Watch early footage from the cancelled remake of The Beatles movie ‘Yellow Submarine’
It’s difficult to know what the world would have looked like without the extraordinary influence of The Beatles, with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr releasing some of the greatest songs of the 20th century, all whilst helping to define the style and fashion of the 1960s and beyond. Yet, despite being iconic names in the world of music, The Beatles also found the time to imprint their influence on cinema too.
Over the course of just under a decade, from 1964 to 1970, the group helped to make five films and documentaries, including the British New Wave classic A Hard Day’s Night, which stands as their most critically acclaimed movie to this day. Presented in a Cinéma vérité style, the film ‘documents’ a day in the life of The Beatles as they prepare for a live TV performance whilst keeping McCartney’s boisterous grandfather in line.
Next came Help! in 1965, a curious film with a more rigid plot than A Hard Day’s Night, which saw Starr become the target of a cult. The globe-trotting adventure comedy was then followed by Magical Mystery Tour two years later, easily the worst of their cinematic offerings; then, Let it Be closed off the band’s cinematic ventures in 1970, released shortly before The Beatles split up.
Nestled among these films, however, was the release of Yellow Submarine in 1968, a psychedelic animated movie that would go on to influence the future of the medium as a whole. Whilst A Hard Day’s Night might be the band’s best critical achievement, most general fans of The Beatles will remember Yellow Submarine as their most iconic film, with the animation being a vibrant, trippy orgasm of colour and the band at their expressive best.
Yet, despite the film’s success, Walt Disney Pictures and filmmaker Robert Zemeckis saw the animation as ripe for a remake back in 2009, proposing a 3D computer-animated reimagining that would use motion capture, much like the director’s weird 2004 film The Polar Express. Hoping to release the film in line with the 2012 Olympic Games in London, Disney greenlit the remake for production in December 2009.
With the film becoming a genuine reality, Disney naturally began casting the project, with Peter Serafinowicz brought in to voice McCartney, Cary Elwes lending his talents to Harrison, Dean Lennox Kelly playing Lennon and Adam Campbell due to take on Starr. If this wasn’t enough to get any Beatles fan giddy, none other than David Tennant entered talks to voice the Chief Blue Meanie, the villain of the film, and the tribute act The Fab Four would recreate the band’s performances.
Sadly, for anyone hoping to seek out this movie, the remake never saw the light of day, with Disney abandoning the project in March 2011 due to the dismal box-office performances of A Christmas Carol and Simon Wells’ Mars Needs Moms, two films that featured motion-capture technology front and centre. Though Zemeckis tried to keep the ball rolling with the project, he eventually scrapped his dream too.
Still, that didn’t stop the footage from the unreleased remake dropping online in 2021, with the video providing a basic glimpse into what we might have gotten if motion-capture technology had been successful in the early 2010s. Take a look at the footage below.
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