Blue Meanies | Villains Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Role in the film Taking over Pepperland Their first appearance is right at the beginning, when they assemble their troops to take over the fictional, musical land of Pepperland, as they hate any kind of music. Assembled and ready, they attack using anti-music missiles and small guns that petrifies the citizens. To add insult to injury, they lock the land's biggest source of music, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, inside a huge glass sphere that neutralizes their music. The land soon becomes a big gray wasteland and every Pepperlander ends up petrified, except for one man called "Old Fred" that is told by Pepperland's mayor to seek help, moments before his own capture. Fred quickly sails his Yellow Submarine to Liverpool, where he asks for the Beatles' help. Gathered by Ringo, they all agree to help the land and drive the Meanies away.

Fighting the Beatles and redeeming After meeting the Nowhere Man Jeremy Hillary Boob Ph.D and having him captured by the Blue Meanies, the Beatles and Fred soon reach Pepperland, discovering that the whole land has become gray and devoid of color, and every citizen has been petrified and are now being used by the Meanies as a source of amusement. They The main Blue Meanie Chief. quickly sight the Chief Blue Meanie between the crowd and wait until nighttime so they can act while the Meanies are asleep. As they rush to an old stage where the Lonely Hearts Club Band's instruments are impounded, one of the common Meanies sights them and tries to shoot them, only to miss every shot. The Beatles manage to recover the instruments and disguise themselves as the band. When the sun rises, they try to sneak past the sleeping Meanies, but Ringo accidentally steps on a bagpipe, causing one of the Countdown Clowns to awake and alert the other Meanies of their escape. As they finally gain a chance to hide, they begin to sing " Sgt.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band " as they play the instruments, managing to revive Pepperland's citizens, as well as defeating a bunch of Blue Meanies as they sing. The singing immediately angers the Chief Meanie , so he sends his most destructive "soldier", the "Dreadful Flying Glove", to take out the band before they can sing any other songs. However, John manages to single-handedly defeat it by discovering that without its "G", all that is left of "glove" is "love", thus inspiring him to sing " All You Need is Love ". The song defeats the Glove and revives Pepperland to its fullest. The group also manages to free the Lonely Hearts Club Band from their prison, as they discover that the Band's members are alternate versions of themselves. Not wanting to give up so easily, the Chief decides to send in his Four-Headed Bulldog to finish them, but the new union of the Beatles and the Club Band sing " Hey Bulldog " together, defeating the Meanies' final effort to enslave the population and causing them to retreat.

Amongst the ruckus, Ringo frees Jeremy from the Meanies as the Nowhere Man faces the Chief Meanie himself, managing to conjure a magic spell that fills the Chief's body with flowers and causing him to have a breakdown. As they cheer on their victory, John asks if the Meanies want to join them, which they happily do as they all celebrate with " It's All Too Much " playing on the background. Personality The Meanies are supposed to represent every bad person in the world. As a result, they are all despicable and abhorrent creatures who hate any source of music and never accept "Yes" as an answer. Types There are many types of Blue Meanies seen in the film. The only common trend between them is that they all have blue or at least bluish parts or garments on their bodies. Storm Bloopers: The most common variety, and the most seen. They wear navy-blue woolly coats, domino masks and Mickey Mouse -ear-like hats. Another common trend is that they have six claws on each hand, and wear a pair of yellow-and-orange striped tights.

They are usually seen carrying weapons that fire pale-blue jagged arrows, which can petrify people (to an extent) and cause extreme sadness upon the victim, paralyzing them and draining them of color. The Chief Blue Meanie and his main henchman Max are variations of this type, but the Chief and Max wear jackboots with spurs instead of tights, and the left one is navy-blue while the right one is light-blue. Their hats are also different, as they resemble Bugs Bunny 's ears. Butterfly Stompers: Wide cat-like Meanies carrying numbers on their woolly coats (like sports jerseys). Their name is due to their strange love of stomping butterflies. Apple Bonkers: These are towering, Abraham Lincoln -like Meanies that are extremely thin and use Baldwin apples as their primary weapon, which they use to hit people on the head and cause similar effects to the Meanies' jagged arrow guns. These Meanies are referenced in the 2007 film Across the Universe , when Mr. Kite introduces one of his circus' characters called the "Blue People". Countdown Clowns: Large, fat clown-like Meanies with no arms.

They can generate loud shrieks that are used to alarm other Meanies of an enemy's presence, as well as announce their attacks. Their noses can be pressed to create big explosions wherever they look (it must be done by another Meanie, as the clowns have no arms). After they become good, their explosions are replaced by sounds of "Yes" and "OK". Snapping-Turtle Turks: Relatively short, fat Meanies dressed in stereotypical Turkish attire. Their stomachs are actually giant predatory faces with sharp-toothed mouths that consume whatever they see. Hidden-Persuader Men: Large gentleman Meanies that constantly smoke cigars and hold martinis in their hands, with what seems to be an eye on the glass. They hide two more arms beneath their shoes that hold concealed guns, which they use to threaten people who are close by. After their redeeming, they are seen prompting toasts to each other and using their extra hands to give friendly shakes. Jack-the-Nippers: The least seen variation. These Meanies resemble jazz musicians wearing green tailcoats and sunglasses with two reptilian heads for hands. These guys can be easily defeated by tricking their "hands" into biting their own tongues.

Their name is a play on Jack the Ripper. The Four-Headed Bulldog: A large, light-blue Bulldog with four heads that is remarkably strong, each of its mouths having razor-sharp teeth. Only one of this variety is seen in the movie. Its very owner has no strength to contain this beast if it wants to walk in a particular direction. It is defeated when the Beatles and the Lonely Hearts Club Band sing "Hey Bulldog" to get its attention and then run in opposite directions to confuse it. The Dreadful Flying Glove: The fiercest of the Meanies. It is literally a giant glove sporting a stylized face, with the thumbnail acting as the eye and the index finger as the nose, constantly pointing forward. This creature is a force to be reckoned with; crushing and "o-blue-terating" anything its master orders it to. It is defeated when John sings "All You Need is Love" and covers it with the words that come out of his mouth. Trivia The term "Blue Meanies" is also a slang term in Britain for the police or traffic wardens, especially certain traffic wardens that were hired by private firms and thus earned money via distributing fees to motorists.

The Bulldog was edited out of the American version so it wouldn't create an anti-climax after the "All You Need is Love" scene. The Meanie known as "Max" is a reference to the 1966 film The Blue Max. A Blue Meanie appears in the South Park episode "Imaginationland". Despite being the antagonists of the film, the Meanies have little screen time. The Meanies were originally going to be red, as a reference to the Cold War. Yellow Submarine (Western Animation) - TV Tropes Animated Music Video : One of the first. Annoying Arrows : Ringo pulls some out of himself after his 'arrowing experience in the Sea of Monsters. The Blue Meanies' guns fire whizzy cartoon arrows complete with cartoony sound effects. They don't kill you if they hit, just remove your colour and make you a slave. Apathetic Citizens : Lord Mayor, the Blue Meanies are coming! What will you do? "Finish the quartet!" Justified in that Lord Mayor thinks that the Blue Meanies "wouldn't dare" actually invade. It doesn't really explain his failure to notice the rest of Pepperland being invaded around him, though...

Arc Words : "It's all in the mind." Thanks, George. Also a Shout-Out to The Goon Show , of which the Beatles were fans. Argentina Is Naziland : Referenced when the routed Meanies consider fleeing there. Autocannibalism : The vacuum monster eats everything in its universe. Eventually it eats itself, mouth last. Bad Boss : The Chief Meanie, especially towards Max. Bad Is Good and Good Is Bad : The Blue Meanies take it to the logical extreme by saying "no" instead of "yes". Chief Meanie: Pepperland is a tickle of joy on the blue belly of the universe. It must be scratched . Right, Max? Max: Yes, Your Blueness! Chief Meanie: FIRE! [The Meanies keep firing away; one of the foursome is turned to stone by a Meanie's arrow and Fred catches his instrument] Fred: Trio, sir. [He starts plucking away, as another is turned to stone] Duet, sir. Lord Mayor: ...Duet?! [And a third is turned to stone] Fred: Solo.

