back to article The Beatles Yellow Submarine restored

Long absent from video stores, The Beatles' trippy 1968 animation Yellow Submarine has been painstakingly restored for its Blu-ray debut. With the original elements in a perilous state of decay, the movie has been meticulously cleaned and repaired frame by frame. The soundtrack has also had a 5.1 DTS HD Master Audio makeover. …

COMMENTS

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  1. LarsG

    How many times do they have to bring out a restored, digi updated amazing, new issue, with unseen footage, widescreened, HD'ed version of old mediocre films. Stick th the originals, how it was made and should look films. They tend to be better when unaltered.

    1. h4rm0ny

      Errrr... if you read the review it says that the original (which you want to stick with) wasn't on release and was starting to decay. You may not be aware of this, but George Lucas actually was not the director of Yellow Submarine.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        And Ringo shot first !

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      You do realise that you should not dis a Beatles fanboy!

  2. h4rm0ny
    Unhappy

    The Sixties

    The Sixties. The horrible realization that our parents may actually have had more fun than we did...

    1. ravenviz Silver badge
      Childcatcher

      Re: The Sixties

      Ahem, grandparents....

      1. Robert E A Harvey

        @ravenviz Re: The Sixties

        Ahem. Me.

        1. Kubla Cant

          Re: @ravenviz The Sixties

          Er, me too.

          No sign of the alleged final salary pension yet, and I've missed the boat for early retirement.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The Sixties

      ... and with final salary pensions, cheap home ownership and early retirement commonplace they still are having more fun than we do or will do.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: The Sixties

      The hippies from the 60's are now _in_ their 60's.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: The Sixties

        And, as this years Reith Lecture points out, government debt is no more than the previous generation financially screwing the next.

        But cheers for the music, guys!

      2. Anton Channing
        Devil

        Re: The Sixties

        Whereas the hippies of today are in #EtherSec and #ProjectMayhem2012

        Counter Culture has never been stronger. The only difference is today the media try to down play it and say it all happened back in the 60s.

  3. Smokey Joe
    Stop

    RE: the King Features Beatles cartoons

    There's loads of examples on YouTube although you'd be better off forgetting that anybody told you about it. Terrible accents, dire laughter track and godawful everything else.

    1. Smokey Joe
      Facepalm

      Re: RE: the King Features Beatles cartoons

      Correction: no laugh track. I feel dirty for checking...

    2. Stuart Castle Silver badge

      Re: RE: the King Features Beatles cartoons

      True. The only one who sounded at least vaguely like he was supposed to was Ringo. One of the others (not sure if it was meant to be John or George) had an accent that seemed to shift from Yorkshire to Ireland via Wales.

      Also, I can't remember any of the Beatles speaking with an RP accent.

  4. David Robinson 1

    "Long absent from video stores"

    Hmmm, I wonder where my copy on DVD came from then?

    1. Lallabalalla

      Re: "Long absent from video stores"

      Yeah - me and the kids have been enjoying this for the last year or so, and it looks nicely analogue. I also have a DVD of Magical Mystery Tour - now that really does look very ropey. But the quality of the content is not merely the quality of the reproduction of the content (geddit?) which is why I long ago gave up obsessing over my HiFi and and just started listening to the music again.

  5. Sir Runcible Spoon

    Sir

    I once thought this would be awesome to watch on mushrooms, but it turns out that it just makes it dull.

    Must be some kind of weird psychedelic nullyfying effect.

    1. Kubla Cant

      Re: Sir

      If I were you I'd take the mushrooms back to the supermarket and complain that they don't work.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Sir

      The whole point of mushrooms is that they make normal things go weird, something which this film was attempting to do.

      The Beatles also turns out to be crap music to listen to unless you're straight and sober, although Hey Jude's a good drunken singalong.

      1. Lallabalalla
        WTF?

        Re: Sir

        You never listened to Sgt. Pepper's then? Or Magical Mystery Tour, which IMO is hugely underrated.

        MMT track listing includes I Am The Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, Baby You're A Rich Man and All You Need Is Love.

  6. Spiracle

    I remember the animated series screening in the UK sometime in the early seventies, though god-knows where. Having just woken up to their music during the beardy-psychadelic years (I was born in '63) I remember that seeing 'Baby's in Black' performed in a Hanna-Barbera style by the mop-tops as being a little confusing.

    1. david 12 Silver badge

      re 'Yellow Submarine' performed in a Hanna-Barbera style

      My younger sister (1968-) was surprised when she found out that the Beatles had done a cover of this Sesame Street song.

      1. Spiracle

        Re: re 'Yellow Submarine' performed in a Hanna-Barbera style

        I remember now - it was during one summer's 'Champion the Wonderhorse' /'Whirlybirds' slot on the BBC. I'm guessing '72.

        1. Spiracle

          Re: re 'Yellow Submarine' performed in a Hanna-Barbera style

          Sorry, that should have been 'CHAMPIONNNNNNNNNNNNNN THE WONNNNNNNNNNDERRRRRRHOOOOOORSSSSSSE'

          1. L.B.
            Facepalm

            Re: re 'Yellow Submarine' performed in a Hanna-Barbera style

            And don't forget those other BBC Summer/Xmas/Easter holiday morning TV classics of:

            Flash Gorden (1936) and Buck Rogers (1939) both with Buster Crabbe, Cassy Jones (1959), White Horses (one for the girls), with the occasional “Laurel & Hardy”, “Buster Keaton” and other silent era classics (L&H had a few with sound).

            Yep I'm another child of 1963.

            1. BoldMan

              Re: re 'Yellow Submarine' performed in a Hanna-Barbera style

              White horse wasn't just for the girls - I was in lust with Julia years before I knew what it meant...

        2. Lallabalalla
          Thumb Up

          Re: re 'Yellow Submarine' performed in a Hanna-Barbera style

          Whirlybirds! Woah!

  7. david 12 Silver badge

    Cartoon Beatles

    Seen cartoon Beatles on TV in AUS a long time ago. Dire. Cheap repetitive animation and one-dimensional plot. Aimed at the pre-school market.

    1. Lamont Cranston
      Joke

      But,

      what about the cartoon?

  8. Ole Juul

    I can't imagine

    this being nearly as relevant as it was when I saw it the year it came out. I must be getting old.

    1. Lamont Cranston

      "relevant"?

      Go sit in Pseuds' Corner!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Drop a tab and watch the film

    It's the dullest thing ever, actually more entertaining 'unenhanced'

    AC, obviously, in case Mum's reading.

    1. JimC

      Re: Drop a tab / AC, obviously, in case Mum's reading.

      > AC, obviously, in case Mum's reading.

      And how do you suppose Mum watched it when it came out?

      1. Sir Runcible Spoon

        Re: Drop a tab / AC, obviously, in case Mum's reading.

        It's a very strange concept, but the wackiest thing I ever saw when tripping was a party policital broadcast by the labour party (quite some time ago I might add).

        Prescott litterally looked like a slug in a suit, then it kicked in and things got weirder :)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Drop a tab / AC, obviously, in case Mum's reading.

          "Prescott litterally looked like a slug in a suit"

          I can see that taking nothing stronger than nice cup of tea.

  10. TedF
    Happy

    Graphics - trippy Audio - Overwhelming

    A distinct improvement on my DVD copy with pin-sharp graphics (though the 'dodgy' artwork in Bulldog scene still grates.) Audio seems over cooked though with alarming surges and stereo image leaping about at times. A colourful, one-off featuring the Fab Four.

  11. jason 7
    Happy

    Eddie Yates/Onslow as the voice of Paul

    How bizzare.

    Nice one Geoff!

  12. Alan Brown Silver badge

    2nd restoration?

    The 1990s DVD rerelease was digitally restored and there was a minifeature showing just how badly the originals had deteriorated. I can't remember if it had DTS (couldn't play that anyway) or the other features mentioned.

  13. Dana W
    Happy

    Hey Bulldog.

    Despite the scene looking a bit unfinished, I'm glad they put "Hey Bulldog" back in in 1999, and very glad to have it verified here. It's absence left what felt like a distinct cut in the film. The scene preceding it where the Beatles and "Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" get each other up to speed on the situation is one of my favorite scenes.

    I'm guilty in my younger days of seeing it in altered states of mind, and I think I enjoy it more for that. Not for any pseudo-mystic reason, but for the fact that it let me see the explosions are all full of colored swirls and flower-like shapes.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bought it once, won't buy it again, another one to download.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    George Harrison and the Cartoon Beatles

    There's an interview with George where he described the time when the Beatles were granted an audience with Elvis Presley at his house. They were quite stoned by the time they arrived and all fell out of the limo "like a Beatles cartoon".

    Not sure which cartoon he was on about, but it might have been the TV one.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWSfqQcJ9tE&feature=related

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Watched it as a kid and found it tedious. Watched it as an adult and found it both tedious and toe curlingly self indulgent. Now the Magic Roundabout's Blue Cat is a weird animated film that's stood the test of time.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ah memories

    Driving 300 miles with a 4 year old in the back seat who sang "we all live in a yellow submarine" continuously.

    However she only knew the chorus and not the tune.

    There are many worse things than "Are we there yet?" every 5 minutes.

  18. Mage Silver badge

    How does it sound in Mono though?

  19. saundby

    The Point

    When does Ringo's little allegory get the Blu-Ray treatment?

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