Weekend reading (and watching)

- "The Beatles Come to Town - 1963 British Pathé video"

- "How the Beatles' Yellow Submarine gave rise to modern animation"

- "The Beatles: For 15 Minutes, Tremendous" - The New York Times' original review of Abbey Road.

- "Why The Beatles are bigger than ever"

- "John Lennon and George McGovern: Another Side of the 1972 Campaign"

- Lastly, Lennon videos galore and more.

"Yellow Submarine" remake deep-sixed

Due to budget issues, Disney will not be financing Robert Zemeckis' planned update of the animated Beatles film.

Excerpt:
The movie was to include 16 Beatles songs and the same motion-capture technology Zemeckis has used in Beowulf, A Christmas Carol and Mars Needs Moms, but when the latter picture only gross (sic) $6.9 million in its first week with a budget of $150 million, Disney backed out of its Yellow Submarine commitment due to budget concerns.

At Salon, Drew Grant tepidly bemoans this development.

Excerpt:
I know, I just said motion-capture technology is creepy and weird, but you know what else fits that description? "Yellow Submarine." With access to 16 songs and the likeness of Ringo, Paul, George, and John, there was a possibility there (however slight) that Zemeckis could have produced a world as wonderful and weird as the original. It might not have looked like the universe inhabited by the band back in the 60s, but it would have been forced to make some bold – and possibly genius – choices on how to portray hyper-realistic psychedelia.

Update on Beatles cinema

- Read about Nowhere Boy's Oscar odds.

- Robert Zemeckis: Yellow Submarine 3-D remake "all ahead full."

- Steve Carell will play the illegitimate son of an aging rock-star in a new comedy called Imagine. Excerpt: In Imagine, a sixty-something Bruce Springsteen-type rocker discovers a long-unopened letter addressed to him from John Lennon; after reading it, he’s shocked to learn that he actually fathered a son, who'd be played by Carell.

- Lastly, The Beatles and LOTR.

Best three songs in a row - Pt. 11

Parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten.

Album: Yellow Submarine
Three songs: "Hey Bulldog," "It's All Too Much," and "All You Need Is Love"
Comments: Despite its abundance of tracks, I didn't struggle to nail down The White Album's best three in a row. In contrast, there were only six songs to choose from on Yellow Submarine (side two consists of a symphonic score arranged by George Martin), and for a while I found myself unable to commit one way or another. Curious, huh? The problem was that, relatively speaking, the gap in song quality between the album's best and worst track isn't very wide. Though Yellow Submarine is the most negligible record in The Beatles' canon, all of its songs hold their own, ranging from fluffy but solidly enjoyable to inventive and hugely enjoyable. Thus it took me a bit to establish a best-to-worst order. All of this for Yellow Submarine?

I started under the assumption that "All You Need Is Love" was the finest of the lot, but this soon didn't feel right. I think I was mistaking its enduringly iconic status for greatness. In the end, it's little more than pleasant and tuneful (cheeringly so, I should add). Disabused of that notion, I dropped "Love" down a couple of spots and elevated the strutting, rollicking "Hey Bulldog" to the top. After some hemming-and-hawing and tinkering, this is what my list ended up looking like: 1) "Hey Bulldog" 2) "It's All Too Much 3) "All You Need Is Love" 4) "All Together Now" 5) "Only a Northern Song" 6) "Yellow Submarine." Conveniently, the top three come right in a row on the album.

About them ... "Bulldog" is all panache and aplomb, easily one of The Beatles' most fun songs; "It's All Too Much" achieves a deft blend of psychedelia and rock; and "Love" is exactly as I described it above. The rest of the album is either a bit too light and sugary (e.g., the title track and "All Together Now") or clever but awkward (e.g., "Only a Northern Song). But again, there isn't an outright dud among the six, which tripped me up in a way that no previous Beatles album had.

"It's all in the mind"

As I did with A Hard Day's Night (the movie), I've put together a quasi-profile of Yellow Submarine. What curious films The Beatles were part of....