[He takes a whack at playing all three violins at once] Lord Mayor: [Awkward beat as the realization hits him] ...Y-Young Fred! THE BLUE MEANIES ARE COMING!!! Don't forget when the lads are in Pepperland, and infiltrate a marching squad of Bonkers: Meanie Squad Leader: Sound off! (The Bonkers start marching in a column of 4.) Bonkers (from front to rear): (marching) A-one, two, three, hm! A-one, two, three, hm! A one, two, three, hm! George (offscreen): Five. Meanie Squad Leader: (perplexed) FIVE? (Camera pulls back to reveal the lads stacked to Bonker height, wielding an apple. They march up to the rear Bonker and bonk his head with the apple. The Bonker falls down stunned, and the lads take his place. The squad leader shakes his head and gets the column going again.) Meanie Squad Leader: Sound off! Bonkers (from front to rear): (marching) A-one, two, three. George (offscreen): Four.

Bonkers (from front to rear): (marching) A-one, two, three. George (offscreen): Four. Bonkers (from front to rear): (marching) A-one, twoï¿½ (Another bonking.) Meanie Squad Leader: (confused again) Three? (Yet another bonking.) Meanie Squad Leader: (angrily confused and wild-eyed) TWO?! (Even more bonking.) George: One. Meanie Squad Leader: (bewildered) One?! (The last bonker drops his apple as he goes down, hitting the squad leader's head and sending him reeling.) Ejection Seat : The steersman's chair turns out to be one when Ringo presses the Panic Button. Evil Laugh : The Blue Meanies, especially the Chief. The Dreadful Flying Glove. Extra Digits : The Blue Meanies have six-fingered hands to emphasize their overall wrongness/evilness. Face Palm : When an apple falls on a Blue Meanie's head, the meanie does this. Also Paul's reaction to Ringo's "subscribers" pun. Failure Is the Only Option : How the Blue Meanies' conquest of Pepperland ultimately ends after the Beatles arrive.

Feed It a Bomb : Attempted by one denizen of the Sea of Monsters, which shoots a cannonball into the Vacuum Monster's mouth. It does nothing. Gag Nose : The Blue Meanies' noses. Getting Crap Past the Radar : Getting the Blue Meanies' hats past the Disney Legal Department radar, and the brief nudity in "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"? Not to mention lines like: George: Ah, you're nuts, the pair of yer. Fred: If we slip back through time at this rate, very soon we'll all disappear up our own existence . Ringo: Open your mouth, love, it won't hurt. (Coaxing John to make the word "LOVE" appear out of his mouth, of course. What else could it be?) As well as John asking Jeremy "who the Billy Shears" he is. Paul saying, "Hey, let's show him our motor!" John: Steady. I mean, you don't wanna be showin' your motor to just anybody. The line Can I take my friend to bed? in All Together Now.

Not visible in the DVD cut, but in the widescreen theatrical version when the Beatles walk away from the big head after "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", there is a cloud in the upper right corner of the screen that strongly resembles a certain part of the male anatomy. Gone Horribly Right : When Jeremy repairs the sub's engine, it starts up and goes zooming off into the distance with Old Fred helpless to stop it, leaving everybody else behind. Hell Is That Noise : The clown alarm. You can hear it here , but don't say we didn't warn you. Humiliation Conga : The Chief Blue Meanie's precious flying glove is defeated, his weapons start spitting flowers instead of bullets, he is trampled by his own retreating army, and to top it all off, his blue fur was magically infested with carnations. Hurricane of Puns : This is one of those movies that turns these bad puns into magic. Including the Meanie number two's name, given that The Blue Max was once a famous German medal.

"Today...Pepperland goes blue-y!" "It's blue glass." "Must be from Kentucky." "[It's a] University of Whales !" "I'm a born lever-puller!" (Which wouldn't sound at all like the word "Liverpooler" if it weren't for Ringo's Liverpool accent.) "Cut-outs at the ready, and let's cut out!" (And many many more.) Iconic Outfit : The Sgt. Pepper uniforms and the Beatles' rather eccentric choice of dress. Of course, both of these were picked up in The Beatles: Rock Band . Improbable Weapon User : The Bonkers use giant green apples as their weapon of choice. The counter-insurgency fights back with music and musical instruments. I'm Taking Her Home with Me! : Ringo's feelings toward Jeremy manifest themselves as this more or less. Also, a line spoken by John during "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band": "You're such a lovely audience. We'd like to take you home with us. We'd love to take you home." Of course the latter is a quote from the actual song and therefore pre-dates the film.

Info Drop : The animators almost seem to deliberately distract you when Fred accidentally drops all of the instruments in the Sea of Monsters, and the Beatles don't even mention it until they reach Pepperland. The only hint before that is when the Beatles play air instruments during the Nowhere Man sequence. Instrumental : George Martin's orchestral music on the album and the soundtrack. Jumped at the Call : All the Beatles. How they managed to understand Old Fred's garbled explanation is anyone's guess. Keet : The Chief Blue Meanie. "King Kong" Climb : Behind one of the doors in the Beatles' home. Lame Pun Reaction : "Call a road service." "Can't, no road." "And we're not sub... scribers." The other Beatles seem physically pained by that one. And then there are a couple of instances of exchanges between Ringo and Old Fred: When they walk through a hall of displays in a huge house: Fred: What would your friends be doing here? Ringo: Displayin'. Fred: Displaying what? Ringo: Displayin' around. When Ringo tries to steer the submarine through the Sea of Monsters and they come across one monster: Fred: You've got to steer clear!

Ringo: Steer clear? Fred: Just steer! Clear? Ringo: Yes, dear. Large Ham : The Chief Meanie plays this to perfection, alternately talking calmly and yelling when excited or upset. Example: Chief Meanie: Let us not forget that heaven is blue... TOMORROW, THE WORLD!!!!!! The real-life Beatles' cameo near the end is also tongue-in-cheek silly. Limited Animation : One of the defining films of the genre, often misattributed to avant-garde artist Peter Max; and a who's-who of British animation; helped inspire Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. Part of what may have caused the film to underperform in its original release-keep in mind, this made when the Beatles were at the height of their popularity and people still avoided the film. Richard Williams even points this out in his book "The Animator's Survival Kit". The film never got a full release in the UK. When Submarine was first released in London in July 1968, Rank, the British distributor, reported low figures justifying cutting the film's release to half the circuit. Several days later, challenged with capacity business receipts, Rank denied making the previous statement.

Richard Lester, director of A Hard Day's Night and Help, pointed out that three films with less box-office had received a general release, but Yellow Submarine had not. "...This whole thing about releases is so bizarre. I've been looking up some figures, out of my own interest, because of this Yellow Submarine thing, and it's very sinister. You find things like The Magnificent Two and The Long Duel and The Jokers which did in the West End about two thousand pounds a week getting a full circuit release, and Yellow Submarine which did eleven thousand pounds in the West End not getting it. Strangely enough, the first three I spoke about were all Rank films." Movie #16 Winter 1968-69 p.26 "Interview with Richard Lester" "Inside the Yellow Submarine" Dr. Robert Hieronimus Monster Clown : The Meanies use really freaky looking clowns (known as "Countdown Clowns") as an alarm system. They've got no arms and really do look horrific. The noise they make when they're alarmed REALLY doesn't help . Plus, things tend to explode when you press their squeaky noses.

