Movie Review The Yellow Submarine

The Yellow Submarine was inspired by the Beatle mania that gripped the nation. Using cartoon animations of the band and their songs as an influence of British culture to tie together the vivid and wacky worlds they travel through. The animation is superb, filled with exciting and unexpected transformations that are thoughtfully complemented by the music. The Fab Four themselves appear in the live-action coda. (TV Guide, 2007) The evidence implies how the music was planned to fit alongside the right environment, where the colours and shapes could complement it. It was designed as tribute to the Beatles songs as a musical that celebrates their image and popularity of the period.

Figure 1, (2012), The Beatles animated

The different characters and environments that appear in the animation show off a wide range of graphic style of the 60s that other short features were unable to do. This 1968 Beatles musical gets somewhat plot heavy near the end, but it's a marvel of innocence and free association, blending several animation techniques in a loose narrative full of gentle bad puns and flowing visual segues. Except for Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, whose dense lyrics are sparingly evoked in gorgeous watercolors, the visual imagery is at least as complex as the song lyrics and uses light metaphor more than literal illustration or heavy symbolism. (Alspector , 2007) Yellow Submarine shows a strong influence of the 1960s style and color that allows the bold design of the animated vision to extend into a range of stunning visuals that helps the simple narrative. The words evoked in gorgeous watercolours sums up the painted and wash feel of how each land that the submarine visits transforms and twists in unexpected ways.

Figure 2, (2012), The Meanies and their minions

The Yellow Submarine feels a step into a dream from the world the audience recognizes as they witness the atmosphere breach the unfamiliar as the submarine glides into new territory. If the result seems less a coherent story than a two-hour pot high, Submarine is still a breakthrough combination of the feature film and art's intimacy with the unconscious. (Time Magazine, 2008) The animation suggests the contrast between the normal and dull colored world that the mayor finds the Beatles to bright and confusing realm where the rules change, Creatures become morphed and hybrid to organic and man made, holes can be travelled through and certain set pieces can change through the influence of music.

Figure 3, (2009), Unusual Landscape

Illustration List

Figure 1, (2012), The Beatles animated, @ http://www.cartoonbrew.com/biz/thebeatles-yellow-submarine-feature-film-restored-for-may-release-on-dvd-and-bluray.html, Accessed on: 20th March 2012 Figure 2, (2012), The Meanies and their minions, @ http://www.fab4art.com/ysa.htm, Accessed on: 2012 Figure 3, (2009), Unusual Landscape, @ http://www.examiner.com/movie-events-insalt-lake-city/09-09-09-happy-beatles-day-celebrate-with-not-coming-s-greatretrospective-on-the-beatles-films, Accessed on: 9th September 2009

Bibliography Alspector Lucy, (2007), Chicago Reader Yellow Submarine Review, @ http://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/yellow-submarine/Film?oid=1053035, Accessed on: 6th September 2007 Time Magazine, (2004), Time Magazine Yellow Submarine Review, @ http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,900461,00.html? promoid=googlep, Accessed on: 4th September 2008 TV Guide, (2007), Total TV Guide Yellow Submarine Review, @ http://movies.tvguide.com/yellow-submarine/review/110027, Accessed on: 6th September 2007

3/5