![]() "This is why it took a quarter century for me to do all the research for this book, because these guys are on five different continents and haven't spoken to each other in over 30 years. Talking submarine cartoon tv#"When they finished the film," Hieronimus says, "they didn't get anything, they didn't even get a poster, because of all the threats and strained relations between TV Cartoons and King Features. The bad blood that had emerged during the making of "Yellow Submarine" lingered for years. Nearly everyone was happy, that is, except for the artists most responsible for what's up there on screen. And the resulting film made nearly everyone happy - even the Beatles, who about two-thirds of the way through the project liked a rough cut so much that they offered to provide their own voices. "At that point, the artists got together and one-third of the negative and the corresponding print from the vault, so there was no way the film could be finished without them." "All these artists, as a group, said, 'No, we're not going to work for you,' " Hieronimus explains. His health was wiped out for years."Īt one point, Hieronimus discovered, things got so bad between the animators and King Features, which was producing "Yellow Submarine," that the latter threatened to take over TVC and the unfinished film, arguing that it was behind schedule and threatened to go over budget. The studio almost went bankrupt, Heinz Edelmann, who was working 16 hours a days, seven days a week, nearly lost his eyesight. "Fortunately, the artists won out, but at an enormous price. They didn't want a film that reflected 'The Flintstones.' The producers had said, we could make far more money if we make a 90-minute 'Flintstones,' but the artists said, if we do it that way, then we don't want to do it. No two ways about it, these guys wanted to to do something of Beatles quality, they wanted to have something that reflected the Beatles' legacy. "This film succeeded because of their love of the Beatles. The writers kept sending them scripts, the artists kept rejecting them, and then the artists would put in their own stuff, which is what we see on the screen." Scripts would be brought in, and the artists would say, this is terrible. "A finished script for the film never existed until after the film was done. But just as important, Hieronimus says, were the writers who didn't receive any credit. Writers Lee Mendelsohn and Erich Segal (who would go on to write "Love Story") were brought in to hone the script, and received screen credit. And he did put a great deal of emphasis on mixing media, which is exactly what the film ended up doing, particularly in the 'Eleanor Rigby' sequence." His ideas were mostly thrown out the window, but he did suggest some important things, such as the Boob and Old Fred. They demanded that they have another writer, so they brought in Lee Minoff, who's now a psychotherapist in New York. "The Beatles didn't like Brodax," Hieronimus says. And the original script, by producer Al Brodax, was thrown out and other writers were brought in. Animators were urged to be creative, to take chances. Whether by happenstance or divine intervention, the pieces that would soon make up "Yellow Submarine" started falling into place.Įven though "Yellow Submarine" was put together by TVC (for TV Cartoons), the British animation group responsible for the cartoon series, different people were assigned to work on it - most notably German artist Heinz Edelmann, who would be the man most responsible for the film's look (not Peter Max, who, despite popular belief, had little to do with the film). I think there's something bigger going on." "You might call it a happy accident," says Hieronimus, "but I don't believe in those kinds of accidents. ![]() ![]() But a group of young, talented and dedicated artists were put to work on the project. The film could easily have turned out as bad as they feared. They wouldn't work on the film (other than the songs, their voices were provided by other actors), they provided what they felt were their worst songs, and they held their collective breaths, fearing the worst. Talking submarine cartoon movie#The Beatles "figured that this was going to be nothing more than a 90-minute 'Flintstones' cartoon," Hieronimus says.īut the group was contractually bound to release another movie through United Artists, and at the advice of their manager, Brian Epstein, they grudgingly allowed "Yellow Submarine" to be it. Talking submarine cartoon series#(They fought for years to keep the series off British TV, Hieronimus says.) It was the same people responsible for the series who wanted to feature John, Paul, George and Ringo in a full-length film. That reason would be a half-hour Saturday-morning kids' cartoon show, called "The Beatles," that featured bad animation, wasn't very funny and generally ticked the group off. ![]()
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