Whatever you may think of the animated feature “Yellow Submarine,” most people agree that there has never been anything like it before or since. Like the Beatles music that this movie features, it is both very much a product of its time and a timeless classic. You don’t have to be a Beatles fan, but it helps if you at least like their music.

The movie had a huge cultural impact at the time, defining the psychedelic style that later came to define the 1960s-early 1970s. Many people thought it to have been inspired by the famous psychedelic artist Peter Max, but it was probably more the other way around. The bold and innovative art of “Yellow Submarine,” and all the visual weirdness of the movie, was the genius of the art director Heinz Edelmann. Blue Meanies, Glove, Jerome/Hillary (aka Nowhere Man)—those and the rest came from Edelmann (who BTW said he had never taken drugs). Many have called the movie “trippy” or akin to an LSD trip that lands well, but it goes much beyond that to become an amazing aural, visual, and story experience.

I saw the movie in the theaters as a child during its second release in 1970 and have seen it repeatedly since—most recently in my home theater system, which really shows off the beauty of the sounds and music. The film doesn’t get old with the rewatch because it has too much detail to capture in one sitting or to remember over the years. It not only has tons of fantastic visuals, but the wordplay in the dialog is so constant that I can’t catch it all in one viewing. And the Beatles music just never gets old.

Being that the rewatch value of this is high, this is a movie you’ll want to own if you really enjoy animation and if you like music (especially the Beatles). It’s enthralling, funny, clever, and dang, that music!

Trivia: The movie doesn’t actually use the voices of the Beatles outside of the music; I had assumed that it did for many years, since the voices sound so much like the real deal. The Beatles had actually nothing to do with the production of the movie until the very end; once they realized how good the film was, they decided to contribute a short live action cameo that appears when the movie is essentially over.

Little Kids Rating (also for people with little patience for movies): 85%

My young grandson was able to sit down for 85% of the movie, which is a lot. Initially, the intense colors and visuals grabbed him right away, but his attention began to wane as the film portrayed the beauty of Pepperland. Once the Blue Meanies invaded with their machine guns, giant-apple-dropping Tall Dudes, fat men with shark-mouthed bellies, the giant flying Glove, and other lethal monstrosities, he was hooked. I was surprised that the movie kept his attention during the moody, surreal “Eleanor Rigby” sequence or through the psychedelic “Lucy in the Sky,” but he enjoyed it all, even dancing to some of it. Only when it was clear how things were going to end and then much of the lyrics of “All You Need is Love” appeared on screen is when he asked if we could go outside to play—he’s not at full reading level yet, so I suspect the on-screen words began to bore him. 

Just because I say the movie is watchable for little kids does not mean that the movie is infantile (i.e. “Minions”); on the contrary. There’s a lot for kids to enjoy and a lot they will not get or appreciate until older. It’s one of those rare movies that truly all ages can enjoy. What’s not to like in a movie with villains that have machine-gun feet?

(These are not the good guys.)
Yellow Submarine (1968) 90%