The Beatles: Yellow Submarine VHS

"Yellow Submarine" surfaces with a sharp, colorful presentation for Blu-ray. The 4K restoration for the film looks brilliant and is a huge upgrade when compared to the original 1999 DVD. I haven't seen the DVD remastered edition of this put out at the same time but I would imagine it uses the same high def source. The painstaking restoration for the film is evident in just about every frame which is brimming with more a sharper, more detailed image and colors that positively pop.The Beatles (none of the band provided their own voices) are recruited to help overthrow the Blue Meanies when they take over Pepperland by Fred who is going to transport the Fab Four in his Yellow Submarine. Things go awry along the way as Ringo gets launched out of the sub, they meet Jeremy a Nowhere Man who finds helps them free Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from being kept captive by the music hating Blue Meanies. A truly surreal adventure as Jon Lassiter points out in his introduction in the booklet, "Yellow Submarine" truly was revolutionary in its day and still looks dazzling.Image quality is top notch with a painstakingly restored image filled with sharper images than previously seen. The film probably has never looked this good even when it was shown in 1968 as film development and projection techniques weren't quite as good back in 1968. In fact restoration efforts can often reveal flaws in a film as the resolution is so much better than before. The aspect ratio returns the film to its original 1.66:1 presentation (vs. 1.68:1 for the previous DVD and 1.33:1 for the VHS as I recall).The lossless audio is marvelous sounding.The special features include a 16 page booklet with behind-the-scenes photos and comments, mini-seri-cels (that resemble the animation cels although smaller and with each Beatle in one of the iconic moments from the film)of each of the four Beatles and stickers. Audio Commentary by John Coates and additional contribution by Heinz EdelmannVintage featurette: The Mod Odyssey (7:40), we also get three storyboarded sequences - including two not used in the final film:* Sea of Monsters (4:21),Battle of the Monsters (Interactive), Pepperland (Interactive),Original pencil drawings (8:33), Behind-the-scenes photo gallery as well as interviews with crew and vocal talents: Paul Angelis (voice) (1:39), John Clive (voice) (2:04), David Livesey (key animation) - 1:13, Millicent MacMillan (1:14), Jack Stokes (3:44), Eric Segal (1:38), Theatrical Trailer (3:45)Plus:16 page booklet, reproductions of animation cells of each of the four Beatles characters + stickersMissing is the music only audio track that was on the previous DVD which is too bad but we do get the original mono soundtrack as well plus a stereo PCM mastered track.This is a terrific reissue that is flawed only by missing the original music only track in 5.1 like the original DVD. It would also have been nice if the MTV Special (or was it VH1?) that was shown back in 1999 had been included or the BBC documentary but evidently Apple chose not to license either for this release. Even though it doesn't have everything it could have, this is highly recommended due to the stellar image and sound quality.Highly recommended.

BOTTOM LINE: This is a cool film, perfectly safe & suitable viewing for the entire family. A positive message, some classic Beatles tunes and mesmerizing animation make this a blast. This is a great way to introduce your young ones to some terrific music; they may quickly find it among their new favorites. 5 STARS for the marvelous magical mystery movie, the Beatles' YELLOW SUBMARINE!THE STORY: The evil Blue Meanies declare war on the peaceful world of Pepperland because they can't stand music, thrive on disorder and, well... just because. The Beatles are brought to Pepperland aboard the trusty Yellow Submarine and, disguised as Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (whom they eerily resemble), the Fab Four battle the Blue Meanies with the all-healing power of their groovy music.THOUGHTS: After catching only snippets of this film over the last 40 years, I finally plunked down some dough and bought myself a copy and sat and watched it from beginning to end. As soon as it was over I went through all of the supplemental material and then watched it again. What a wonderful film this is! Hard to believe that the same animation team that produced the pedestrian Beatles cartoon show for ABC television also did this amazing flick. Obviously the era in which it was made & released almost dictated that it be a psychedelic assault on the eyes, but in so many ways YELLOW SUBMARINE isn't just a "smoke some dope and trip out on this thing!" film. As the movie goes along, it all becomes rather a beautiful work of art in motion. In many ways, much of the visual style is heavily reminiscent of the crude-ish animation on the old Monty Python series. In many other ways it is unlike anything I've ever witnessed in animation - before or since. Of course it features some classic Beatles tunes, along with three made just for this film. They all sound clearer and more incredible than I've heard them before.THE BLU-RAY: Fans of this film should rejoice; you'll be amazed at how incredible it looks & sounds. YELLOW SUBMARINE was painstakingly restored by hand, one frame at a time, by a small team of dedicated folks. The impressive results make this well worth the investment. It looks pristine & perfect. The only gripe I have is about the dialogue, and it's a minor one. It's a little on the soft side, and much of what is said seems rather mumbled. Turning on the subtitles on my second go-round helped tremendously. (The subtitles looks really nice, crisp & sharp, by the way.) There are lots of great bonus content included on this Blu-ray, including new interviews with a few of the voice actors & film crew, a feature-length commentary track with the animation director & producer, a vintage making of featurette and the film's theatrical trailer. There's also 3 storyboard sequence breakdowns and several behind the scenes photos. But wait, there's more! In addition to the supplements on the disc itself, the packaging includes an informative 16 page booklet, four 4"x6" cell transparencies, (one of each of John, Paul, George and Ringo) and even a cool little sheet of stickers featuring characters from the film!

How can you go wrong with the Beatles? I came of age with them, and have seen Yellow Submarine several times...but not for 20 years or so. When I got this, I was surprised about how good it was!The music is there (especially my favorite "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"), the corny jokes are there, the struggle between love and greed is there, and the special effects are great despite being so old. More than most things, this movie brings back those "good old days" (if we can really call them that) and the psychedelic memories that go with them.If you haven't seen this in a long time, I strongly recommend you grab yourself a copy.

Well FIFTY YEARS after taking my nephews to see it in the UK, I've now streamed it ... and it is STILL BRILLIANT! 100% creative, and of course the music way beyond any other artists' of this or any other age (well, Beethoven, Mozart et al, and in our era Shostakovich, weren't bad)