They take refuge in a yellow submarine and ask for help from a local group, Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (the “Beatles” are not named), in their traditional ceremonial uniforms. ![]() The story itself is a Lewis Carroll-ish adventure: the jolly inhabitants of Pepperland are threatened by the nasty, music-hating Blue Meanies. The grownupness of image and music there has power.Īfterwards we’re back to the stuff aimed approximately at children, and despite tracks such as Yellow Submarine and All Together Now, there is an uneasy and unresolved disconnect between the U-certificate songs and the darker material: my feeling is that the sublimely innocent and childlike quality of the Beatles’ music only works in those songs designed for adults. This is especially true for the superb rendering of Eleanor Rigby at the beginning, particularly the eerie juxtaposition of Liverpool and Everton players in red and blue, shivering and jittering surreally. Yet when a Beatles standard crashes on to the soundtrack, the whole thing snaps into shape and becomes something fiercer, more interesting, and more adult. There is a little bit of disposable and flabby whimsy, and between the songs, it often appears to be treading water graphically. And on seeing it again in 2018, I feel that, for all its attractions and sporadic inspirational outbursts, this well-meaning Ringo-oriented entertainment is not exactly in the top rank of Beatle achievements. However, honesty forces me to say that when I first saw this on TV as a kid, I secretly felt that it was one of those things that grownups sternly decide children ought to like. There’s real charm and genuine archival interest in this rerelease of Yellow Submarine, the Beatles’ animation from 1968 – lovingly restored, frame by frame, so that the colours pop and throb the way they did at the time.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |