Film Forum

One screening of the Singalong and one screening of the original version on each day. All screenings begin at 11:00.

(1968, George Dunning) When Pepperland, an animated musical undersea fantasy world, is attacked by the music-hating Blue Meanies, it’s up to John, Paul, George and Ringo to jump on that yellow submarine, disguise themselves as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and save the day. Filled with Beatles classics like “All You Need is Love,” “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” and the title tune.

The singalong version, which features a bouncing yellow ball encouraging kids and adults alike to sing along with the psychedelically-clad foursome, is presented exclusively at Film Forum. Both versions will be screened on both days at 11am. DCP. Approx. 88 mins.

Reviews

“A POP-ART ANIMATED MASTERPIECE – (this) new rerelease reminds us of why it still feels ahead of its time…Watching it now, as an artifact of both the band circa the late Sixties and the tripped-out times that produced it, what sticks with you is how telling it all is. Yes, it’s a visual wonder, the kind that rewards endless viewings and can still blow your mind; the ‘Eleanor Rigby’ sequence alone, a symphony of gray skies and bleak Britainnia done in an animation style suggesting a depressed Terry Gilliam, remains a showstopper.”
– David Fear, Rolling Stone

“HAS THERE EVER BEEN AN ANIMATED FEATURE AS DELIRIOUSLY INFECTIOUS, AS BLISSED OUT ON ITS EYE-CANDY SURREALISM, or as sheerly madly gorgeous as YELLOW SUBMARINE? The Beatles’ celebrated cartoon feature, directed by the Canadian animator George Dunning, came out in 1968, and it’s remarkable to consider that in all the years since, no mainstream animated feature has come close to matching — or even trying to match — its majestically trippy pop-art dazzle… It’s a delight to go back to, or to see for the first time, and what unites those two experiences is that even now, in the middle of the renaissance age of animation, YELLOW SUBMARINE stands apart, reminding you of what a cartoon feature can truly be: a miraculous mutating object that keeps flipping reality inside out… YELLOW SUBMARINE, in its very shape and form, is an orgy of metamorphosis, from the luscious candified utopia of Pepperland, with trees that look good enough to eat, to the industrial gray Liverpool that features a house of surrealist frenzy to the undersea dreamscape ruled by strobe-light fishies and a vacuum creature that sucks up everything around it (including the film itself) to the M.C. Escher-esque sea of holes.”
– Owen Gleiberman, Variety

“A music-based animation film for the ages! Pure charm, expressed in fantastical imagery.”
– Roger Ebert

“Returns today’s viewers to a sweeter, gentler time that everyone can access — not the tie-dyed ‘60s, a time beset by violence often tidied up by a romantic posterity, but childhood… The easily parroted chorus of this film’s title track emphasizes a childlike unity; we all live on the yellow submarine, everyone getting along and holding hands. All the youngsters really need is love.”
– Charles Bramesco, New York Magazine

“Lovingly restored, so that the colors pop and throb the way they did at the time… An amazing Sixties time-capsule.”
– Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian