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The Beatles - Yellow Submarine
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The yellow submarine has been floating around Pepperland for half a century now so it's understandable that she recently went into dry dock for a bit of fixing up. Now on the 50th anniversary of its 1968 cinematic release, "Yellow Submarine" has been carefully restored (by hand, frame-by-frame) and is now showing in theaters across the country in 4K digital resolution. So the animated classic, trippy enough to begin with, is now all the more crisp as it presents non-stop psychedelic visuals that fully represent the acid-gobbling "turned on" era that they were created in. You don't need to take LSD or any other substance to enjoy the film today, and you really don't need to concern yourself too much with the plot, which in a nutshell is an amusing struggle between Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (the Beatles) and the Blue Meanies who are, well, meanies. Along the way the Beatles make plenty of witty quips and references and the film soundtrack includes "Eleanor Rigby," "Hey Bulldog," "All Together Now," "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," "Only a Northern Song" and of course "Yellow Submarine." It's not a spoiler with a 50-year-old movie to reveal, again in line with the "flower power" era, that love wins out in the end and the Blue Meanies, no longer mean, frolic off with everyone else and all ends well in Pepperland. A brief segment at the end of the film features the real life Beatles taking a moment to joke around. Whether you consider "Yellow Submarine" to be mindless entertainment or high art (take that however you'd like) it's probable that a screening will leave most viewers with a contented grin. Adding to the fun, some theaters will be hosting special "sing-along" screenings of "Yellow Submarine" beginning in August. Find participating theaters here