Mark Hamill has said that his performance of The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series (and, indeed, that version's appearance) can be traced back to the Chief Blue Meanie. Monumental Damage / Signs of Disrepair : When the Meanies conquer Pepperland, they smash a statue of two clasped hands, breaking them apart, and change a giant "KNOW" sign to "NO." Never Trust a Trailer : The four-minute trailer contains nearly as much footage of live-action Beatles as the entire film does, and with the inclusion of footage of the lads horsing around with the studio equipment implies them actually having something to do with the film's production behind the scenes. New Powers as the Plot Demands : John suddenly gains the ability to make his words manifest into reality just in time for his "fight" with the Glove. For some reason, live-action Paul can do this by the end of the movie, too. The movie sort of justifies it by saying that John has "a big mouth", though that could just as easily be sarcasm on their part. Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! : A subversion. Jeremy does fix the sub's propeller, but this then causes the sub to zoom off and strand them.

Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here : At the beginning of the film, Ringo is lamenting his boring life. Running Gag : Old Fred's repeated incoherent explanation of what's going on in Pepperland: Fred: Ggggaakbunkahbdonkaglrigabpbr music lmrapqlifrheabffffunkahhluh blue gegahdahmaeroohthe s-s-submarine nbnhh explosion grfl BLUUEEE MEANNNIEESS! Later, when they pick up John: Ringo: (When they pick up John) Now, listen to old Fred. Fred: Ggggaakbunkahbdonkag music lmrapqlffunkah blue gemaeroohthe s-s-submarine nbnhh explosion grfl BLUUEEE MEANNNIEESS!! — So what d'you think? John: [to Ringo] I think it needs a rehearsal.

By the final repetition, John and Ringo are chiming in on the last three syllables: Fred: Ggggaakbunkahbgmusibluuemaerosubmarinenbnhhexplosion— Fred, John, and Ringo: BLUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEE MEEEEAAAAAAANIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEES!!! George: [to John and Ringo] Ah, you're nuts, the pair of yer. By the time they get to Paul, they don't even need to repeat it, him having apparently heard it the first three times. Schmuck Bait : Ringo and the lever. (Granted, of course, he's a born lever-puller. ) And again with Ringo and the Panic Button . Poor guy never gets a break in this movie. Scooby-Dooby Doors : At least three different points in the film could be legitimately claimed as Scooby Dooby Doors moments, though only one features doors outright.

In the Beatles' mansion, a weird alien creature, a floating hat, a black guy in a yellow suit, a butterfly, a woman's hand, an eggcup, a tobacco pipe with a face, a rocking horse, a skull and crossbones, Batman , an umbrella and pair of glasses. All going in and out of doors in about five seconds. Another moment occurs when the Blue Meanies chase the Beatles through Pepperland, after the band inadvertently awakens them from their sleep. Security Cling : The Lord Mayor jumps into Old Fred's arms during the Blue Meanie attack. Surreal Music Video : The Trope Codifier as well as the Ur-Example . Taken for Granite : Citizens of Pepperland who are shot by the Meanies' magic arrows lose all their color and become motionless. Some of them can still move a little, or shed tears, but none of them seem to be able to speak or put up any real resistance. Take That : Most Blue Meanies have Mickey Mouse ears. The Chief Meanie has ears that look somewhat like Oswald the Lucky Rabbit's. And... Max: [sings off-key] With The Sound of Music !

Chief Meanie: [immediately shoots Max] Talking the Monster to Death : They defeat one monster by making fun of how ugly it is. Said monster was totally harmless. Poor monster ... Jeremy does this to the Chief Blue Meanie. Jeremy: Where ground is soft / most often grows— / Arise! Arise! / Arouse, a rose! [the Chief Meanie's nose sprouts a flower] ... a rosy nose?? Technobabble : In a parody of his tendency towards profound pronouncements, Lennon's character attempts to explain the uncanny resemblance between themselves and Sgt. Pepper's Band. The other characters promptly laugh it off and attempt to bash open their glass prison while he's still talking. It gets better. If you listen closely, John's explanation eventually evolves into some kind of recipenote It sounds like a recipe for scrambled eggs, which was, according to legend, the working title for "Yesterday." And while John starts talking about relativity, Paul spins around and starts singing the old music-hall number "Any Old Iron" as "Any old Ein, Any old Ein, Any-any-any old Ein-stein".

Theme Park : The Sony Entertainment Centers of Berlin and Tokyo featured "The Yellow Submarine Adventure" during 2000. The CGI cutscenes for the ride were made about a decade before the remake was announced. Today X, Tomorrow the World! : Variation: the Chief Blue Meanie says, "Let us not forget that heaven is blue... TOMORROW THE WORLD!" Trap Door : Ringo pushes a button and drops a monster out of the submarine. 20 Minutes into the Future : Just about any of the musical segments (especially "Nowhere Man", "Only a Northern Song", "Eleanor Rigby" and "When I'm 64") could easily pass for 80s style music videos (in content if not for actual animation style). Unflinching Faith in the Brakes : Old Fred as Ringo drives a car toward him in the mansion. What Does This Button Do? : Too bad it was the panic button... What Measure Is a Non-Human? : When a monster gets inside the submarine, everyone comments on how incredibly ugly it is until it's driven to tears, at which point they kick it out of the sub.

Later, when Jeremy is also brought to tears by the Beatles singing "Nowhere Man" to him (in their defense, the lyrics are an accurate portrait of him), Ringo is the only one who seems to care that they've hurt Jeremy's feelings, the other Beatles want nothing more to do with him. But Ringo gets him to come along anyway, and he does turn out to be of some assistance. Ringo: Poor little guy. Paul: I dunno, Ringo is just a sentimentalist. He fixes the submarine's propeller ( so well, unfortunately, that Old Fred can't turn it off and is forced to leave without the Beatles ), and later helps take down the Blue Meanie Leader at the end and the Meanies into making peace. Ringo: First time I saw that "Nowhere Man"...that "nobody"... I knew he was somebody. World of Chaos : Most of the film is set there — even the parts in Liverpool.

The Beatles Yellow Submarine "Blue Meanie" Rock Iconz Statue by KnuckleBonz® $115 KnuckleBonz is excited to unveil a series of limited edition statues in their Rock Iconz® Series representing characters from the animated film classic The Beatles, Yellow Submarine. The first release in the series is the “Blue Meanie”, the Yellow Submarine’s arch villain. This statue is hand-painted, numbered and comes with a certificate of authenticity. This figure is super exclusive, with only 1968 created in this limited edition. All statues in the series are highly collectible. These are licensed and approved by Apple Corps. Ltd and Live Nation Merchandise, Inc. All statues are hand-painted, numbered and come with a certificate of authenticity. This is a fully licensed, limited edition collectible. Only 1968 of this figure is created and sold worldwide. See FAQ's for more details on pre-ordering. More Images: Click on each image below for detailed product shots.

Yellow Submarine | film by Dunning [1968] | Britannica.com film by Dunning [1968] Mary Poppins Yellow Submarine, British animated film, released in 1968, that was based on the songs of the Beatles . It was designed to appeal more to hippies of the era and adult fans of the Beatles than to children, the traditional target of animated productions. A scene from Yellow Submarine (1968). © 1968 United Artists Corporation Based on the Beatles’ hit song of the same title, Yellow Submarine takes place in the fantasy world of Pepperland, a psychedelic paradise that faces imminent doom at the hands of the villainous Blue Meanies. The desperate residents call upon the Beatles to save the day, and they do so to the tune of various songs, including “ When I’m Sixty-Four, ” and “ Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. ” The film’s absurdist humour and lyrical allusions keep it in line with the band’s previous cinematic productions. Though the Beatles agreed to participate in the making of this film, they did not provide the voices for their own characters, instead appearing only in a brief live-action epilogue.

The psychedelic animation was considered quite innovative by the standards of the late 1960s, and it holds up well for many viewers when combined with the Beatles’ classic songs. The script was cowritten by future Love Story novelist and screenwriter Erich Segal. Production notes and credits Writers: Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn, Lee Minoff, and Erich Segal Music: George Martin Paul Angelis (Chief Blue Meanie/Ringo Starr) John Clive (John Lennon) the Beatles British musical quartet and a global cynosure for the hopes and dreams of a generation that came of age in the 1960s. The principal members were John Lennon (b. October 9, 1940 Liverpool, Merseyside, England —d. December 8, 1980 New York, New York, U.S.), Paul McCartney (in full Sir James... hippie member, during the 1960s and 1970s, of a countercultural movement that rejected the mores of mainstream American life. The movement originated on college campuses in the United States, although it spread to other countries, including Canada and Britain.

The name derived from “hip,” a... Yellow Submarine - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up) The British animated film Yellow Submarine (1968) was based on the songs of the musical group the Beatles. It was designed to appeal more to hippies of the era and adult fans of the Beatles than to children, the traditional target of animated productions. Article Contributors Corrections? Updates? Help us improve this article! Contact our editors with your feedback. MEDIA FOR: You have successfully emailed this. Error when sending the email. Try again later. Edit Mode Submit Tips For Editing We welcome suggested improvements to any of our articles. You can make it easier for us to review and, hopefully, publish your contribution by keeping a few points in mind. Encyclopædia Britannica articles are written in a neutral objective tone for a general audience. You may find it helpful to search within the site to see how similar or related subjects are covered. Any text you add should be original, not copied from other sources. At the bottom of the article, feel free to list any sources that support your changes, so that we can fully understand their context.

(Internet URLs are the best.) Your contribution may be further edited by our staff, and its publication is subject to our final approval. Unfortunately, our editorial approach may not be able to accommodate all contributions. Submit Thank You for Your Contribution! Our editors will review what you've submitted, and if it meets our criteria, we'll add it to the article. Please note that our editors may make some formatting changes or correct spelling or grammatical errors, and may also contact you if any clarifications are needed. Uh Oh There was a problem with your submission. Please try again later. Close Date Published: April 01, 2014 URL: Access Date: January 18, 2017 Share Yellow Submarine - All The Tropes Yellow Submarine Nothing is real. "It's all in the mind." Yellow Submarine is a psychedelic late 1960s animated movie that doesn't quite star The Beatles . (Though their songs feature prominently, and they do get a cameo at the end.) When Blue Meanies attack the strange and magical undersea utopia of "Pepperland", Old Fred is sent off in a near-omnipotent submarine to find help.

He ends up in Liverpool, where he convinces Ringo Starr and his three "mates" to return with him. Along the way, stuff happens. Very weird stuff. With Beatles music all throughout and art in the style of Heinz Edelmann, the return voyage and rescue of Pepperland is... quite a ' trip '. Can the Beatles save Pepperland thanks to The Power of Rock ? Or will the Blue Meanies end the free and open dissemination of music, which they are allergic to , once and for all? A motion-capture remake to be directed by Robert Zemeckis was in pre-production, but is currently dead thanks to his previous movie flopping. Tropes used in Yellow Submarine include: Acid Trip Dimension : Several. Adaptation Expansion : The original song only describes a trip to the Sea of Green, and while that's still a goal of the movie (as the Sea of Green leads to Pepperland), there are many more seas the Beatles find themselves in before reaching the Sea of Green. Strangely enough, the Sea Of Green sequence only takes about ten seconds. And I Must Scream : The citizens of Meanie-run Pepperland are shown to be gray and frozen, but still conscious.

And Knowing Is Half the Battle : "Sixty-four years is 33,661,440 minutes, and one minute is a long time. Let us dem-0-1-2-nstrate." It's really 33,660,721 minutes. [1] And Starring : Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Even though the Beatles probably spend more time disguised as the band than the actual band's screentime. Rectified in the extended cut, where the real Sergeant Pepper and his band help the Beatles defeat a group of canine Meanies to the tune of "Hey Bulldog". Animated Music Video : One of the first. Annoying Arrows : Ringo pulls some out of himself after his experience in the Sea of Monsters. He found it 'arrowing . The Blue Meanies' guns fire whizzy cartoon arrows complete with cartoony sound effects. They don't kill you if they hit, just remove your color and make you a slave. Apathetic Citizens : Lord Mayor, the Blue Meanies are coming! What will you do? "Finish the solo!" Arc Words : "It's all in the mind." Thanks, George.

Also a Shout-Out to The Goon Show , which the Beatles were fans of. Auto Cannibalism : The vacuum monster eats everything in its universe; as a last resort it eats itself, mouth last. Chief Meanie: WHAAAT? We Meanies only take "no" for an answer! Is that understood, Max? Max: No, Your Blueness! The Cameo : The Beatles themselves make a brief appearance at the end. Camp Gay : The boss of the Blue Meanies. Card-Carrying Villain : Blue Meanies. The name says it all. (After being eaten by the Vaccum Monster) Paul: What should we do? Paul: Lovely. Catch Phrase : George's is "It's all in the mind." This is a Shout-Out to The Goon Show , which sometimes used the phrase in its closing narration. Cats Are Mean : The nine catlike Blue Meanies are particularly cruel. (These are known as "Butterfly Stompers") Chekhov's Gun : The hole in Ringo's pocket. He later gives half of it to Jeremy. Cloudcuckoolander : All four of the Beatles. John: Hey lads. Now Ringo's gone.

What do we do? Fred: Learn to sing trios. Paul: Naaaw, let's save the poor devil! Contrived Coincidence : The Beatles just happen to be perfect physical duplicates to the legendary Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club band. (In modern DVD cut they are implied to be linked to each other in some odd metaphysical fashion.) Lampshaded to a degree when the Lord Mayor meets them. Lord Mayor: It's quite uncanny! Your faces! Lord Mayor: You could pass for the originals! John: We are the originals. Lord Mayor: No, no ... Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band! George: They couldn't be much with a name like that! Deranged Animation Directors Cut : There are at least two versions of this film -- the one seen in most American theaters and available on video until about 1991, and the remastered version that has the "Hey Bulldog" sequence and some changes of pacing and sequencing in that area. There was also a UK broadcast version pieced together by The BBC from the available footage. This also included "Hey Bulldog" but omits some of the scenes that eventually (ahem) surfaced in the remaster.

The Dragon : The Dreadful Flying Glove. Driven to Suicide : Ringo is so bored that he'd jump into the River Mersey, only doesn't because "it looks like rain". DVD Commentary : By production supervisor John Coates, with clips from interviews with Heinz Edelmann. Dwindling Party : The citizens of Pepperland during the invasion. Fred: Sir! Sir! The Blue Meanies are coming! Lord Mayor: Not h-here, young Fred. They w-wouldn't dare. Fred: They would! They are! What are you going to do? Lord Mayor: Finish the quartet. Chief Meanie: FIRE! (The Meanies keep firing away, and one of the foursome is turned to stone by a Meany's arrow and Fred catches his instrument) Fred: Trio, sir. (He starts plucking away, as another is turned to stone) Duet, sir. Lord Mayor: Duet? (And a third is turned to stone) Fred: Solo. (He takes a whack at playing all three violins at once) Lord Mayor: Young Fred! The Blue Meanies are coming!!!

Ejection Seat : The steersman's chair turns out to be one when Ringo presses the Panic Button. Evil Laugh : The Blue Meanies, especially the Chief. Follow the Leader : This film was arguably a strong influence on 1974's Space Battleship Yamato , and thus indirectly on Star Wars , Battlestar Galactica Classic , and pretty much all of modern Space Opera . Getting Crap Past the Radar : Getting the Blue Meanies' hats past the Disney Legal Department radar, and the brief nudity in "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"? Not to mention lines like: Fred: If we slip back through time at this rate, very soon we'll all disappear up our own existence . Open your mouth love, it won't hurt. (Coaxing John to make the word "LOVE" appear out of his mouth, of course. What else could it be?) As well as John asking Jeremy "who the Billy Shears" he is. Go, Ye Heroes, Go and Die : Old Fred's motivational speech just before the Beatles enter the Submarine. Giant Foot of Stomping : Also, feet that shoot guns and hands that have teeth. George: I see footsteps.

