Yellow Submarine (film)

Yellow Submarine is an 1968 animated feature film based on the song of the same name. The Yellow Submarine (album) (1969) and the Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999) are the soundtracks of the songs used in this movie.

Plot
The story starts out in Pepperland--a musical place where Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band plays for its citizens everyday. But that peace is broken as the Blue Meanies invade Pepperland to 'destroy' all signs of music and happiness. With their weapons they silence all the citizens and trap Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in a blue glass bubble. As Young Fred watches helplessly as the colourful landscape is turned into a dreary and grey wasteland. The mayor of Pepperland is the last to be affected by the attack and is alerted by Young Fred of the impending doom of the land. He is too engrossed in his music and ignores the fact that the rest of the people playing with him are slowly getting caught by the Blue Meanies. Finally, when he is the only one left he orders Young Fred to take the Yellow Submarine to find the saviors of Pepperland but as that happens the mayor himself is caught by the Blue Meanies leaving Young Fred to find the heroes himself. Here the opening credits roll and the song Yellow Submarine, plays.

Meanwhile, in Liverpool, the Yellow Submarine, is flying over Liverpool, while the song Eleanor Rigby, plays. Later, Ringo Starr is alone in a shipyard lamenting about something while the Yellow Submarine is comming up behind him. Realizing that someone is behind him he opts to return home but as he leaves the Yellow Submarine follows him. He confronts an officer asking 'Would you believe me if I said that there was a Yellow Submarine following me?" At first, he thought that it could be 'one of those identified flying cupcakes.' Quickly realizing that there is really something following him, he runs home and locks the door behind him. Young Fred comes up to the door and begs Ringo for his help getting on his knees and begging

"H is for hurry

E is for urgent

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:
 * 1) There is a different (and slightly longer) dance sequence to "All You Need Is Love"
 * 2) 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.
 * 3) The meanie rampage is shorter and different, excluding "Hey Bulldog"

Only the UK version of the movie is on DVD.

Behind the scenes
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.