The Beatles Yellow Submarine - DVD Reissue coming May 28th, 2012*

Late to the party on this....2 questions:

1) Presumably this is 16:9? What was the OAR and is anything missing compared to the theatrical release or previous DVDs?

2) Is the audio CD the original mixes, the YSS remixes or new remixes?

Thanks.

 

The link I posted above claims the original theatrical aspect ratio was 1.66, which is also what I remember from the late 1960s. For HD, this would mean there would be very slight black masking borders on the extreme left and right sides of your monitor, but nothing top and bottom. Anything cut off is material you were never meant to see, in my opinion.

No clue. I hope that what goes on the Blu-ray is: the last 5.1 surround remix; a 2-channel stereo downmix; and the original unaltered mono mix, cleaned-up within reason and good taste.

There is lots and lots and lots of data room for multiple mixes on Blu-ray discs, and the soundtracks do not take up that much room. All they have to do is to want to do it.

Very hard to argue with that -- I agree totally. Once again, the main guy who has to start the decision-making process:

Mr. Jeff Jones, CEO
Apple Corps, Ltd.
27 Ovington Square
London SW3 1LJ
UNITED KINGDOM
44 020 7761 9600
http://www.applecorpsltd.com

I will not mention the studio, but I know of some major animated films restored for Blu-ray where there were heated arguments behind the scenes as to how much to clean up, if animation mistakes should be fixed, if cell dirt should be treated the same as negative (or positive) dirt... and many other issues. The question is, what was a creative choice on the part of the filmmakers when the film was originally released, vs. just a haphazard mistake due to time & money issues? How far do you go before it's historical revisionism?

It's all a judgement call. Me, I would fix the bad stuff and let the minor things go, just by gut feeling. The technical stuff -- cell shadows, flicker, squiggly lines, missing faces, non-matching color -- those have to get fixed.

 

How could anything in an animation frame be something we "were never meant to see"?

Not exactly sure what you're asking, the re-released "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" CD is identical to the remixed one released in 1999, except for the packaging. No remixing was done for either the new video or audio release.

Of course we all want more, but this one is extremely important to be in release as it is, for many kids, the gateway into the Beatles (at least it was for my kids). And like a Disney catalog title, there is a new generation of potential fans since YS was last released...

 

We've had this discussion before. While I don't question the facts of what was done, it does seem strange to me that they would animate and do all of that drawing for filming in 4:3 to then crop it out for 1.66 theater display.

I completely understand this for live filming. But isn't animation very expensive? Why do all that extra work just to crop it out?

Glad I've still got the old VHS versions (both of them). It would just have been nice if they would have given us everything (4:3 and 1.66, British (Hey Bulldoy) and American (Beatles to Battle) versions, Music only option, etc.)
Still, if they keep re-releasing it and I keep buying them, eventually I'll have everything, albeit on many separate tapes and discs!

 

There's always going to be some stuff cut off at the edges because you need some bleed area, like with printing.

 

Seems like they created the film in 4:3 knowing it eventually was going to end up on TV, and used that as the source for the theatrical widescreen version. Sorta like what's happening with older TV shows like "Seinfeld" being recomposed for widescreen.

 

I worked on hundreds and hundreds of animated shows and a few dozen animated feature films, and there's all kinds of stuff on the extreme edges that nobody was meant to see. Heck, they often used different rostrum cameras with different aperture plates, so the edge-to-edge framing changed on every other shot. I think Yellow Submarine was done by a whole bunch of different studios, so the animation styles, the film stock, the cameras... everything changed all over the place. But you buy into it because of the whole "psychedelic" thing.

Never said they did. I said the last 5.1 surround remix sounded fine to me, and I expected that's what would be on the new Blu-ray.

I'm honestly not sure a lot of people care. Heck, I was a kid and a Beatles fan when Yellow Submarine was originally released, and I thought it was just OK -- not a great film by any means, but not horrible. It was far better than the animated TV show, and did have some interesting moments and great music. Loved the Glove.

I disagree. Prior to about 1999, not much shot for TV was ever intended for widescreen release,with rare exceptions. Even the shows shooting in 16x9, like most of the Warner Bros. sitcoms (Friends, etc.), often let a lot of stuff go, just framing it mainly for 4x3. We had a huge amount of trouble remastering That '70s Show, even though that was shot in 16x9, because they were always shooting off the set on wide shots. All this had to be fixed by hand, shot by shot.

