Without even knowing much about the world of music, anybody can recognize The Beatles. They're by far the most well known band in history and their level of popularity will probably never be seen again. One thing that tends to go unnoticed however is the band had several movies documenting their performances, songwriting, and way of life. Not all the movies about them were well received though, like Magical Mystery Tour for example. Yellow Submarine on the other hand was generally loved all across the board with people saying positive things about it quite a bit, and John Lennon later said it was his favorite movie on the band. Even executives of Pixar credit this movie with revolutionizing the art of animation. I don't say this as a negative remark, but I think the artists and people responsible for coming up with the scenery in this movie were on drugs. The movie has a very surreal feel to it, with tons of weird creatures, landscapes, and other bizarre things. It starts in Pepperland, where Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is located. The yellow submarine itself is located on the top of a pyramid. Dormant, but still fully operational. Soon, a ridiculous looking race of beings that despise music (called the Blue Meanies) start to attack Pepperland and suck out all its color and happiness. Most of the citizens are frozen in place, but one manages to get away. He uses the submarine to go to Liverpool, where he meets John, Paul, George and Ringo. Sadly, the characters aren't voice by the actual band members. Fred (the one who took the submarine) wants them to go back to Pepperland with him. On their way back, they have to traverse many strange areas, such as a place filled with horrible looking monsters, including one that sucks everything up with a trumpet-like snout. It even consumes the world it lives in, leaving the screen blank. Eventually, they are back in Pepperland and are horrified to see there is no color and everything is gray, depressing, and lifeless. The band plays All You Need Is Love, which drives off the ferocious flying glove that the Blue Meanies send after The Beatles, and Pepperland is saved. At the end, the leader of the Blue Meanies is defeated, after which the band makes friends with him. This is probably the best (animated) movie to represent the 1960s as a whole. Obviously by that point, they were insanely popular to the point where it was basically obnoxious. The world was going insane trying to attend their concerts. The animation in here still looks good, because it's done in a simple style, which means it can't really go out of date. One of the defining features of this movie is the songs that play at certain moments, such as Eleanor Rigby when the submarine goes to Liverpool, When I'm 64, and probably my favorite, Nowhere Man. The song Yellow Submarine also appears, which is pretty predictable. I was kind of let down by the fact that The Beatles themselves don't voice their animated counterparts, but it is what it is and I guess you can't have everything. This is still one of the best animated movies I've seen and one of the few musical movies I actually like.
Review of Yellow Submarine
