, and partly because it got me out of the house on Thanksgiving day in 1968. This is a film that manages to be doggedly unusual without being self-conscious.

The animated Beatles were nothing new: we'd already been watching them on TV for some time. But the Saturday morning Beatles were a safe throwback to music hall type humor which, despite the increasing maturity of the Beatles' music, locked them in their adorable mop-top images. For example, in one episode, confronted by a female ghost in a haunted house, a madcap chase ensues to the tune of "I'm Looking Through You." And who can forget Paul introducing the sing-a-longs ("All right, I want you to sing the next song with gusto, and if gusto couldn't make it, sing it yourself!").

But the Beatles had already left this image behind, catapulting themselves into the center of psychadelia (something they'd toyed with in "Revolver" and "Rubber Soul") with the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. But if "Pepper" was the metaphorical ears of the psychedelic 60s, "The Yellow Submarine" was its eyes. However, "Submarine" is a vision so unique that it transcends attempts to view it as a time-capsule for a bygone era (in fact, the only thing that seems to date the film at all is the single use of the word "groovy"). It remains fresh and alive today because there is more imagination evident in the first five minutes of the movie than in 100 other films put together. Like "Fantasia" before it, there are many animated films, but there's only one "Yellow Submarine."

As for the plot, there is trouble in Pepperland: the Blue Meanies (who look like evil Smurfs with Mickey Mouse ears) have taken over, stamping out music (quite literally) and fun wherever they find it. Old Fred is deputized by the Lord Mayor to flee Pepperland in the title vehicle to find help. And the help he finds is the Beatles, who return to Pepperland with Old Fred through the perilous seas of Time, Monsters, and Holes. They save the day through the power of music and, of course, love.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The picture has been restored and is presented in its original 1.66:1 aspect ratio in a non-anamorphic transfer. It's damn near flawless. This is a movie that explodes with color, and the DVD presentation more than meets the challenge. Brilliant reds, blues and greens flash across the screen with virtually no bleeding. The colors (including the omnipresent oranges and purples) are solid and deep, and blacks are absolute. I was fortunate enough to own one of the original VHS tapes of the film, and although the tape was good in its own right (and I was lucky to have it!), there really is no comparison. The only time I noticed any color bleeding was during the "All Too Much" finale, but I have a feeling that this was purposeful, since it involved glowing colors that would naturally radiate into each other (and on the tape, they simply look like mud).

Although the picture is outstanding, there are a couple of things that need to be noted. There are a couple of dots and smudges here and there that appeared to have been inherent (meaning that they were accidental flaws that happened during the animation process, as this film was made extraordinarily fast). Also, with cell animation there can be disadvantages to the increased clarity of DVDs. In a couple of spots there is a slight flickering when the animation gets particularly busy. For example when the character of Jeremy is introduced, he's shown spinning and bouncing all over a field of white, and there's a noticeable flicker in the background, but I believe that is attributable to the very rapidly changing cells (and the blank background). This is an assumption that was validated when I viewed the trailer that's included on the disc, as the flicker is also evident in the brief clip from this scene in the trailer. But, these are truly minor matters in a phenomenal picture.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

The soundtrack has been remixed to Dolby Digital 5.1, and is simply astonishing. The mix of the title tune alone is worth the price of the disc (the waves wash up from the rear speakers, and Lennon's mocking repetition of the lyrics of the last verse float across the rear speakers from right to left--it sounds as if he's walking through the submarine's main hallway!). George Martin's incidental score is amazingly full-bodied and lush with no distortion.

I was truly impressed by the amount of imagination that went into the mix, embodying a myriad of rear-effects, particularly during the battles with the Blue Meanies. Missiles fly from back to front, and the infamous Flying Glove can be heard spinning through the range of speakers before arriving, his laugh echoing as he smashes the scenery. Both low and high tones are very clear and free of distortion. It really was like hearing the soundtrack for the first time.

Beatles purists may be disconcerted by the fact that the 5.1 mix extends to the songs. I'm not exactly a purist, but I certainly found this one aspect a bit...surprising, although not unpleasant. But there are a few problems; for example, in the original recording of "Nowhere Man" the vocals are isolated in one speaker while the instruments were in the other. Hearing the vocals spread across the range of the surround speakers made them sound much more heavily over-dubbed that they really were. And in "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," the melody was isolated in the center channel while harmonies were thrown to the rear. An interesting choice, but with my rear channel speakers on a very slight delay, this made the vocals sound a bit off-kilter (although not out of keeping with the movie!). (Editor: Just a brief mention that both Ringo Starr and George Harrison did approve the 5.1 mix, and the original mono mix is also presented on the DVD as well.)

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The goodies are extensive and, for the most part, quite wonderful. Of course, the one that has received the most publicity is the inclusion of the "Hey Bulldog" number which was cut from the American release of the film, along with brief deleted parts leading up to it. These parts have been restored to the film itself, and the video/audio quality is in keeping with the rest of the film. Oddly enough, as it turns out this segment is amazingly conventional in comparison with the rest of the film: as far as the actual action is concerned, it most closely resembles the Saturday morning TV show, which was done by the same people.

The disc includes a full-length screen-specific audio commentary by line producer John Coates. Coates is a charming speaker, full of insight into the creative and hands-on processes of making the film. He's also quite a gentleman: when mentioning the fact that the Beatles themselves didn't do the voices for the film, he diplomatically states that "It was impossible to get them together in the studio" (in reality, the Beatles okayed the film to satisfy the last of a three picture deal that they didn't want to do -- they hardly had to be in a studio together to do voices for a cartoon!). I've listened to a lot of audio commentaries, and would rate this one as one of the best, partly because Coates is such a wealth of inside information, but also because he's intersting to listen to. He doesn't lapse into the somnambulistic monotone into which many commentaries degenerate (however, he's no longer young and tends to speak a bit slowly, so some may find a little patience is needed).

In addition to Coates, there are very brief interviews with members of the crew and the vocal talent. Am I the only one who is beginning to wonder why the studios seem to go to amazing lengths to interview the talent involved in the movies, and then include so little of the interviews? I was irritated by these interviews, not because they weren't interesting, but because they were...I really wanted to hear more that these people had to say, but they were cut short.

There are three storyboard sequences: The Sea of Monsters scene is presented split-screen with its story boards. There is also early, quite different storyboards for the same sequence, and storyboards for an unfilmed alternate ending. One quibble: the instructions for navigating these are very, very cryptic. I have to wonder why MGM couldn't simply have said "press next to advance, press menu to return."

Also included is a truly bizarre seven-minute featurette "The Mod Odyssey." It compares the movie to everything from Magritte to Chagall in a self-congratulatory way that, had I seen it in the sixties before the movie opened, would have kept me away from the theater. In a big plus for music lovers, the 5.1 mix of the Beatles music is also isolated on a separate track.

Parting Thoughts

If you love the Beatles, or animation, or the 60s, or film in general, your collection is incomplete without "The Yellow Submarine."

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