I have been on quite a few feature film sets where I knew the DP, and I'd say, "man, this is gonna be really tough when we have to pan/scan it for TV," and he'd make a face and say, "F*** TV!" So they rarely cared about what happened to the film after the theatrical release. This was especially true in the 1960s and 1970s. Once we hit the 1990s, it was a different deal.

Movies are typically intended for just one aspect ratio, and anything else is a compromise. The key is how much of a compromise can you make before it all goes to hell. But I disagree with people who grumble about Yellow Submarine not being 4x3. There's far more evidence that the film should be shown in 1.66, and just because you're used to seeing a little more top and bottom doesn't negate the fact that this will look worse on a high-def set.

 

Geez...well, at least my spelling was pretty good.

 

This!

With seamless branching being available on blu-ray it makes no sense to leave it out

 

As it turns out, that's not the case. The production company had been making TV cartoons, so that's why the camera negative is open matte. But I've now located what I believe is definitive evidence it was produced for widescreen.

From the "Inside The Yellow Submarine" book (pages 77-78):

John Williams: Up until the Yellow Submarine we used to shoot on what we called a standard field, which is 12 inches wide and 9 inches high. Because Heinz Edelmann drew elongated Beatles characters, we had to shoot on a field that was 15 inches wide and 12 inches high so that we could fit the characters within the wide-screen format necessary for cinema showing. Because of this, we had to have a completely redesigned table built for the rostrum along with a bigger light box for back-lit line tests, new glasses and platen.

Williams is describing animation guide sizes, known as 12F and 15F. The aspect ratio of 15F described above is 1.66:1!

Case closed.

Derek

 

Your avatar ain't bad either!

But I think Vidiot and Derek Gee provide some pretty compelling evidence.

 

I've been letting my four year old hear some Beatles music recently, and she loves the song Yellow Submarine, so I picked up the bluray at Best Buy for her.

She loves it. The first time we watched it, I thought it was unbearably long. It also annoyed me that The Beatles had virtually nothing to do with the film. I am not exactly a Beatlemaniac, so that was a surprise to me.

Anyway, after three or four viewings for myself (and several more by my daughter) I like it quite a bit better. I have not seen any of the bonus material, but I will certainly check that out soon.

Funny story: I was driving home the other night with my daughter. She asked if we could watch "Yellow Submarine" when we got home. I told her that it was way past her bedtime already. She said "Can I just watch it until Ringo finds John". I said ok. A little later she said "Daddy, can I watch it all the way to the Nowhere Man?" I was so surprised that she had picked out this song that I told her that we could.

Now she wants the soundtrack on her Ipod...

 

THAT'S exactly why this one of the most important releases in their catalog...

 

Side note - I did some transfers of the songs from the 90s AMC showing of AHDN for a friend and noticed that they seemed enhanced in some way with higher quality mono sources. An way to notice this is to compare the first time "Can't Buy Me Love" is played with the second time. The first is nearly uninterrupted with dialogue or effects, but the second has the police chase sounds included. The fidelity of the track in these two sections is markedly different where in theory, it should be nearly the same. Also, the fidelity changes briefly in the middle of "Tell Me Why" during the concert as, IIRC, the mono mix in the film has part of a vocal take not used in the released mono mix.

 

I finally watched my new YS BD tonight. Very impressive restoration work. All of the fine graphic lines and circular lines looked smooth and crisp. Detail popped in the backgrounds. Sound was wonderful.

I've already previously complained about what was left off for no good reason (the extra U.S. animation, Hey Bulldog music video). But another major annoyance to me once again on a Beatles-related release is the crappy packaging. One of the worst kind of digipak spindle disc holders was of course used--the brittle clear plastic tab you have to press down to remove the disc, but usually ends up breaking off if you use it more than a few times.

 

Mea Culpa?

Whatever silly thing I may have surmised earlier about the Blu-Ray version of this, I take back!

The Blu-Ray looks amazing, and is a noticeable improvement on the DVD even in my modest setup. One thing I was a bit surprised by is how much louder the BR is.

 

I was just about to post the same exact thing~! But I decided to actually read the thread first, LOL.

I got the YS Blu-Ray yesterday as a late Father's Day present. IMO it's an unbelievable upgrade to the 1999 DVD I already own. It looks stunning. I kept remarking on that fact while watching, much to the annoyance of my wife, lol.

