Hacker Cinema
Yellow Submarine
1968 · Film · 90 min
Directed by George Dunning
MusicAnimationAdventureComedyFantasy
The wicked Blue Meanies take over Pepperland, eliminating all color and music. As the only survivor, the Lord Admiral escapes in the yellow submarine and journeys to Liverpool to enlist the help of the Beatles.
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8 comments on Hacker News
It’s often surprising what we discover younger people have no idea about. I had a twenty-something co-worker in 2018 who was a self-professed aficionado of submarine movies who had never seen Yellow Submarine (I can’t remember now if he’d heard of it at least or if even that was beyond his ken). My profile picture on my gmail account is a picture of Harpo Marx because I occasionally use Harpo as a nickname thanks to my first name having become undesirable a decade ago and I had a recruiter that I was working with ask me who the picture was, apparently having never seen a Marx brothers movie or even heard of them.
Sic transit gloria mundi.
This only would have worked if it was animated. The 1977 Hobbit film which was produced for NBC [1] was a excellent adaptation, and Yellow Submarine is in the same style. I would argue Yellow Submarine also has many of the same themes, if not more absurdist than fantasy.
Also fun fact I just realized you can stream Yellow Submarine for free on archive.org [2]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hobbit_(1977_film)
[2] https://archive.org/details/yellow-submarine-1968_film
A curiosity I’ve seldom seen noted in all the rich lore of the Beatles generally: they recorded their entire catalogue of studio albums over just slightly more than seven years. From their first album release, only a bit more than 2.5 years passed while they released four more albums, two of which were soundtracks for iconic films released in tandem. The fifth album is the one many fans mark as their creative breakout. It was only a year and a half til Sgt Pepper with another creative breakout milestone in between, then only a year and a half til the White Album, then less than a year til Abbey Road (which I personally find preposterous because I sincerely believe it’s objectively the best album by any artist ever), and just over half a year til their final full studio release Let It Be. Oh and Yellow Submarine was in there too, of course.
I don’t know how much Paul’s “freakish” memory made that possible. I do know that it astonishes me every time I remember the fact that the whole Beatles recording career lasted about as long as the time I had a locker in grade school.
I've watched pretty much every episode at least 50 times, my wife also watched it as a kid and got our oldest addicted to it.
Fantastic cartoon, impressive how they handled facisme. Guess certain Dutch politicians either didn't see it or did and got inspired by Dolf.
In related news, I've also seen every episode of True and Nijnje (90s, 00s and specials) a similar number of times for kid #2 and kid #3 :)
I grew up in the UK so as a kid I was traumatised by Yellow Submarine, Tottie (dollhouse burns down killing everyone), Watership Down and the aforementioned Animals of Farthing Wood.
The entire 1968 Yellow Submarine movie from The Beatles is a good example, particularly the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds scene.
YouTube does occasional appointment media. Early in the pandemic, they did a global showing of Yellow Submarine that required watching at a specific time on a Saturday. It was my kids' introduction to the movie.
Williams is also the author of the bestselling book The Animator's Survival Kit which is considered an essential text for any aspiring 2D (and even 3D) animator.
He spent decades on creating his own 2D animated film called The Thief and the Cobbler which was beset by endless problems and delays. The film was never completed in the form that Williams wanted. The fascinating story of this film can be found in this 2016 article:
13 Facts About The Thief and the Cobbler
http://mentalfloss.com/article/74031/13-beautiful-facts-about-thief-and-cobbler
Another interesting fact: Williams worked as an animator on the 1968 film Yellow Submarine featuring the voices of The Beatles. I think you can see some of the visual influence from that film (such as the exaggerated forms) in The Thief and the Cobbler too.
This(1) is the only submarine story I can think of.
1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Submarine_(film)