LogFAQs > #975139459

24. Yellow Submarine

Evillord: 1
Mythiot: 8
Johnbobb: 16
Ermine: 22
Suprak: 23
Karo: 25
Inviso: 27
Plasma: 28
Red: 29

Total: 179

Evillord: The chronology of our somewhat rough-looking list of films begins with one bona-fide classic I should probably have watched like 15 years ago. With its grey depiction of England and the ugly, even disturbing figures that populate it, not to mention music from a famous British rock band, this put me in mind of The Wall, but while that film has the solid throughline of the album's track listing and Pink's mental degeneration, Yellow Sub is a phantasmagoric odyssey through the Fab Four's entire catalog - including some previously unreleased tracks - and through strange seas full of strange beings. This is an insane movie. The way John Lennon is introduced is that the submariner Young Fred goes into a house with Ringo Starr where they have the hallway setup from Scooby Doo, except instead of a chase scene there's a stampede of random images - some kind of velociraptor in a party hat, a floating bowler cap, a giant hand emerging from a portal, and a boiled egg in a jewelled cup. Then they find Frankenstein's monster, which Ringo brings to life, whereupon it takes a pill, transforms into Lennon and says "Hey Ringo, I've just had the strangest dream." I'm sure it's all essentially non-sequitur and you're probably intended to take LSD before you watch it, but the way the Beatles respond to all the bizarre happenings with stereotypically stiff upper lips and dry wordplay ("Perhaps time has gone on strike. What for? Shorter hours,") makes for a perfectly transcendental experience even sober. The cast's non reactions leave the viewer free to make what they want of everything. When the band do finally reach their destination, a paradise named Pepper Land invaded by Blue Meanies, and the villains' greatest weapon "The Glove" is utterly impotent against a rendition of "All You Need is Love", it feels like such a profound depiction of the kind of psychedelic, all-accepting spiritualism The Beatles were trying to convey at this point in time (though I do find myself wishing that scene were the ending as a result...) Of course, it's all made even better thanks to music from the greatest band in the history of rock.

Mythiot: *no writeup submitted*

Johnbobb: I had brownies available to me and I didn't think to eat them before watching this and I deeply regret it

Ermine: This film probably would have faired a good amount better if it just stuck to slapping Beatles songs on and having weird and interesting stuff happening in the background. Any time they tried to have any sort of plot, things fell apart and it became so much less interesting. I'll even go as far and say that the whole final act was complete garbage and uninteresting in every way. If I was basing this off the final third of the movie, it'd be bottom 5 for SURE.
Just give me good Beatles songs and trippy stuff to look at and I'll be fine, I don't need these shit blue meanies, please put them back in the trash.

Suprak: *no writeup submitted*

Karo: When a magical kingdom under the sea is taken over by the evil blueberry people, the only ones who can save the day are the Beatles for some reason. So they set sail on an extradimensional submarine of a certain color and then do an astounding amount of drugs.
The plot is a mite thin, and dialogue mostly consists of the Beatles saying things that are supposed to be humorous or something. Like, I don't think I have ever heard so many terrible jokes in a single movie before. It's like nobody can go a full minute without mumbling out some cringey quips that call to mind something your dad would say that youd have to pretend was funny before running out of the room to bang your head against a wall.
There are some interesting things going on with regards to the style, but it never fully gets realized due to how low the production quality in most places. Worse, there is a tendency to resort to garish flashing light effects in a truly awful decision that renders some scenes nearly unwatchable. Seriously, don't watch this film if you have any sort of photosensitivity or epilepsy because you will die.
Are there bright spots? Certainly. What they did with the stylization was visionary, especially for the time, and a wonderful love filled ending featuring a magic of friendship villain reform which was unheard of in an industry dominated by Disney and their black and white moral dichotomy.
The group's songs of course remain stellar and unlike with 'Help!' actually do have a token relevance to things going on in the movie.
Its influence in undeniable, yet just like Toy Story it has become incredibly dated and left far in the dust by an animation industry that has long since surpassed it.

Inviso: I feel like theres a specific timeframe from like, the late sixties to the early seventies where there are just a ton of movies being put out that are fucking WEIRD drug trips. This isnt the first such film weve seen over the years of our ranking topics, or even the first chaotic Beatles movie, for that matter. Its justits definitely a musical, and its a case of making just a complete nonsense movie about goofy shenanigans (that arent especially funny or interesting, instead focusing on being psychedelic or something) in order to fit the Beatles weird musical catalogue at the time. But theres no real plot, and the stakes feel completely pointless because theres no real plot. I wound up really REALLY bored watching this as a result.

Plasma: First movie on our list is a clunker. The story is nonsensical, and the humor and trippy animations barely offset the narrative shortcomings. Had I grown up worshiping the Beatles instead of Guns N Roses, I mightve been more receptive to this one, but it just didnt work for me.

Red: If you just want Beatles music, I'm sure this is fine. If you want any sort of a plot, any sort of value beyond the music, sorry you got to look somewhere else. Unfortunately this was a ranking of animated movies, not just music set to a bunch of nonsense. There just isn't anything to invest in here, everything is nonsense for the convenience of stuffing in a bunch of Beatles music set to an animation of someones experiences on various drugs.