My daughter and I had been watching some of the 1960s Saturday morning Beatles cartoons a few months ago....the later-season ones, with songs like Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields, etc. Watching the YS Blu-Ray last night with the sound down (don't ask, lol) I was struck by how much the "Hey Bulldog" segment reminded me of a music segment from the Saturday morning show~! Just with a little psychedelic overlay.

I hadn't watched YS in a few years...what a trippy film. I suppose in some ways YS could be seen as "fake psychedlic"....older, non-"heads" such as the animators co-opting and imitating the already few years old psychedelic scene...and certainly the Beatles cartoon TV show by basically the same creative staff, was no trend-setter. But watching YS last night, it really is pretty "authentically" trippy and original. The ending "It's All Too Much" segment, my favorite part of the film, is like a psychedelic sensory over-load. It's also witty and charming, and of course has a great "message" about love conquiring all.

This is only my 3rd Blu-Ray, but it really could serve as a "presentation" disc to friends, especially those familiar with how the movie USED to look. Normally I hate re-buying things I already own in other formats, but I'm so glad I got this one, the picture quality blows the '99 DVD away...it's not even close.

For the Blu-Ray, I do agree with another poster that it would've been nice to have the storyboards and pencil drawings extras shown as full-screen, rather than placed inside an imitation animator's box...it would make it easier to read some of the notations on the drawings, which I find fascninating. It should've at least been an option. And how god-awful are those original "Paul" character drawings? Yeesh, thank goodness they re-designed him.

Ok, Apple, job well done....now let's have Let It Be and MMT, please........

 

Aww, cute story

My daughter used to love the Yellow Submarine movie when she was "younger" (she'll turn 7 in October). Now, she's a little bit less thrilled with it...the beginning of the film is pretty slow compared to kids' movies today. And it does seem a little bit long. But my daughter does like Beatles music, and she really likes Ringo, so I imagine we'll still watch this in little bits the next few months, in between Spongebob and Good Luck Charlie

 

Yes, I finally got to hear the AMC versions (thanks, schorman), and they are not actually the true original mono mixes. They were restored/reconstructed by Paul Rutan, and unlike the MPI versions, the songs definitely come from the mono mixes. However, as you pointed out, the songs have a higher fidelity than the dialogue scenes (except in a couple cases - "I Wanna Be Your Man" seems to match the lower-fidelity sound of the dialogue segments), and listening through headphones, both films sound to be in "duophonic" simulated stereo. Not sure if this was on the actual film restorations, or only on the video masters AMC used.

I guess the only way to hear the *original* mono mixes would be on extant 16mm prints, or recordings of late-70s/early-80s local TV airings, when both films were still in syndication and distributed on 16mm. I wonder if anybody has any such broadcasts on tape...

For that matter, I wonder if anyone has any recordings of similar vintage of YS...other than the expensive 16mm prints that sporadically show up on eBay, that would be the only way to hear the "Beatles to battle" ending in mono.

 

I checked out the YS Blu-Ray over the weekend and I loved it, a real feast for the senses. The colors and the picture quality was amazing, as were the 5.1 mixes. It really makes me long for more Beatles in surround. I'd give anything for a complete selection of Beatles "videos" in this format--the Anthology set was cool as far as it went, but it's so frustrating when they don't include the entire song.

I've read that on the old YS DVD there was a "music only" option. Does this allow you to easily listen to the whole songtrack in 5.1 without watching the movie?

 

Unfortunately, the music only track sounded like crap compared to the songs in the actual film. Weak in sound and separation. pretty useless as a listening experience. However, they should have re-done it for the Blu-ray.

 

Sorry if this has been answered previously - I'm late to this discussion and really have no appetite for trawling through 20 pages - has the film been restored SINCE it was last done for the 1999 DVD?

Put another way, if I already have the 1999 DVD do I need to buy the new DVD? (I have no BR player.)

 

Frame by frame restoration and it improves on the 1999 DVD but it really shines on Blu-ray.

 

Thank you. Are the contents the same (barring the improvement in quality)? I was always saddened that the short section where Sgt Pepper's band are slowly released from the glass ball to the intro of Baby You're A Rich Man was lost. I loved that section of the song and it took me YEARS to finally track down which song it actually was!

 

My YELLOW SUBMARINE Blu-ray Disc continues to sit on my shelf, unplayed.