Paul: It's a pair of kinky-boot beasts! John: Preparing to attack. Giant Hands of Doom : Again, The Dreadful Flying Glove. Good Hurts Evil : Blue Meanies don't like good music spreading through the land. It pains them. Harbinger of Impending Doom : The Meanies are coming! Head-in-The-Sand Management : The Old Mayor is a sympathetic example. Hurricane of Puns : This is one of those movies that turns these bad puns into magic. "Today...Pepperland goes blue-y!" "It's blue glass." "Must be from Kentucky." "[It's a] University of Whales!" "I'm a born lever-puller!" (Which wouldn't sound at all like the word "Liverpooler" if it weren't for Ringo's Liverpool accent.) And many many more. Improbable Weapon User : The Bonkers use giant apples as their weapon of choice. I'm Taking Her Home with Me : Ringo's feelings toward Jeremy manifest themselves as this more or less. Incredibly Lame Pun : "Call a road service." "Can't, no road." "And we're not sub...

scribers." The other Beatles react with physical pain to that one. And then there are a couple of instances of exchanges between Ringo and Old Fred: When they walk through a hall of displays in a huge house: Fred: What would your friends be doing here? Ringo: Displayin'. Fred: Displaying what? Ringo: Displayin' around. When Ringo tries to steer the submarine through the Sea of Monsters and they come across one monster: Fred: You've got to steer clear! Ringo: Steer clear? Fred: Yes, steer! Clear? Ringo: Yes, dear. Info Drop : The animators almost seem to deliberately distract you when Fred accidentally drops all of the instruments in the Sea of Monsters, and the Beatles don't even mention it until they reach Pepperland. The only hint before that is when the Beatles play air instruments during the Nowhere Man sequence. Jumped At the Call : All the Beatles. How they managed to understand Old Fred's garbled explanation is anyone's guess. Jerkass : The Beatles To Jeremy. Being a Nowhere Man aside, Jeremy is basically a good-hearted soul with many skills. He just has no real purpose or reason for them.

The Beatles are snarky to him from the start, and when he even he fixes the sub's motor, the Beatles attempt to just walk off without as much as a thank-you, and then go on to berate him further via the "Nowhere Man" number, leaving poor Jeremy a hurt, crying mess. Only Ringo takes pity on him at the last minute. And just a few minutes later, when Jeremy fixes one of the Sub's propellers too well that the sub accidentally goes into overdrive, John, Paul, and George lose no time sniping at him again. Only Ringo defends him. Limited Animation : One of the defining films of the genre, often misattributed to avant-garde artist Peter Max; and a who's-who of British animation; helped inspire Terry Gilliam of Monty Python fame. Part of what may have caused the film to underperform in its original release -- keep in mind, this was made when the Beatles were at the height of their popularity and people still avoided the film. Richard Williams even points this out in his book "The Animator's Survival Kit".

Magic Music Malevolent Architecture : It's clear from Ringo's whining about how nothing ever happens to him that he has never paid attention to what happens inside his mansion. Or he's just bored with it -- he no longer seems to notice there's anything strange about the place (partly because at least some of it hides from him). Memetic Outfit : The Sgt. Pepper uniforms and the Beatles' rather eccentric choice of dress. Of course, both of these were picked up in The Beatles: Rock Band . Mind Screw : Pick a moment. Jeremy: "Medic, pedic, Zed Oblique. Orfic, Morphic, Dorfic, Greek. Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo. So little time, so much to know!" Monster Clown : The Meanies use really freaky looking clowns (known as "Countdown Clowns") as an alarm system. They've got no arms and really do look horrific. The noise they make when they're alarmed really doesn't help. Plus when things tend to explode when you press their squeaky noses.

Mark Hamill has said that his performance of The Joker in Batman: The Animated Series (and, indeed, that version's appearance) can be traced back to the Chief Blue Meanie. Monumental Damage / Signs of Disrepair : When the Meanies conquer Pepperland, they smash a statue of two clasped hands, breaking them apart, and change a giant "KNOW" to "NO". The Musical Mythology Gag : To other songs from the Beatles; such when Fred recites the chorus to Help! , or John introducing himself to "the Alter-Ego Man" as "the Ego Man, Goo Goo G'joob." And in the end when Ringo gave half of his hole to Jeremy and Paul decides to fix it to keep his mind from wondering. A Nazi by Any Other Name : The Blue Meanies.

Hence the joke where the Chief Blue Meanie moans about where they could go since they were defeated, and Max suggests "Argentina?" Never Trust a Trailer : The four-minute trailer contains nearly as much footage of live-action Beatles as the entire film does, and with the inclusion of footage of the lads horsing around with the studio equipment implies them actually having something to do with the film's production behind the scenes. New Powers as the Plot Demands : John suddenly gains the ability to make his words manifest into reality just in time for his "fight" with the Glove. For some reason, live-action Paul can do this by the end of the movie, too. Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here : At the beginning of the film, Ringo is lamenting his boring life. Not Quite Starring : The Beatles. Obi-Wan Moment : The Mayor faces his imminent "bonking" with quiet stoicism. Off-Model : Hardly any of the characters are ever on model. Whether this adds or detracts from the movie is a matter of opinion. On Three : As the Beatles are about to sing Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

John Lennon Ok, fellows on the beat...A-one, a-two, a-three, a-four, a-five, a-six... Ringo Starr Can't you make it three? John Lennon Oh, alright! On the beat...A-one, a-two, a-three... Ringo: Liverpool can be a lonely place on a Saturday night. And this is only Thursday morning. Our Monsters Are Weird : Given the trippiness of the rest of the movie, this is understandable. Apparently John Lennon designed some of them [3] , which explains even more. Parental Bonus : See if you can find one kid who can even see the Stealth Pun . Planet of Hats : Pepperland is a musical realm. Plot-Driven Breakdown : Two in quick succession, in fact. Product Placement : One of the Meanies' weapons is the symbol of Apple Records. The Power of Love : Literally the power of love when John defeats the Glove with "All You Need Is Love". Then the movie ends with everyone holding hands to "It's All Too Much" and "All Together Now" written in various languages, set to the song of the same name. Rhymes on a Dime : Jeremy again.

As he explains: "If I spoke prose, you'd all find out / I don't know what I talk about." Rotoscoping : In the "Eleanor Rigby" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" segments Running Gag : Old Fred's repeated incoherent explanation of what's going on in Pepperland: Fred: Ggggaakbunkahbdonkaglrigabpbrmusiclmrapqlifrheabffffunkahluuue bluue gahdahmaeroohthes-s-submarinenbnhhexplosions-- BLUUEEE MEANNNIEESS! Ringo: (When they pick up John) Now, listen to old Fred. Fred: Ggggaakbunkahbdonkagmusiclmrapqlffunkahbluuuemaeroohthes-s-submarinenbnhhexplosions-- BLUUEEE MEANNNIEESS! So, what do you think? John: (to Ringo) I think it needs a rehearsal.

By the final repetition, John and Ringo are chiming in on the last three syllables: Fred: "Ggggaakbunkahbgmusibluuemaerosubmarinenbnhhexplosions--" Sugar Bowl : Pepperland before the Blue Meanie attack. Take That : most Blue Meanies have Mickey Mouse ears. And... Chief Meanie: Aaaaah... the hills are alive... Max: With The Sound of Music ! (This prompts the Chief Meanie to punch Max.) Talking the Monster to Death : They defeat one monster by making fun of how ugly it is. Said monster was totally harmless. Poor monster ... Jeremy does this to the Chief Blue Meanie. Jeremy Where ground is soft/most often grows/Arise! Arise!/Arouse, a rose... a rosy nose? Techno Babble : In a parody of his tendency towards profound pronouncements, Lennon's character attempts to explain the uncanny resemblance between themselves and Sgt. Pepper's Band. The other characters promptly laugh it off and attempt to bash open their glass prison while he's still talking. It gets better.

If you listen closely, John's explanation eventually evolves into some kind of recipe [4] Tempting Fate Ringo: Nothing ever happens to me. Theme Park : The Sony Entertainment Centers of Berlin and Tokyo featured "The Yellow Submarine Adventure" during 2000. The CGI cutscenes for the ride were made about a decade before the remake was announced. Those Wacky Nazis : Blue Meanies, to the point where the defeated second in command suggests fleeing to Argentina, no less! Today X, Tomorrow the World! : Variation: the Chief Blue Meanie says, "Let us not forget that heaven is blue... TOMORROW THE WORLD!" Trap Door : Ringo pushes a button and drops a monster out of the submarine. Twenty Minutes Into the Future : Just about any of the musical segments (especially "Nowhere Man", "Only a Northern Song", "Eleanor Rigby" and "When I'm 64") could easily pass for 80s style music videos (in content if not for actual animation style). Unflinching Faith in the Brakes : Old Fred as Ringo drives a car toward him in the mansion. Utopia : Pepperland, before and after the (British) invasion.

Waxing Lyrical : Songs that aren't featured outright often get slipped into the dialogue, such as when Fred pounds on the door while reciting the words to "Help". "I am the ego man, goo goo g'joob." Weirdness Censor : The only possible explanation for Ringo's boredom, considering where he lives. What Measure Is a Non-Human? : When a monster gets inside the submarine, everyone comments on how incredibly ugly it is until it's driven to tears, at which point they kick it out of the sub. Later when Jeremy is also brought to tears by the Beatles singing "Nowhere Man" to him (to their credit, the lyrics are an accurate portrait of him), Ringo is the only one who seems to care that they've hurt Jeremy's feelings, the other Beatles want nothing more to do with him. But Ringo gets him to come along anyway, and he does turn out to be of some assistance. Ringo: Poor little guy. Paul: I dunno, Ringo is just a sentimentalist.

He fixes the submarine's propeller (so well, unfortunately, that Old Fred can't turn it off and is forced to leave without the Beatles ), and later helps take down the Blue Meanie Leader at the end and the Meanies into making peace. Ringo: First time I saw that "Nowhere Man"... that "Nobody" ... I knew he was Somebody. This troper always thought that Jeremy started crying at the thought of them leaving him alone. He really only started to get upset when they began to leave. He probably didn't get many visitors... World of Chaos : Most of the film is set there -- even the parts in Liverpool. Zeerust : the title was presented in a pseudo-MICR typeface , that being the 1960s idea of a "futuristic" typeface. (The only relationship most people had with computers being the MICR numbers printed on cheques.) Notes ↑ The figure in the film is arrived at by multiplying 24 (hours per day) x 60 (minutes per hour) x 365.25 (average number of days per year including leap years) x 64 (years). That is 33,661,440.

That contains about half a day too many, though. And in the Gregorian calendar, an average year is actually 365.2425 days. ↑ Paul was often referred to at "The cute one" ↑ He was not pleased when he wasn't credited for this ↑ It sounds like a recipe for scrambled eggs, which was, according to legend, the working title for "Yesterday." 128. YELLOW SUBMARINE (1968) | 366 Weird Movies 128. YELLOW SUBMARINE (1968) G. Smalley (366weirdmovies) 4 Comments “The Lennon/McCartney songs used in the film seem to have been conceived and brought forth in the pure simple spirit of mystical innocence, like the works of Chagall. And, like Chagall’s works, the film tries to include everything in the world to make up its own cosmos.

The animation style ranges from storybook simplicity to pop art and psychedelic shimmer.”–Punch magazine DIRECTED BY: George Dunning FEATURING: Voices of Paul Angelis, John Clive, Geoffrey Hughes, Peter Batten, Dick Emery PLOT: The music-hating Blue Meanies freeze the residents of the idyllic undersea kingdom of Pepperland. Only Admiral Fred escapes in his Yellow Submarine; he travels to Liverpool to enlist the assistance of the Beatles to deal with the threat. After a sailing through several surreal seas, the lads eventually reach Pepperland and use the power of music to defeat the menace. BACKGROUND: Yellow Submarine was animator/director George Dunning’s only feature length work. His job here consisted mainly of supervising the 200+ contributing artists who worked on the film. In 1968 the Beatles were disenchanted with movies after the mediocre reception to their self-produced television special Magical Mystery Tour (1967). They were still under contract to United Artists to produce another film and, despite the fact that they weren’t happy with the Americanized Beatles animated TV show, they saw lending their images and four new songs to a cartoon movie as a good way to fulfill their bargain.

They liked the finished product well enough to agree to appear in a live-action epilogue. The script was co-written by Erich Segal, a professor of classics at Yale who had never even heard of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” when he was hired for the project. Segal later wrote the deplorable novel Love Story, which was turned into an even more deplorable movie. Liverpool poet Roger McGough also worked on the script, supplying many of the jokes and puns, but did not receive a screenwriting credit. Peter Batten, who voiced George, was discovered by the producers in a pub and cast because he sounded like Harrison. He was later found to have deserted the British army during WWII and was arrested before filming was completed; his remaining lines were recorded by Paul Angelis (who also voiced Ringo). The “Hey Bulldog” segment was cut for American theatrical release. A 3-D motion capture remake was planned by Disney but scrapped in 2011, to the delight of thinking people everywhere. INDELIBLE IMAGE: Picking out a favorite frame from Yellow Submarine is like picking a favorite note from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

The psychedelic submersible of the title should probably be featured, but what bizarre pop-art backdrop should it be floating past—the gray and grimy industrial wastes of Liverpool, the optical netherworld of the Sea of Holes, or the lysergic bestiary of the Sea of Monsters? We selected the moment the sub transforms itself into a Zippo lighter to re-enact an old slapstick routine with a giant purple boxing beast, but we wouldn’t put up an argument with just about any random image anyone wanted to champion. WHAT MAKES IT WEIRD: Blurring the line between a children’s story and a hashish-fueled daydream, Yellow Submarine is a riot of color and visual imagination sure to delight kindergartners and stoners alike. You don’t even have to picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies—over a hundred animators worked for almost a year to paint those vistas for you better than your feeble imagination could ever manage. Original trailer for Yellow Submarine COMMENTS: We often think of the Sixties in terms of revolutions: the sexual revolution, the civil rights upheavals, and the growing influence of the hedonistic counterculture.

Although Yellow Submarine embodies the spirit of those other revolutionary movements, it’s less well recognized that this movie fought, and won, an insurgency on its own remote front. Call it the Animation Revolution. Before 1968, feature length animation was completely monopolized Uncle Walt Disney, whose aggressively cute cabal of anthropomorphic animals crushed all attempts by other studios to bring unwelcome visual diversity to the masses. Yellow Submarine, with its anarchic explosion of Peter Max-ish pop-art psychedelia, gaudy irrational rotoscoping, photographic cutouts, and a dense visual technique that resembled Dadaist collage assembled with brightly colored construction paper, was the first venture to successfully spit in the Mouse’s omnipotent eye.

Yellow Submarine‘s immediate influence can be clearly seen in Terry Gilliam ‘s grotesquely funny cutout animations for Monty Python, in the childlike scrawlings of Sesame Street (compare the countdown sequence in “When I’m Sixty-Four” with the Street’s famous “pinball countdown” sequence ), and in the Certified Weird Fantastic Planet (the surreal alien creatures that keep popping up in the foregrounds of the planet’s landscapes evolved out of Submarine‘s “Sea of Monsters” sequence—the similarity was apparent enough that the two movies were sometimes screened together). Further down the road, the fact that Submarine made animation hip for counterculture savvy adults would open doors for Ralph Bakshi’s X-rated Fritz the Cat (1972), and from that point on, animation was definitely no longer strictly kids’ stuff. Obviously, it was the gravitational pull of the Beatles—just one year removed from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” they were still the center of the pop culture universe—that drew bodies into the theaters and made Yellow Submarine a guaranteed hit.

