March 20, 2012

YELLOW SUB SAILS SEA OF BLU

1968 was an interesting year in entertainment, as storytellers and designers began to assimilate psychedelia into the Mod, mysterious, and madcap forms of the times. The spy genre got a groovy, sci-fi twist in the likes of Danger Diabolik, Barbarella, and The Prisoner. It was also the time for a new Beatles movie, which took the fabs on an animated, psychedelic journey through the imaginary world of Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. The feature film, Yellow Submarine, has been a classic ever since, and has often been the gateway experience for young kids to discover The Beatles. Out of print since it's 1999 release on DVD and VHS, The Beatles announced today that Yellow Submarine will be out on Blu-ray and DVD in May. The launch will also include a new release of the excellent songtrack.



Here is the full story from The Beatles website:

Once upon a time…or maybe twice…there was an unearthly paradise called Pepperland

London – March 20, 2012 – The Beatles’ classic 1968 animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, has been digitally restored for DVD and Blu-ray release on May 28 (May 29 in North America). The film's songtrack album will be reissued on CD on the same date.

Currently out of print, the film has been restored in 4K digital resolution for the first time by Paul Rutan Jr. and his team of specialists at Triage Motion Picture Services and Eque Inc. Due to the delicate nature of the hand-drawn original artwork, no automated software was used in the digital clean-up of the film’s restored photochemical elements. This was all done by hand, frame by frame.


Bonus features for the Yellow Submarine DVD and Blu-ray include a short making-of documentary titled “Mod Odyssey” (TRT: 7:30), the film’s original theatrical trailer, audio commentary by producer John Coates and art director Heinz Edelmann, several brief interview clips with others involved with the film, storyboard sequences, 29 original pencil drawings and 30 behind-the-scenes photos. Both Digipak packages will include reproductions of animation cels from the film, collectible stickers, and a 16-page booklet with a new essay by Yellow Submarine aficionado John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios). Lasseter writes in his essay, "As a fan of animation and as a filmmaker, I tip my hat to the artists of Yellow Submarine, whose revolutionary work helped pave the way for the fantastically diverse world of animation that we all enjoy today."

Directed by George Dunning, and written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack Mendelsohn and Erich Segal, Yellow Submarine began its voyage to the screen when Brodax, who had previously produced nearly 40 episodes of ABC’s animated Beatles TV series, approached The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein with a unique vision for a full-length animated feature.


Yellow Submarine, based upon a song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, is a fantastic tale brimming with peace, love, and hope, propelled by Beatles songs, including "Eleanor Rigby," "When I’m Sixty-Four," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "All You Need Is Love," and "It’s All Too Much." When the film debuted in 1968, it was instantly recognised as a landmark achievement, revolutionising a genre by integrating the freestyle approach of the era with innovative animation techniques.

Inspired by the generation’s new trends in art, the film resides with the dazzling Pop Art styles of Andy Warhol, Martin Sharp, Alan Aldridge and Peter Blake. With art direction and production design by Heinz Edelmann, Yellow Submarine is a classic of animated cinema, featuring the creative work of animation directors Robert Balser and Jack Stokes with a team of animators and technical artists.


"I thought from the very beginning that the film should be a series of interconnected shorts" remembers Edelmann. "The style should vary every five minutes or so to keep the interest going until the end." These styles included melding live-action photography with animation, 3-dimensional sequences and kaleidoscopic "rotoscoping" where film is traced frame by frame into drawings. The entire process took nearly two years, 14 different scripts, 40 animators and 140 technical artists, ultimately producing a groundbreaking triumph of animation.

On April 24, Candlewick Press will release a new, compact hardcover edition of the Yellow Submarine picture book, a read-aloud journey for the whole family. Featuring the lighthearted wit of the film's script alongside original artwork from the movie that has charmed children and adults through several generations, the beautiful, 40-page book will be sold by retailers everywhere and on the Beatles Store (www.thebeatles.com). An interactive digital version of the book is also available as a free download on Apple's iBookstore for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch at www.iTunes.com/TheBeatles

3 comments:

  1. Something about this post has been bothering me. It took a few minutes, but I realized...SKY of blue, sea of GREEN!

    (Although technically, according to color theory, sky of blue = sea of blue. Get it right, Ringo!).

    ReplyDelete
  2. ...After posting that comment, I feel like the spirit of joviality with which I intended it may be lost in digital translation. I hope you take it in good fun (except you, Ringo)!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You're right! It was nagging at me, too. Maybe I'll re-title the post.

    ReplyDelete