In these dark December days, let’s take a look at a selection of what often comes on TV now—animated films. We’ll specifically be focusing on some ones that might be considered a bit quirky or unique, while for now keeping off the table Disney monoliths or anime offerings—those are arguably categories unto themselves. First up is a film that still stands out for its soundtrack and visuals, both of which could have only come from this specific time—put away Maxwell’s silver hammer, as here we’ve got Yellow Submarine.
It’s the late sixties, and at their height is the band to end all bands—the ancestors of nearly every form of popular music since then, it’s the Fab Four from Liverpool. They had already had a couple of feature films that nobody in hindsight seems to care that much about, and not seem on another one, they settle on an animated film where they could throw in a couple of scenes while jumping through contract loopholes as such.
And what we got could best be described as Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds indeed—wouldn’t you know, there’s another one on the soundtrack. We’re greeted with animation that varies from surprisingly smooth to being a somewhat more upgraded version of what we’d get on Monty Python—but nearly every frame has some indelibly memorable weirdness that on the whole, it really doesn’t matter. It’s animation used for the purest purpose of animation—enabling any wild crazed figment of your imagination to gain life.
As for the story behind it? It mostly serves its purpose for enabling all of that—we start off with an idyllic place called Pepperland, which may or may not be under the sea somehow, before it comes under siege by an army of oddball Meanies lead by one of the most memorable aspects of the film. Though he doesn’t appear all that much, every frame and every instance of voice acting from — makes the Blue Meanie an antagonist that still gets referenced to this day, with everyone involved having the time of their lives in his portrayal. Anyhoo, his little conquest is complete, and that leaves a single captain to pilot the titular oceanic vessel to the far off distant realm of Liverpool. Which, as it turns out, operates on exactly the same peyote logic as everything else here!
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| Still makes more sense than many a government I can name. |
It’s not long before we’re introduced one by one to the band people came to see, voiced somewhat disappointingly by soundalikes (except for the songs), and who all simply go with the flow with everything, even down to John Lennon being…transformed from a Frankenstein monster…because…er…why not. Ringo for some reason has some slightly creepy inverted eye colors, but everyone’s recognizable, and that sets us up through voyages across realms at least partially influenced by ingesting slightly mouldy cheese. There’s not a minute wasted, not a moment where some freakish concept and deranged animation is gleefully displayed, and that’s what makes this entire film.
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| What, you've never met anyone with anchovies for eyes? |
That and the soundtrack—a ‘best of’ introduction to the Beatles repertoire of the time, and a good as any. We have the touching tunes like ‘When I’m Sixty Four’—which sadly half the band never lived to see—to the classics like ‘All You Need Is Love’, and the heavier tracks that pioneered entire genres like ‘Bulldog’. For the latter category I might’ve preferred ‘Taxman’ a little bit more, but there’s not a dud on offer here.
Everything is geared to that one moment in ’68 where this could’ve happened—the themes of love curing everything from missile strikes to killer apples is on full display, as is the general trippiness, all reflecting that time when the Summer of Love was in swing and it felt like a quartet of young men from northern England really could change the world. It’s such a microcosm that, even if it’s no film for anyone fond of strong plot structure, Yellow Submarine still feels unique and compelling in its own way 55 years later. Maybe love may not quite be all you need for some—but at least here for a moment you might feel that it could…as helped along by a lemon-colored flying bathyscaphe.
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