Robert Zemeckis To Remake Yellow Submarine (project cancelled)*

If it works and if it introduces a new generation of fans to The Beatles, I'm all for it.

 

I'm all for it!

I love the 1968 original, I have the DVD and all that. But if a director and some studios want to make a new artistic presentation for it, that's great for me!
I really do not understand the negative feelings. I guess those are the same feelings against Rock Band game and all that

Come on guys, we're in 2009, not in the 60s. So all the new technology and ideas to bring the fab four visual art into the noughties should be welcomed, IMHO

I'd like to hear new mixes of those songs too

And if we won't like it, we still have the original

 

Perhaps we could get the Warcraft animators involved, make YS a bit darker in tone.

 

With Disney at the helm, prepare to see two direct-to-video movies to follow:
Yellow Submarine 2: Pepperland, the early years
Yellow Submarine 3: Jeremy's story

 

Zemeckis remaking Yellow Submarine? Aww please, tell me it's a joke.

I am sure it will be yet another useless remake. That just can't be any good artistically speaking. The original is excellent in that respect. There's really nothing wrong with it.
Yellow Submarine is a pure product of the 60's and should stay this way. No way they can adapt that nowadays and make it interesting or adequate. I hope it never gets done.

 

This could lead the way for Blu ray release of the original. If that happens, I'm all for the remake.

 

Nice avatar.

 

And for those who need to know: the "Uncanny Valley" effect is explained here on Wikipedia.

I actually worked for several weeks on all the promos for Final Fantasy, and mildly debated one of the producers a few times on the issue. I didn't have a name for it, but that's the symptom: the stuff on the screen looks weird, fake, unnatural, and eerie.

(Michael Jackson had the same problem towards the end. I'd add Joan Rivers and Donald Trump's hair to that list. Something not quite right there.)

 

I don't see what the problem is, if it's done right. If they can tap into what made the original great and avoid what was weak about it, then it could be very good. A Christmas Carol looks promising so I can see this working...of course, it might suck granny smith apples, but I say "let's wait and see"?

 

The technology improved for "Beowulf", but it still wasn't effective. "Polar Express" was downright spooky. It was supposed to be a heart-warming fable, but all those zombie people made it unsettling!

Is Zemeckis ever gonna make a real live-action movie again? I think he is - or WAS - a talented director, but these semi-animated flicks have just been bad, and the new "Christmas Carol" doesn't look like an improvement. The trailer makes it look like an action flick!

Also "Hand" remains maybe the best Zemeckis flick ever - only the first "BTTF" compares. Just a terrific little movie.

I don't feel upset about the concept of a "Yellow Sub" remake, largely because I think it's a mediocre film. I just dislike the thought that Zemeckis will make another of his plastic animations!

 

Even a straight reissue of the original DVD would be nice to me, because I didn't have a DVD player at the time and foolishly bought the VHS... oops. Now my VCR's sitting in the basement, nonfunctional, and I can't watch the movie. But a Blu reissue would be nice too.

I remember the Final Fantasy movie well. I dragged my brother to see it on opening day for some reason, and both of us ended up stupefied. That was really the first time I noticed this creepy uncanny valley effect in a movie. (And Joan Rivers and Donald Trump's hair are indeed good real-life examples.... (

The thing that baffles me about this, is that Disney has Pixar at hand, and they make the best computer-animated movies. The motion capture that Zemeckis loves for whatever reason doesn't even come close to the quality of Pixar's animation. And Disney themselves are the masters of the animated musical, even if I haven't liked some of their recent animated films. It seems so odd that they would even want to use motion capture when they have so much in-house experience with this kind of project.

(And I agree about that "Christmas Carol" trailer. It doesn't look like it fits the story at all.)

Robert Zemeckis just confuses me, I guess. He's made some excellent movies and I consider him a very talented guy, but I think the massive success of most of his movies from "Back To The Future" on may have sent his ego off the rails, particularly after "Forrest Gump." He wouldn't be the first guy to be intimidated by having to live up to his own success/legend and then burn out trying. (I sometimes wonder if the same thing is happening/has happened to James Cameron. Makes a string of SF/action flicks from "The Terminator" up to "True Lies," most of which were excellent; then he spends several years searching for projects, ends up on "Titanic," has unbelievable success, and in the ensuing ten years all he did was produce a TV show and work on a documentary until he came up with "Avatar." I might have missed a project or two but he sure hasn't been too productive up until recently. )

 

What I find odd is that this version seems to acknowledge that the definitive film version of the story was done 58 years ago, so I wonder why they bothered (as if there were motivations other than $$$). I mean, the Scrooge character even seems like a rendering of Alaistair Sim filtered through Jim Carrey.

 

Thank goodness we didn't post consecutively, the Internet would've imploded!!

 

Okay, so I lol'd.

 

I'd have zero problem with this if the studio just took a YELLOW SUBARINE-like approach to making an animated film using Beatles songs as inspiration. When I saw the official Rock Band trailer, my first reaction was, "Hire whoever did that to make another YELLOW SUBMARINE-type movie."

What makes me ill is that the approach seems to be yet another in the never-ending re-make obsession of late. Rather than doing something similar and calling it STRAWBERRY FIELDS FOREVER or OCTOPUS' GARDEN, it's gotta be YELLOW SUBMARINE again, because that's where the soulless bean-counters see the money being.

Heck, I'd be happy if it was called THE YELLOW SUBMARINE GOES TO MONTE CARLO, rather than just lazily attempting to re-do the original film with modern technology.

 

So, will we have Paul, Ringo, Yoko and Olivia making a live appearance at the end?

 

Haha.

 

ooh bugger! I didn't know there was a difference between "Motion Capture" and stanard computer animation. Dump Zemicks and get Pixar involved instead please!

 

If they do that, I'd make at least one change. I've never liked the scene where there's a monster on the submarine, and The Beatles remark on how ugly it is until the monster cries. I'd drop that. That moment seemed very unBeatle-like and didn't fit the spirit of the movie.

J. D.

 

It's worth noting that, at one point, Michael Jackson wanted to create a "follow-up" Beatles animated movie using the characters from "Yellow Submarine", but he couldn't get permission to use The Beatles recordings. Supposedly, the film was going to center around "Strawberry Fields Forever".

 

Glad it's not just me that thought that.

 

At the time it was released, I thought of it as more of a showcase for Peter Max and his soon-to-dominate psychadelic style rather than a Beatles project. I can't quite image this in a different mileu but ok...bring it on.

 

Although Max-like in spots, Peter Max had nothing to do with the film. It was animated by a team of artists, and one of the things I like is how the animation style changes throughout the film.

I'd love a Peter Max-designed Yellow Submarine but, like many things I'd like to see happen...

 

I think everyone here is making some big assumptions: That the movie script will be exactly the same, and they will use the original Beatles recordings. No mention that they will do either of these things. If a director as big as Zemeckis is doing this, doubt they will use the same script, but do something that more pertinent to these times, kind of like how the Day the Earth Stood Still changed. Also, who says they would put the original Beatles in the same lead characters? They might have four people, at least one woman and one other ethnically different person to make the group diverse. Also with Disney, if they record all new songs, they can cash in on the record releases and not just hand that over to EMI.
They might do something like group together the Jonas Brothers with Hannah Montana , and they record the music. It would be great if they used the original recordings, but I don't see that happening. I could be wrong, but with so much money at stake in a venture like this, who knows what direction they will take.