< BACK
A lot of people are too young to remember the impact the feature Yellow
Submarine had on the animation industry and American society when it was
released in 1968. At the time it was produced, Disney dominated the animated
feature market with traditional looking products that were released once every
3 or 4 years (Jungle Book, 1967). With the release of the Yellow Submarine the
world actually changed.
The film contained music, a spirit and an amazing look that delighted and
charmed the Western world. This simple fable helped people regain a more
positive attitude about life and reminded people it was ok to smile and have
fun. Some people who had dressed conservatively before they saw it were
suddenly wearing bright colors, costumes and the latest in mod fashions.
Hippies painted Yellow Submarines on their vans and in San Francisco a Beatles
fan painted a scene from the film on the front of her house.
More importantly, the direction by George Dunning and the brilliant design
work by Heinz Edelmann influenced the look of advertising art. Suddenly 7 Up,
General Electric and other corporations were promoting themselves with
animated TV commercials and print campaigns inspired by the feature. Most
studios producing animated TV commercials were barely surviving before the
Yellow Submarine was released. After it came out everybody who worked with the
new look was busy well into the next decade making a good living creating ads
full of rainbows, butterflies, flowers and other motifs. Some of the
mixed-media techniques introduced in the film inspired the "blendo" style
still seen on TV. The feature showed Ralph Bakshi and other non-Disney
directors that they might be able to create successful animated features.
Although the Yellow Submarine is a milestone in animation, little has been
written about the people who actually created this classic. At the time of the
film's release a lot of credit was given to producer Al Brodax who turned out
to be an executive producer with King Features, the company that paid for the
production. He shared writing credit with Lee Minoff, Jack Mendelsohn and
Erich Segal. The Beatles got music credit of course and Heinz Edelmann, a
German speaking Yugoslavian or Czech graphic artist, was recognized as the
film's talented designer.
Director George Dunning's name was on the screen in big letters as was TVC
(TV Cartoons), the animation company in London that created the film.
Unfortunatly, the press wasn't familiar with their names so not much was
written about them. The staff of TVC was relegated to the fine print in the
screen credits and press releases. John Coates, who was the real producer of
the film was simply listed as "Production Supervisor." If the film had been
made recently Brodax would have been listed as Executive Producer and Coates
as Producer. Things were different in 1968.
One reason there was little recognition for the people who created the
visuals was the attention the media gave to the music. The media was also
fascintated by the idea that Erich Segal, then a Yale Greek and Latin
professor, worked on the script. When the film was made the contract with TVC
didn't go into details about publicity and name placement in the credits. It
probably didn't dawn on anybody to demand that the distributor's press agents
educate the media about the people who worked on the film
behind-the-scenes.
John Coates said at the recent Creative Filmmaking Conference '97 (Tel
Aviv, Israel), that he and George Dunning were so inexperienced when it came
to contract negotiations that they didn't even know they could own a
percentage of a film's gross or profits. They simply made the film for a fixed
amount of money. Unfortunately, the Yellow Submarine went over budget and they
lost money making it. Their participation in the feature ended when they
previewed the answer print for King Features. It was approved and they were
given their final payment for their work. King Features never made contact
with them again.
Before making the Yellow Submarine, TVC had produced The Beatles, a 39
episode TV series "produced" by Al Brodax and King Features. It turns out that
King Features owned exclusive rights to the Beatles' cartoon characters. The
TV program featured prerecorded songs by the group. Each segment was built
around one song. Professional voice actors did the spoken voices of the fab
four. Paul Frees did the voices of John and George and Lance Percival did Paul
and Ringo. The show premiered in September, 1965, and grossed $3 million the
first year. It ran as a weekly show on ABC until 1969.
Dunning, who directed the feature, was a Canadian who moved to London in
the late 1950's to head UPA's overseas studio. Just after the studio folded he
held a meeting in a pub and invited John Coates, Richard Williams and Denis
Rich to attend. Coates, who began his career in the film industry after WWII
with the Rank Organization was invited to run the new studio being formed. TVC
is still in business 40 years later and is still headed by Coates (Dunning
died in 1979).
When Coates and Dunning got the contract to do the feature they had a
difficult time finding the right art director for the production. Eventually
they saw the work of Heinz Edelmann in Twin or Twen, a German magazine, and
flew him to London for an interview. He did a few sample drawings and was
hired. Coates says "we loved his work."
While planning the production it was realized the script didn't have a well
defined enemy. Edelmann is giving credit for inventing the Blue Meanies to
serve that role. In an interview Edelmann added another name to those who
contributed to the film's script. He said, "There was never one script. We had
about twenty. Roger McGough was responsible for much of it." McGough was a
Liverpool poet who was brought in to add a Liverpool flavor to the soundtrack.
He was paid 500 pounds for his work, but was not given screen credit.
When the film was in production Edelmann worked closely with Dunning.
Edelmann watched over everything and would go around at night and correct
animators' drawings when they went off-model. Despite the critical acclaim of
his design work for the film, he never worked on another animated feature.
Coates is often asked about the Beatles' involvement in the production. He
says they didn't have any real input in the visuals. Everything had already
been planned out when the Beatles first saw the storyboards. He adds that when
they first saw the boards they expressed surprise as they had been led to
believe the film was going to be Disneyesque.
During the production the four celebrities visited the studio four or five
times as a group. At least one visit was a publicity photo shoot. Members of
the group did visit the studio as individuals from time to time. John and Yoko
came by to see rushes and Paul would drop by to see their progress and to say
hi to friends who worked there.
There had been discussions about using the Beatles to do the voicetrack,
but since it was impossible to get all 4 together for recording sessions,
professional voice artists were used. Coates says none of the Beatles were
pleased with the voices chosen to represent them, but they all loved the rest
of the film. Apparently the press wasn't told that voice artists had been used
to do the Beatles' voices as Variety (July 24, 1968) announced to the world
that "The Beatles' voices are instantly recognizable as their own." The film's
credits simply list Paul Angels, John Clive, Dick Emery, Geoff Hughes and
Lance Percival as "voices" without saying which parts each person performed. A
published report says Clive did the voice of John, Hughes did Paul, Peter
Batten did George and Angels did Ringo.
John Coates still sees Paul McCartney once in a while. He says that at
social occasions Paul will tell people "how he did it frame by frame, but they
didn't have much to do with it." He later said "of course today they all
probably say they created it."
Norman Kauffman, who joined TVC in 1963 as an apprentice, was also present
at the conference in Tel Aviv. He is now the company's secretary, financial
controller and production accountant, and will head TVC when Coates retires in
1998. Kauffman says that they were told in August, 1967, that the film had to
premiere in London in July, 1968. The production had barely begun and they had
less than a year to finish it. He says having to create the film in a short
period of time "was a nightmare, but a lot of fun!" They got used to working
long hours and they had to run two shifts in the ink and paint department.
Today, once work on the animation has begun, it takes TVC 9 months to do a
half-hour TV show.
Kauffman first met the Beatles when TVC was about to begin work on the TV
series. There was a party at the original TVC studio on Dean Street. Kauffman
was told to give John Lennon a bottle of wine. They met and talked for the
first time when Kauffman found Lennon drinking out-of-sight under a table.
Kauffman says Dunning decided the graphic look of the film would be built
around the 12 Beatles songs to be used in the production (4 new songs were
written for the feature). The film was released in England with 12 songs, but
in the USA the song Hey Bulldog, featuring a 3 headed animal, was cut. The
British print ran 89 minutes and the American version was 85 minutes long.
Each song was given a special graphic look incorporating some of the latest
graphic techniques being used in TV commercials, in the fine art and by
illustrators. John Halas in his book Masters of Animation calls the film "a
catalogue of the graphic styles of the late sixties."
Several technical innovations were tried out. Special effects supervisor
Charles Jenkins used polarized light, cellophane and a rotating filter to
create the unusual cycle of color at the end of the sequence where we first
meet George and in the visual finale near the end of the film. The visual
finale also incorporates back-lit special effects that produce glowing forms
of light.
In "Eleanor Rigby" sequences of still photographs were used to form cycles
of action. The images were Xeroxed copies of photos to form high contrast
images. For example, we see an old brick building with 10 windows and in each
window we see the same woman petting the same cat over and over. In another
sequence we see two women at a table lifting food to their mouths over and
over. The use of Xeroxed photos is still used in some TV commercials.
When the New York Times reviewed the film (Nov. 14, 1968) they called it a
"truly nice" work and said "there are completely lovely visual ideas" in it.
One exciting visual moment is the woman riding a horse in the sky in "Lucy in
the Sky with Diamonds." The art was done using loose brush strokes rather than
having the paint fit neatly within carefully inked lines. The paint
continuously changes its shape and color and at times glowing stars or
diamonds are seen. The visuals of the song keep changing and get wilder and
wilder.
Op and Pop Art inspired some of the sequences as did art forms that defy
classification. The work goes far beyond the psychedelic poster art of Peter
Max, an artist popular in the late 1960's. The "Sea of Holes" backgrounds
capture the visual excitement of the Op Art of the European master Victor
Vaserely. The "When I'm Sixty-Four" number features so many different kinds of
design work (each group of 10 numbers is in a different style), that it is
impossible to classify the look of the sequence.
Fans of traditional Disney features sometimes have a difficult time with
the film. They are used to strong narrative plots with well developed
characters that adhere to the designs laid down on the model sheets. They have
trouble accepting the aesthetic approach of the Yellow Submarine which
stresses creative imagination and allows the visuals to constantly change. The
film takes many risks with its playful use of colors and forms.
Seeing the Yellow Submarine again in Israel, almost 30 years after it
premiered, was a wonderful rewarding experience. It is still a fresh and
exciting film with brilliant and innovative visuals. The surreal animals,
mechanical inventions, the use of words and numbers on the screen, and other
playful touches remain wonderful whimsical creations. The awful puns and
non-sequitur jokes remain delightfully corny. The simple plot is still
plausible enough to take you along on this adventure to save Pepperland. Only
a sour old cynic would want to see the Blue Meanies win. If you love the music
of the Beatles, you will probably have their tunes dancing around your mind
for days after you rent the film at your local video store. It would be
wonderful if King Features and United Artists would release the 89 minute
directors cut in honor of the film's 30th year.
Norman Kauffman says that when they made the film they knew it would
influence the art of their times. Today, he wonders if the film would still
have had the same impact on the art world and public if it hadn't featured
music by the Beatles.
From Animation World
Network
<
BACK