Inside the Yellow Submarine: The Making of the Beatles' Animated Classic

Rating:
Summary: This author needed an editor...badly
Review: "Yellow Submarine", in its day, was a remarkable achievement in animation. While not exactly a Beatles movie, more inspired by their songs than anything truly related, it spun a lovely fairy-tale and used the spirit of the group members as heroes. More than 30 years after its release, the story of how it was made remained fascinating to fans of classic animation.

So it was with some disappointment that I slogged through this book. The author has certainly done his homework. He's turned over every remaining stone and then some, found virtually all living participants, documented every step of the way to the screen for this story. And he's turned the story of one of the most imaginative movies of the 60s into the dullest book on the planet.

It's not that what he has researched isn't in itself interesting. It's just that he can't tell what's real important information and what isn't. It seems like he collected masses of information and interviews, typed it all up on 3x5 cards and simply pasted it together into a book. Minutiae are treated as revelation; no detail is too minor to be included, and repeated. Redundancies abound; he has three participants telling the same story, one after the other, with little new between them. He repeats similar items 4 chapters beyond the first mention. Order and organization? Hardly. It just goes on and on and on.

I can't fault the material that he's come up with, and in fact I applaud it. But what this author desperately needed was an editor, someone to assist him in crystallizing the material into a narrative that best told the tale of the creation of this landmark film. Instead, this "author" has simply assembled his notes into a word processor, and left it to the reader to sort it out. That's not scholarship - that's clerical.

Nonetheless, it's all that's out there and the information throughout is valuable. If you've got the patience to sit through it.

Rating:
Summary: This author needed an editor...badly
Review: "Yellow Submarine", in its day, was a remarkable achievement in animation. While not exactly a Beatles movie, more inspired by their songs than anything truly related, it spun a lovely fairy-tale and used the spirit of the group members as heroes. More than 30 years after its release, the story of how it was made remained fascinating to fans of classic animation.

So it was with some disappointment that I slogged through this book. The author has certainly done his homework. He's turned over every remaining stone and then some, found virtually all living participants, documented every step of the way to the screen for this story. And he's turned the story of one of the most imaginative movies of the 60s into the dullest book on the planet.

It's not that what he has researched isn't in itself interesting. It's just that he can't tell what's real important information and what isn't. It seems like he collected masses of information and interviews, typed it all up on 3x5 cards and simply pasted it together into a book. Minutiae are treated as revelation; no detail is too minor to be included, and repeated. Redundancies abound; he has three participants telling the same story, one after the other, with little new between them. He repeats similar items 4 chapters beyond the first mention. Order and organization? Hardly. It just goes on and on and on.

I can't fault the material that he's come up with, and in fact I applaud it. But what this author desperately needed was an editor, someone to assist him in crystallizing the material into a narrative that best told the tale of the creation of this landmark film. Instead, this "author" has simply assembled his notes into a word processor, and left it to the reader to sort it out. That's not scholarship - that's clerical.

Nonetheless, it's all that's out there and the information throughout is valuable. If you've got the patience to sit through it.

Rating:
Summary: Finding, and Reuniting Officers and Crew of The Musical Sub
Review: "Inside the Yellow Submarine" is a marvelous compendium of first person interviews with the Sub's chief creative officers.

Anyone interested in learning about the design and creation of the Yellow Submarine, as well as the adventure we the crew had in the Sub's construction, is well advised to buy Dr. Bob's intricate and dedicated chronicle.

As Dr. Bob has mentioned, the untold story behind this unique motion picture intrigued him, as it has many of YS's fans for decades.

During those decades I firmly believed somewhere, someday, someone with the necessary energy, determination, organizational powers, breadth of insight and boundless curiosity would investigate the entire 'back story'.

This is Dr. Bob's first volume about a voluminous subject, and what he has achieved here is a hurculean work in unearthing the answers to many 'lost' mysteries about the film's genesis.

This seminal book has served not only to open dialog and solve many mysteries about Yellow Submarine, but it has happily led to locating and reuniting many of we crew members.

Following our completing production, we all dispersed across the globe, many going on to launch our own animation studios and animation training schools.

The tremendously original creative splash Yellow Submarine made at the time (1968), sent out such graphic tsunami waves worldwide, it influenced pop art culture itself; resonating undercurrents and surface highlights from YS are discernible in today's digital animation productions.

