By now, most Beatles fans have seen the revamped Yellow Submarine—on VHS or DVD (or, if lucky enough, on the big screen at one of the appallingly scarce theater runs).
Owners of either home video format, however, enjoy the film's speckle-free image, vivid colors, and remastered sound.
"But," VHS owners may ask, "what's so special about the DVD version?" The answer: Quite a bit actually!
In addition to basic format advantages (the DVD's digital fixed media format allows for perfect frame-by-frame study that would erode a paused video tape), the Yellow Submarine DVD offers many goodies simply not found on its VHS counterpart.
Finally finding a home on commercial video are the "Mod Odyssey" documentary, as well as the film's theatrical trailer. Watch these before seeing the movie itself to appreciate the restoration work even more. Each provides a fascinating trip back to 1968, putting the film in its original context.
Three storyboard sequences (Sea of Monsters, Battle of the Monsters, and Pepperland) demonstrate embryonic ideas. Some made it; some didn't. Best of the lot is the Sea of Monsters sequence, presented in a split-screen view which shows that, in this case, the finished product wasn't too far from the original vision. Dozens of pencil drawings and photos add to the wealth of visual information found on the disc.
Interviews with actors and production staff are interesting, if brief. It's great to see the faces that provided the film's Beatle voices, and Erich Segal is a real hoot—where was he is 1967? Sadly, there are no interviews with the three ex-Beatles, nor with Heinz Edelmann, all of whom appear in segments included with the EPK.
The visual extras are only half the story, though. It's the DVD's audio that pushes this disc well into "must-have" territory.
The remastered "Songtrack" CD sounds great, but the DVD sounds better. Being enveloped in Dolby 5.1 Digital Surround is the next best thing to sitting in for a session at Studio Two. The 5.1 soundtrack alone would make the DVD worthwhile, even if ALL of the other extras had been omitted.
The Dolby 5.1 Digital Surround is only one of four available audio tracks, however. There's a mono soundtrack, which, if nothing else, proves by comparison how truly magnificent the 5.1 audio really is. George Martin fans may be disappointed by the lack of orchestral material on the Songtrack, but the DVD includes a Dolby 5.1 track completely stripped of dialogue and sound effects. Lastly, the fourth audio track provides commentary by Production Supervisor John Coates.
The DVD's packaging is spiffy (but without the yellow case of the VHS version), and even the interactive menus maintain the playfulness of the movie. And leave it to the Beatles to be first advertise a DVD release on a US postage stamp.
Certainly, the Yellow Submarine DVD is a success. Sure, there could have been more interviews, the Hey Bulldog video, whatever. That's why we'll hang on to our VCRs. But it's got a problem, and it's one that surprised the heck out of me…
The top and bottom of the image have been sliced off. I know it's letterboxed, but perhaps someone was a bit too aggressive with those black bars. Watching the DVD, there's no way to know that the headstone seen during the Eleanor Rigby sequence belongs to William McMillen. But it's there on my 1987 laserdisc! Similarly, on the DVD, some of the Apple Bonkers have a good portion of their hats lopped off. The old laserdiscs, now quite a bargain on the internet auction sites, show their headgear intact.
I'll continue to wonder about such things, and perhaps Apple or the Yellow Submarine restoration team will someday tell me. But as I continue to wonder, I realize that there's still no better excuse to buy a DVD player, and, when I want to watch and hear Yellow Submarine, I'll pop in this DVD.