It was back before Y2K that the surreal 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine first got a remastered re-release, paired with a new Songtrack that for the first time remixed a handful of speaker-separated Beatles classics for a more seamless stereo experience. (Most noticeably, “Eleanor Rigby” finally placed Paul McCartney’s voice dead-center, as opposed to panning right as the first verse begins.)
Yet no sooner had the innovative, minutely detailed Pop Art fantasia returned to theaters and Best Buy shelves than it disappeared, its out-of-print status leading to wildly inflated eBay prices.
Now those auctions are likely to dry up, as Yellow Submarine has been painstakingly cleaned and restored by hand (not machines) and will return to DVD as well as make its Blu-ray bow on May 29. Also coming back that day: the Songtrack, a sterling example of how the Beatles catalog ought to be revamped … although given the massive reissue campaign undertaken in 2009, any such polishing is unlikely to happen for years, or ever.
Bonus features will include a 7½-minute making-of documentary titled Mod Odyssey, the original theatrical trailer, audio commentary by producer John Coates and art director Heinz Edelmann (director George Dunning died in 1979), several brief interview clips with others involved with the film, storyboard sequences, 29 original pencil drawings and 30 behind-the-scenes photos.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Remember: apart from the music, including then-new songs like “Hey Bulldog” and “It’s All Too Much,” the involvement of the Beatles themselves was minimal; they didn’t provide the voices, only a live-action sequence at the end set to “All Together Now.”
Both Digipak packages will include reproductions of animation cels from the film, collectible stickers and a 16-page booklet with a new essay by aficionado John Lasseter, renowned Pixar wizard.
“As a fan of animation and as a filmmaker,” he writes, “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.”
Now if they’d only give similar attention to Let It Be …
Photo courtesy of Subafilms/The Associated Press.
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Restored ‘Yellow Submarine’ sailing back in May is a post from: Soundcheck