Beatles' 'Yellow Submarine' film, soundtrack to be reissued in May

March 20, 2012 | 1:17 pm

The Beatles’ 1968 film “Yellow Submarine” returns to circulation in May with a new high-resolution edition coming on DVD and Blu-ray discs along with a reissue of the soundtrack album on CD.

According to a release Tuesday, the restoration for the 4K digital resolution was done completely by hand, frame by frame, without the use of any automated software because of the delicacy of the original hand-drawn animated artwork. The new editions will arrive May 29 in North America, a day after they are released in the rest of the world. "Yellow Submarine" has been out of circulation in a home video edition for several years.

The DVD and Blu-ray releases will come with bonus features, including a brief “making of” documentary, audio commentary by producer John Coates and art director Heinz Edelmann, the original theatrical trailer, interviews with several participants involved in making the film, reproductions of pencil drawings and behind-the-scenes photos.

They also will include a new essay from Pixar Animation founder John Lasseter, who writes, “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.”

“Yellow Submarine” was the brainchild of animator Al Brodax, who had created “The Beatles” animated TV series, which originally ran for two seasons on ABC and another two seasons in reruns. Brodax wrote the script with Lee Minoff, Jack Mendolsohn and Erich Segal, and it was directed by George Dunning. It introduced a psychedelic pop-art sensibility into animated feature films, which were then largely the domain of Walt Disney’s studio.

Walt Disney Pictures had been exploring a remake to be directed by Robert Zemeckis, but abandoned the project about this time last year

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Sounds interesting, especially since I haven't gotten around to picking this up on DVD yet. I probably don't need another version of the soundtrack, but this was one movie that I always loved as a kid. The leader of the Blue Meanies was probably the first psychopathic bad guy I ever remember seeing... at least, he seemed truly crazy to me. Terrifying!