“Yellow Submarine” is coming back and we’re all going to live in it this July 8th. The Beatles and Apple Corps have reached a deal to release a restored version of their 1968 classic to US theaters. The classic animated film has a shiny new 5.1 mix soundtrack that presumably will be released by Capitol. (This will be the second re-working of the Submarine soundtrack.)
from the press release: “Yellow Submarine was restored in 4K digital resolution by Paul Rutan Jr. and his team of specialists at Triage Motion Picture Services and Eque Inc. The film’s songs and score were remixed in 5.1 stereo surround sound at UMG’s Abbey Road Studios by music mix engineer Peter Cobbin. 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.”
Funny– the press release mentions a few artists of the time that “Yellow Submarine” is supposed to be influenced by. But it’s all Peter Max. I think they don’t say it so he doesn’t sue them. But the whole movie is a tribute to Peter Max, whose timeless work WAS the Sixties.
Anyway, “Yellow Submarine” is wonderful. See it, bring the kids, bring the grandparents.
PS The Beatles are going to capitalize on all their 50th anniversaries since the “Sgt. Pepper” box set was such a hit. We are right now in the middle of the “Lady Madonna” 50th anniversary chart run. The Beatles then recorded “Hey Jude” on July 31 and August 1st. It was released August 26, 1968, spent 19 weeks on the charts, 9 of them at number 1.