- Best classical reference: "Oh, I haven't laughed so much since Pompeii." - The Chief of the Blue Meanies
- Best use of lyrics from "When I Get Home": "No time for trivialities." - Lord Mayor
- Best play on U.F.O: "unidentified flying cupcakes" - Ringo
- Best entrance of the four Beatles: George's
- Best visual sequence: The heady rush of images that comes after the Yellow Submarine leaves Liverpool, set to the climax of "A Day in the Life."
- Best use of a song: "Eleanor Rigby"
- Second best use of a song: "When I'm Sixty-Four" (I love the way that the song and the count to 60 are incorporated).
- Best sea: Sea of Monsters
- Best name for a monster: The kinky boot-beast
- Best voice of a Beatle: Paul Angelis as Ringo (the best, but that doesn't mean it was any good).
- Worst voice of a Beatle: John Clive as John
- Funniest moment: It occurs during the real Beatles' cameo at the end, when John utters the line, "Newer and bluer Meanies have been sighted within the vicinity of this theatre." His delivery, which overflows with boyish apprehension, is hysterical (and so is the way he screams out, "four," in the build-up to "All Together Now" and the credits).

"Yellow Submarine"...

... in haiku form.

1) "Yellow Submarine"
2) "Only a Northern Song"
3) "All Together Now"
4) "Hey Bulldog"
5) "It's All Too Much"
6) "All You Need Is Love"
7) "Pepperland"
8) "Sea of Time"
9) "Sea of Holes"
10) "Sea of Monsters"
11) "March of the Meanies"
12) "Pepperland Laid Waste"
13) "Yellow Submarine in Pepperland"

Monday haiku - "Yellow Submarine in Pepperland"

The Beatles bring hope
as they enter Pepperland -
music will triumph!

Sunday haiku- "Pepperland Laid Waste"

Ending frenziedly,
"Waste" delivers on its name:
the attack has come.

Friday haiku - "March of the Meanies"

Trouble is afoot;
Pepperland is under threat;
the Blue Meanies march!

Thursday haiku - "Sea of Monsters"

Like much of the score,
"Monsters" has a varied feel:
both soothing and tense.

Wednesday haiku - "Sea of Holes"

Danger lurks on "Holes":
it's fraught with menacing sounds
and a sense of dread.

Saturday haiku - "Sea of Time"

"Time" shifts course often,
going from eerie and calm
to warm and festive.

Friday haiku - "Pepperland"

I intend to write a haiku for every song from The Beatles' official canon of albums - Please Please Me through Let It Be - along with the two Past Masters compilations. As you might have noticed, I'm proceeding in reverse chronological order. Let It Be and Abbey Road are in the bag, and I recently wrapped up side one of Yellow Submarine. Because I want to be a completist, I'm going to give the same treatment to side two, even if it mostly consists of a symphonic score done by George Martin. It's still one half of a Beatles album and shouldn't be ignored.

With that in mind....

Done by George Martin,
"Pepperland" starts the film score
that makes up side two.

Wednesday haiku - "All You Need Is Love"

Performed on Our World,
"Love" is a simple anthem
with a lofty aim.

Friday haiku - "It's All Too Much"

When George makes the claim,
"All the world's a birthday cake",
there's acid at work.

Tuesday haiku - "Hey Bulldog"

On this raucous tune,
John's dancing piano lick
swiftly sets the tone.

Monday haiku - "All Together Now"

It's a children's song:
numbers, letters, and colors
are part of Paul's rhyme.

Saturday haiku - "Only a Northern Song"

Sloppy on purpose,
"Only" is George's sly rant
against Northern Songs.

Friday haiku - "Yellow Submarine"

A blithe sing-along
written by Paul for Ringo,
"Yellow" teems with quirks.

"Yellow Submarine" in trouble?

Walt Disney Studios has shut down ImageMovers Digital, the production company run by Robert Zemeckis that is behind the motion-capture remake of Yellow Submarine. At the moment, it's uncertain what ramifications this will have for the project.

Excerpt:
The big screen adaptation of The Beatles’ popular YELLOW SUBMARINE has found itself in choppy waters following what is being described as “cost cutting measures” by Walt Disney Studios. The studio, which recently spent $4 billion in an ongoing merger with Marvel Comics, is pulling the plug on ImageMovers Digital – the production company behind the long awaited project.
. . .
While Disney have said that they’re hoping to draft a deal with Zemeckis and his IMD partners, Jack Rapke and Steve Starkey in order to bring Submarine to the big screen, no such deal has yet materialised. Should Disney go ahead with production, it is likely we will be seeing a 3D version of the film rather than the mo-cap technology originally intended for use.