Beatles' Yellow Submarine film set for re-release on DVD, Blu Ray
From the press release:
The Beatles’ classic 1968 animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, has been digitally restored for DVD and Blu-ray release on May 28 (May 29 in North America). The film's songtrack album will be reissued on CD on the same date.
Currently out of print, the film has been restored in 4K digital resolution for the first time by Paul Rutan Jr. and his team of specialists at Triage Motion Picture Services and Eque Inc.
Due to the delicate nature of the hand-drawn original artwork, no
automated software was used in the digital clean-up of the film’s
restored photochemical elements. This was all done by hand, frame by
frame.
Bonus features for the Yellow Submarine DVD and Blu-ray include a short making-of documentary titled “Mod Odyssey” (TRT: 7:30), the film’s original theatrical trailer, audio commentary by producer John Coates and art director Heinz Edelmann, several brief interview clips with others involved with the film, storyboard sequences, 29 original pencil drawings and 30 behind-the-scenes photos. Both Digipak packages will include reproductions of animation cels from the film, collectible stickers, and a 16-page booklet with a new essay by Yellow Submarine aficionado John Lasseter (Chief Creative Officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios).
Lasseter writes in his essay, "As
a fan of animation and as a filmmaker, I tip my hat to the artists of
Yellow Submarine, whose revolutionary work helped pave the way for the
fantastically diverse world of animation that we all enjoy today."
Directed
by George Dunning, and written by Lee Minoff, Al Brodax, Jack
Mendelsohn and Erich Segal, Yellow Submarine began its voyage to the
screen when Brodax, who had previously produced nearly 40 episodes of
ABC’s animated Beatles TV series, approached The Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein with a unique vision for a full-length animated feature.
Yellow
Submarine, based upon a song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, is a
fantastic tale brimming with peace, love, and hope, propelled by Beatles
songs, including "Eleanor Rigby," "When I’m Sixty-Four," "Lucy in the
Sky With Diamonds," "All You Need Is Love," and "It’s All Too Much."
When the film debuted in 1968, it was instantly recognised as a landmark
achievement, revolutionising a genre by integrating the freestyle
approach of the era with innovative animation techniques.
Inspired by the generation’s new trends in art, the film resides with
the dazzling Pop Art styles of Andy Warhol, Martin Sharp, Alan Aldridge
and Peter Blake. With art direction and production design by Heinz
Edelmann, Yellow Submarine is a classic of animated cinema, featuring
the creative work of animation directors Robert Balser and Jack Stokes
with a team of animators and technical artists.
"I thought from the
very beginning that the film should be a series of interconnected
shorts" remembers Edelmann. "The style should vary every five minutes
or so to keep the interest going until the end." These styles included
melding live-action photography with animation, 3-dimensional sequences
and kaleidoscopic "rotoscoping" where film is traced frame by frame into
drawings. The entire process took nearly two years, 14 different
scripts, 40 animators and 140 technical artists, ultimately producing a
groundbreaking triumph of animation.
On April 24, Candlewick Press will release a new, compact
hardcover edition of the Yellow Submarine picture book, a read-aloud
journey for the whole family. Featuring the lighthearted wit of the
film's script alongside original artwork from the movie that has charmed
children and adults through several generations, the beautiful, 40-page
book will be sold by retailers everywhere and on the Beatles Store (www.thebeatles.com).
An interactive digital version of the book is also available as a free
download on Apple's iBookstore for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch at www.iTunes.com/TheBeatles
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