Besides the title track and several old catalog favorites, four new songs were composed for the film—or, rather, the Beatles, who originally thought little of the project, unloaded some unused tunes they didn’t think were good enough to put on albums or singles. But the Fab Four’s impressionistic catalog, ranging from storybook-ready tunes (the title track) to psychedelic-surrealist trips (“Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”), proved perfectly adaptable to creative visualization. The dry, wordplay-based sense of humor the quartet had cultivated in press conferences, which had been canonized in Richard Lester ‘s A Hard Days Night (1964), works here to stabilize the viewer in Submarine‘s weird world. No matter how bizarre things get, the lads blasé attitude reminds us there’s nothing to be frightened of; when grinning undersea Indians riding blue seahorses pierce Ringo with a hail of missiles, he merely reports that the experience was “‘arrowing.” Despite their top billing, the Beatles aren’t really the stars of Yellow Submarine; they are its anchors.

We know there’s always another toe-tapping musical number just around the next bend; the lads buoy us back to the familiar when the animated undersea anarchy threatens to drown us. And this hyperactive rush of animation certainly can be overwhelming; there’s no shortage of strangeness in the seas Submarine sails. Consider the anti-music army assembled by the villainous Blue Meanies: tall men who drop green apples on their enemies. Clowns with painted grins and spinning heads. Turks with fezzes and snapping-turtle torsos. A four-headed bulldog. A flying glove. Did Salvador Dalí ‘s kids come up with these adversaries? In Yellow Submarine, the Beatles owe their existence to cartoon logic; in the movie they are not rock stars, or superheroes, they’re merely four guys who happen to live in a mystical mansion with an infinite number of rooms. They have no backstories or vocations; they simply are. The titular submarine, piloted by a refugee from depopulated Pepperland, follows a bored and mopey Ringo through the dull and lonely streets of Liverpool (a stand-in for dreary reality). Frankenstein’s monster rises from a slab and metamorphoses into Beatle John.

Paul strides onto the scene wearing an ascot and holding a bunch of flowers. George’s introduction is the weirdest; according to the movie, he lives on top of a mountain of pulsing color made up of film footage of blossoming flowers and oxen plowing fields, statuettes of winged lions, and abstract Hindu designs. He steals Ringo’s convertible and telechromatically changes its colors so that Starr can’t claim his property, and whenever something impossible happens he reminds the others “it’s all in the mind.” Despite their sarcastic asides, Pepperland’s Admiral Fred decides these four are the perfect champions to defeat an army of music-hating Blue Meanies. Perhaps it is their cartoon omnipotence that sells him on their suitability. The Beatles songs are, of course, the big draw, and they do not disappoint. However crazy things get in the narrative, the animators are free to throw away all connection to reality and go hog wild into abstract psychedelia as soon as the first guitar chord strikes up. “Eleanor Rigby” explores loneliness through hand-tinted photographs of actual people (many of the animation crew members appear here) set in an industrial wasteland.

The most memorable image here may be of a man in a motorcycle helmet with goggles crying a single tear. “All Together Now” takes us on a tour of the complicated sub with its baroque panel of levers, buttons and blinking gadgets, and also through the tempestuous sea teeming with impossibly detailed shards of multicolored coral and fish doing the breaststroke. When the gang sails into the Sea of Time, they rapidly age, the perfect excuse to segue into “When I’m Sixty-Four.” “Only A Northern Song” manipulates painted photos of the Fab Four together with oscilloscope readings to create an electrified Andy Warhol portrait. A new character, “polyglot classicist” Jeremy Hillary Boob, Ph.D., provides the impetus for another musical digression with “Nowhere Man,” which sees the lads cavorting though more abstract landscapes with the plump, pink-tailed, clown faced rodent intellectual. The hallucinatory lyrics of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” inspire one of the movie’s nuttiest episodes.

The song begins in the Headlands, a hilly range of noggins made up of transparent heads showing off an infinite range colorful thoughts (one man’s brain is filled with an image of the Union Jack, another with the words “DE SADE,” and many others with multicolored blinking stars and random geometric patterns); it ends up, though its own druggy logic, with pink and green rotoscoped flappers doing the Charleston. After traversing the Sea of Holes (or the Holy See, as George dubs it), the quartet winds up in Pepperland, where they defeat the Meanies in a grand melee/concert consisting of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” “All You Need Is Love” and “Hey Bulldog.” With Dr. Boob twirling atop of an ever-expanding flower before a bubblegum sky, “It’s All Too Much” takes us out on a suitably psychedelic note, before the actual live-action Beatles show up to sing us out with a reprise of “All Together Now.” Yellow Submarine‘s theme–love, music and puns are good, badness is bad—is hardly the deepest.

But there’s no questioning the movie’s childlike sincerity, and the impressive imagination and energy it harnesses in service of its naïve vision. Since it’s like looking at a pop-up book under the influence of LSD, Yellow Submarine suggests an intellectual bond between hippies and preschoolers. That’s not necessarily an insulting proposition. Although in 1968 the under-30 crowd’s belief in the power of love to overcome Vietnam and the KKK proved unpractical, they did at least construct an imaginary, childlike utopia that will stand as an eternal reprimand to more cynical generations. Even the most jaded among us can gaze at Pepperland’s rainbow-striped hills and its flowers that blossom in paisley, hum to ourselves “all you need is love,” and sadly wish that we still had some of what these guys were smoking.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY: “…the whole movie, alternately washed and hard edge, art nouveau, and full of flowering shrubs and thistles, is full of enfolded meanings, jokes, puns—some of them lemon-infantile, none of them aggressive, pretentious, or self-indulgent—that would delight a child, or a head, or anybody who loves and admires the Beatles…”–Renata Adler, The New York Times (contemporaneous) “Visually, every conceivable style is thrown in pell-mell: there is Art Nouveau and psychedelic, op and pop, dada and surrealist, Hieronymous Bosch and just plain bosh. Why does it work? Because of its reckless generosity.

The fact that Jugendstil is made to rub curlicues with Miro, that expressionism is obliged to lie down with the Douanier Rousseau, that the outrageous melange des genres is served up as demurely as the most ingenuous tossed salad — in short, that it is so unselfconscious: that’s what makes it click.”–John Simon, National Review (contemporaneous) “…for an auditorium spread with four dozen pre-adolescent boys, ‘Yellow Submarine’ was the last picture show for us, something so mind-alteringly bizarre that all we could do was not move… Watching it again with an older eye, I found what frightened and enthralled me as a kid was precisely what is so ingenious and stunning about it now: Heinz Edelmann’s art direction…”–Wesley Morris, San Francisco Examiner (1999 re-release) OFFICIAL SITE: The Official Yellow Submarine Website – Contains the trailer, stills, storyboards, “making of” interviews, a “Save Pepperland” video game, and much more IMDB LINK: Yellow Submarine (1968) OTHER LINKS OF INTEREST: Yellow Submarine- The Beatles – The Yellow Sub

marine page at the Beatles official site contains a synopsis, images, film clips, and a shoutbox to interact with Beatles fans The Hidden Stories Behind Yellow Submarine – Excellent one-page compilation of background and trivia on the film from Dr.

Robert Hieronymous, originally published in Billboard magazine Yellow Submarine :: rogerebert.com :: Great Movies – Roger Ebert’s essay on Yellow Submarine for his “Great Movies” series The Fake Four – The Guardian tells the story of the four almost anonymous actors who provided voices for the four most famous men on the planet Why the Beatles Tried to Sink Yellow Submarine – Background information on the genesis of Yellow Submarine from Daniel Finkelstein of The Australian BIBLIOGRAPHY: Up Periscope Yellow: The Making of the Beatles’ Yellow Submarine – Producer Al Bodrax reminisces about making the film DVD INFO: Yellow Submarine had been out of print since MGM’s 1999 release; in 2012, Capitol released a spectacular DVD ( buy ) from a new hand-restored print. Ravenous Beatles fans are a demanding demographic, but this release was packed with enough extra features to please the hoariest hippie. The release is anchored by an informative commentary by production supervisor John Coates, with additional comments by art director Heinz Edelmann (not made for this release, as Edelmann died in 2009).

