Yellow Submarine

An animated film built on Beatles songs. Pepperland is a place under the sea that lives by music. A group called the Blue Meanies attacks it: they ban music, turn people to stone and take the colour away. Old Fred escapes in a yellow submarine and goes to Liverpool for help. He finds four musicians there and they all return together. On the way they pass through a series of strange seas: the sea of time, the sea of holes, the sea of monsters. The real subject is not the story but the image. Each section was drawn in a different graphic style; collage, psychedelic pattern, period poster art and pop art influence are used together. The Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds sequence was made by a separate technique. The Beatles did not voice the film; actors played the characters. The group appears only briefly at the end. The production is considered a turning point in the history of animation and influenced the musical animation that followed. George Dunning directed. An unclassifiable production for anyone who likes animation, the visual language of the 1960s and Beatles music. For a viewer looking for a story, it is thin and the film is largely a visual experiment.