The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine Film Released
The Beatles’ digitally restored 1968 animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, made its worldwide digital release debut Tuesday, exclusively on The iTunes Store (www.iTunes.com/TheBeatles).
The film includes iTunes Extras featuring extensive bonus materials and detailed art, including an interactive companion booklet. The film’s songtrack album is also now available on iTunes, as well as several iTunes-exclusive Yellow Submarine song ringtones and alert tones of classic audio clips from the film.
The restored film is also available on DVD and Blu-ray, and the songtrack album has also been reissued on CD. Previously out of print, Yellow Submarine 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, according to Capitol/Apple Corps Ltd.
Bonus features for the Yellow Submarine film include a short making-of documentary titled “Mod Odyssey”, the film’s original theatrical trailer, audio commentary by producer John Coates and art director Heinz Edelmann, brief interview clips with others involved in the film, storyboard sequences, 29 original pencil drawings, and 30 behind-the-scenes photos.
The iTunes and physical releases also include reproductions of animation cels from the film and a 16-page booklet with a new essay by Yellow Submarine aficionado John Lasseter (chief creative officer, Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios).
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.