The seven minute promotional documentary “The Beatles: Mod Odyssey,” made in 1968, features some behind-the-scenes footage but is basically an advertisement for the completed film (though a good one, to be sure). The original trailer, extensive storyboard sequences, sketches, six short interviews, and contemporaneous photos of the Beatles on set round out disc’s bonus features. The well-stuffed package also includes a 16-page booklet, replica animation cels and collectible stickers of the four main characters. The Blu-ray release ( buy ) contains the exact same features as the DVD. Share this: Chief Blue Meanie | Villains Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Share The Chief of the Blue Meanies is the main antagonist from Yellow Submarine, despite his small role. A high-pitched, argumentative, and flamboyant character, he is set on ruling Pepperland with fear and oppression. His most heinous of crimes from The Beatles' point of view, however, is his hatred of music. He was voiced by Paul Angelis, who also provided the voice of Ringo Starr.

The Chief arrives in Pepperland with his army of Meanies and begins his campaign of taking over by firing a massive glass sphere at the Beatles' doubles, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts' Club Band, who play music all day in this colorful world, while all the natives dance and sing and generally behave in a friendly manner towards one another. As the Chief comments, "it can't last". The soundproof glass sphere covers the band, making their music inaudible, and in their panic to run away, the natives are fired at by the Blue Meanies' guns, whose missiles both drain their victims' colour on contact and petrify them. The Chief bombards the natives with various weapons and species of Meanie that vary in their ferocity and eccentricy– anything from Meanies that will eat the toys of young children (as demonstrated when the Beatles' arrival to Pepperland, when a sharp-toothed Meanie, a snapping turtle-turk, consumes a young girl's paper windmill) to reducing the flourishing hills and plants to a land of bare thorns and colourless grass, with the only green existing in the form of giant apples that the "Apple Bonkers" (taller Meanies) drop on peoples' heads.

Later in the film, the Chief engineers the kidnapping of the Beatles' friend and comrade, the Nowhere Man Jeremy Hilary Boob. When the Beatles finally arrive in Pepperland, the Chief is woken from a brief sleep and is incensed when he sees the hills and trees returning to their proper colours at the sound of their music; he sends his fiercest weapon, "The Dreadful Flying Glove" after the heroes. The Glove is thwarted by John Lennon's song "All You Need is Love" and the Chief's army flees, knocking him over in the process. In a final, petty attempt at retribution, the Chief threatens to tear the newly-freed Nowhere Man into "blue burgers". However, he is humiliated by his magic and ends up sprouting flowers from his nose and body. He flees with the rest of his army, but later contemplates "mixing" with the Beatles – however, at the very end, when the Beatles appear in the flesh to the audience, Lennon says that "Blue Meanies have been found within the vicinity of this theatre".

Yellow Submarine (film) | The Beatles Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia L is for love me P is for p-p-p-p-p-p-please help me!" Ringo lets him into the house and after listening to his story they go together to find the rest of The Beatles in the crazy house. After finding George , John and Paul , Young Fred takes them into the Yellow Submarine and they begin their long interdimensional journey to Pepperland. They start out in the Sea of Time where they time travel and turn old and then young. When I'm Sixty-Four plays here. They head into the Sea of Science ( Only a Northern Song plays over this sequence) as a transition into the Sea of Monsters. They quickly escape into the Sea of Nothing where they meet the strange Nowhere Man (Jeremy Hilary Boob Ph.D). They sing to him and he realizes that he lives with nothing and right before The Beatles leave Ringo sees Jeremy crying and askes the rest of The Beatles if he can come along. Paul makes a snide remark calling Ringo a "senty-mentalist". Jeremy does come along with them in the end though. They continue on to the Foothills of the Headlands (Sea of Heads).

John sings Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds . Finally they arrive in the Sea of Holes where Jeremy is kidnapped by a Blue Meanie. Ringo finds the green hole to jump into to take them into the Sea of Green, transitioning them to Pepperland. The Beatles arrive at Pepperland only to see it completely taken over by the Blue Meanies. Here The Beatles initiate their plan to imitate Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to reawaken the land to rebel against the Blue Meanies. They carry out their plan by singing All You Need Is Love , and save Pepperland, throwing the Blue Meanies out forever. At the end the real Beatles appear on the screen showing off their souvenirs. George getting the Yellow Submarine's Motor. Paul getting a little bit of "LOVE." Ringo getting a piece of a hole (The other piece was given to Jeremy) and John getting a telescope showing him where the Blue Meanies are. He states that there are Blue Meanies in the vicinity of the theatre and the only way to get rid of them is to sing. The group starts singing All Together Now and different translations of the song title appear in different languages. Differences Between U.K. and U.S.

Version There are some subtle differences between the US and UK movies, most noticeably that in the US version: There is a different (and slightly longer) dance sequence to "All You Need Is Love" The releasing of the real Sgt. Pepper band is longer, including use of the song " Baby You're a Rich Man ", but excluding the greetings with one another. The meanie rampage is shorter and different, excluding " Hey Bulldog " Only the UK version of the movie is on DVD. Behind the scenes Edit The DVD contains at least one subtitling error: in the Sea of Science sequence, the repeated subtitle "It's only a normal song" can be seen. Whoever did the subtitles, the significance of the music track for that sequence being called "Only A Northern Song" evidently escaped them. This problem was bypassed on the Blu-Ray, by the songs not being subtitled. Pictures from the Film Yellow Submarine Movie Review Not applicable Consumerism While it's not necessarily the intention of this movie, there are many sequences featuring Beatles' songs from various albums, and, as with any music video, there is an inherent marketing context at work. Drinking, drugs, & smoking The word "LOVE" is spelled out like a lit cigarette.

Cigar smoking. Rumors suggest that songs like "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" are veiled references to drugs. Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that Yellow Submarine is a 1968 animated feature starring the Beatles and inspired by their song of the same name. Although rumors suggest that songs such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" are veiled references to drugs, and the animation sometimes has a psychedelic look, there is nothing that remotely approaches drug or alcohol use of any kind. The violence is extremely mild, especially by cartoon standards. The Meanies take over by "bonking" people with green apples; Ringo is shot with arrows but is unharmed. The animation is highly imaginative and playful, although the looks of some of the Blue Meanies, with their mean grins and yellow teeth, might be a bit nightmarish for younger or more sensitive kids. User reviews Review this title! What's the story? All is peace, love, and music in gentle Pepperland until the wicked Blue Meanies take over. The Beatles come to the rescue via the title vessel, meeting all kinds of strange and interesting characters along the way. Is it any good?

QUALITY YELLOW SUBMARINE is a pleasure for the eyes, ears, and heart. It features spectacular animation, gorgeous music (including "When I'm 64," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "All Together Now," and the lovely "Sea of Time," written by longtime Beatle collaborator George Martin), witty wordplay (lots of puns and some sly political satire), and a sweet story with a nonviolent happy ending. Younger kids will appreciate it on a different level from their older siblings and parents, and that's just fine. Families can talk about... Families can talk about the different ways to interpret this movie. Do you think there are hidden messages? Why do you think the Beatles wanted to make this movie? What are the ways in which the animation is distinct and unique, often imitated but never duplicated? It has been over 50 years since the Beatles first attained international success and recognition. Why do you think they and the messages contained in their music continue to remain popular? Do you think people will still be listening to their music in the next 50 years? Movie details

Question: Which film featured the villainous Blue Meanies?
Answer: Yellow Submarine