YS was a trailblazer opening new graphic directions for mainstream animation entertainment, just as the Beatles did musically.

Dr. Bob's book is far more than an excellent collection of remarkable first-person interviews, it sheds much needed light on many facets of the creative genius and innovative spirit involved in the film's creation, by a team of artists who, in the words of the late director, George Dunning, "Were brought together from all over the world and who seemed to be at a peak in their creative powers". (Chuck Jones/PBS 1980's memorium to George Dunning).

If you're at all interested in animation, its history, trends and processes--and particularly if you've wondered about the creative people involved in it's construction and launching, this book (and hopefully subsequent volumes yet to come!) is a 'Must Have' for your reference shelf; be it innovative animation or inspiring creativity.

Addendum:

Apparently YS has found an entirely new audience today among children. A creation of the '60's consciousness and regarded somewhat askance by the so-called 'Establishment', with secondary references and meanings ascribed to it (like 'The Wizard of Oz' and 'Alice in Wonderland'); today it's being enjoyed as what it essentially is: a bright, colorful, musical fairy tale with hilariously funny villains, and a happy ending.

Rating:
Summary: Whew!!!
Review: I'm a Beatle fan from way back. Love them, will forever! As such, I buy every book about them, I have for years! A couple of years ago, this Hieronimus non-book came out. What a DISSAPOINTMENT!!! So BORING! Over and over again... the same info. It was like the author, Hieronimus (Bosch?) was some kind of street reporter, getting reactions from people who wanted to do nothing but sing their own praises. What a BORE! I couldn't believe such a trashy book would in any way start to explain how such a classic picture came to be, and it certainly didn't!

And then to top it all, something I've never seen before in a book, advertising in the last pages!! The entire book is a study in bad taste, and that muddy cover which is hard to believe was done by Heinz Edelman.

But there is good news!!! Last spring, another book came out on the Making of the Yellow Submarine. It's called UP PERISCOPE YELLOW by Al Brodax and it's just FANTASTIC!!! For one thing it's AUTHENTIC, written by the producer who was there, and knew the Beatles for a long time, he also produced their TV cartoons. It's clear that the wonderful stories he tells in his book (Al Brodax) came out of the close relationship he had with the Beatles. There are pictures in the book of Brodax and Segal working on the script, (Brodax was one of the co-writers) with Ringo playing the piano for him and Eric, with Brodax arguing with Paul about the script, etc... He knew them well. UP PERISCOPE YELLOW-WHAT A READ.


Rating:
Summary: Like a communal diary from the Yellow Sub
Review: I've always been curious about this film and what the people were like who were behind the curtain. It's been well documented elsewhere that The Beatles didn't make this film, but I never read much about this crazy group of artists in the swinging London of the 1960s who did. Finally, in this book, we get to hear what these creative people thought about while they developed the revolutionary ideas that went into this film. And unlike many other authors of Beatles-related books, who tend to focus on the glamour of The Beatles' personalities instead of the work itself, Dr. Bob Hieronimus does not skimp with the quotes from my new heroes, the struggling artists who brought Yellow Sub from concept to screen. The book reads like a communal diary from all the participants. The absorbing style is largely comprised of first-hand accounts from the film's creators, organized in such a clever way, with just enough commentary between, to allow readers to reach their own conclusions of who among the film's creators were Blue Meanies and who were Pepperlanders. I, for one, wouldn't want to miss one word of them. It's about time they had a chance to tell their own story and be given a stage to do so.

Rating:
Summary: Like a communal diary from the Yellow Sub
Review: I've always been curious about this film and what the people were like who were behind the curtain. It's been well documented elsewhere that The Beatles didn't make this film, but I never read much about this crazy group of artists in the swinging London of the 1960s who did. Finally, in this book, we get to hear what these creative people thought about while they developed the revolutionary ideas that went into this film. And unlike many other authors of Beatles-related books, who tend to focus on the glamour of The Beatles' personalities instead of the work itself, Dr. Bob Hieronimus does not skimp with the quotes from my new heroes, the struggling artists who brought Yellow Sub from concept to screen. The book reads like a communal diary from all the participants. The absorbing style is largely comprised of first-hand accounts from the film's creators, organized in such a clever way, with just enough commentary between, to allow readers to reach their own conclusions of who among the film's creators were Blue Meanies and who were Pepperlanders. I, for one, wouldn't want to miss one word of them. It's about time they had a chance to tell their own story and be given a stage to do so.

