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Awix (3310 KP) rated Yellow Submarine (1968) in Movies

Jul 12, 2018

Yellow Submarine (1968)

1968 | Animation, Fantasy, Music

7.4

(27 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Much-loved and iconic musical animation, with the Beatles setting sail on psychedelic oceans to save the idyllic Pepperland from kill-joy blue meanies. Quite charming in its way, but if it was anyone other than the Beatles I think it would be rather less beloved, considering that the story doesn't actually have any depth and it often feels like a contractual obligation for the Fab Four - the producer suggested they were only contributing sub-standard new songs to the soundtrack (he may have had a point), while the Beatles themselves only appear in person for about a minute near the end. As Lennon said of Hey Bulldog, it's a good-sounding song that really means nothing.

That said, some brilliant individual moments and sequences, and hey, it's the Beatles, so even if the songs are impenetrable or simply nonsense, they still sound awesome. You could watch the movie with your eyes shut and still have a pretty good time. But if so, you may as well just listen to the soundtrack album.

Kudos

Joseph Mount recommended The Beatles (White Album) by The Beatles in Music (curated)

"The thing about The Beatles, whether or not you think they’re good, as an introduction into like pop music, experimental music and avant garde music, it’s literally like every album is one of those text books you had at school, Beatles 1, then Beatles 2, then you’re ready to more on to Beatles 3. There’s some of their records that with hindsight weren’t particularly interesting, but The White Album is kind of mad. Often you remember it as better than it is, but as a product of what’s possible in terms of releasing music as a hugely popular band, what you can do if you want to do it, I think it’s a really brilliant thing. Without them having done that, someone else would have had to make that idea a reality for the world of music. And it’s got some really good tracks on it! I do think it’s becoming more and more acceptable to dislike the Beatles and that’s what I’m saying – you can totally not like them, but you’ll struggle to find another band that will teach you about music in such a beautiful way. The curious thing about The Beatles, speaking as a musician, is that everything you thought was magic, isn’t magic. They had press and radio people, people to create this event when they arrived in America, it wasn’t this spontaneous thing. I remember watching the Beatles anthology when it came out and finding it incredible, then I watched it recently and it feels really horrible. And you know that they themselves weren’t necessarily nice people, I feel duped!"

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