Rating:
Summary: A Luminous Ride on The Yellow Submarine
Review: Inside the Yellow Submarine: the Making of the Beatles' Animated Classic is a remarkable combination of scholarship and love. Created out of the almost endless efforts of American writer, radio personality and muralist, Bob Hieronimus, Inside the Yellow Submarine pulses with the unseen vibrancy, conflict and ultimate triumph which give birth to every successful artistic endeavor.
Even today Yellow Submarine stands as a groundbreaking work of creativity, playfulness and opalescence. When I first sat through it in 1968, I didn't know whether I'd been transported back to my preteen years or thrust forward into an unimaginably different future full of possibilities and hues I could never have otherwise imagined. But, like the Beatles' reality-wrenching musical odyssey, Yellow Submarine inexorably welcomed its viewers deep into a psyche of boundless possibility--a field of unlimited imagination which now lives freely in the everyday world and on the hard drive of every computer.
In the same energetic as the movie's creators, Bob Hieronimus breaks hectares of new ground in his work. Combining artistry and the dogged research of a forensic historian, Hieronimus lets you into the ideologies and passions that allowed an underpaid band of stubborn artists to subvert a corporate monolith and produce one of history's great works of animated creation.
Perhaps, in this dark millenium of unbridled, let-them-eat-cake capitalism, the lessons so boldly painted in The Making of the Yellow Submarine may point the way to a new era where we find a greater vision which can rout today's Blue Meanies and everyone can again remember that Love IS All You Need.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Try, But...
Review: Just as when the dvd of YELLOW SUBMARINE was announced, I was anxiously, sleeplessly awaiting the arrival of this book. The cover alone was so promising, I could barely contain my anticipation.
Now that I've read the final version of this text, I feel quite let down. Granted, Dr. Hieronimus took on an obviously impossible mission, that is, to chronicle the birth, development, and legacy of one of the greatest animated works in history, one that had an extremely convoluted production and development. While I can't blame him for trying, his claims that the book was extensively researched over 20+ years is quite a stretch. While the many interviews demonstrate his attempts at comprehension, the slapdash results suggest a bit of a rush job.
The text itself is marred by redundancy (he could have easily shaved off 100 pages without losing a detail) and his insistent lapses into the first-person are, at times, overly congratulatory. The many anecdotes provided by Heinz Edelmann are reasonably incisive, yet they are inexplicably scattered throughout the book with no chonological guide for the reader.
The one advantage of such a book is that I finally have a strong sense of just who it was who did indeed create (or co-create) SUBMARINE, an aspect of the film I have always found troubling (Boy, Al Brodax certainly allowed himself a large onscreen credit!). I've always been aware of Edelmann's contribution, but not so those of Charlie Jenkins, who was the apparent other genius who worked extensively on giving the film its one-of-a-kind style. The author does quite a decent job sorting through the primary participants, and he does (inadvertently?) put Brodax squarely in his place.
A full-color picture book, though cost-prohibitve, would have proven far more satisfying. For a film so purely visual, the book displays little of the actual ART of the project - anyone who, upon picking up the book for the first time and flips directly to the color panels in the center, will be woefully disappointed, for there is nothing new here whatsoever, and too much time is spent on the 1999 reissue. As I quickly discovered, the cover is completely misleading.
Still, I respect the effort, but can't disguise my disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Nice Try, But...
Review: Just as when the dvd of YELLOW SUBMARINE was announced, I was anxiously, sleeplessly awaiting the arrival of this book. The cover alone was so promising, I could barely contain my anticipation.
Now that I've read the final version of this text, I feel quite let down. Granted, Dr. Hieronimus took on an obviously impossible mission, that is, to chronicle the birth, development, and legacy of one of the greatest animated works in history, one that had an extremely convoluted production and development. While I can't blame him for trying, his claims that the book was extensively researched over 20+ years is quite a stretch. While the many interviews demonstrate his attempts at comprehension, the slapdash results suggest a bit of a rush job.
The text itself is marred by redundancy (he could have easily shaved off 100 pages without losing a detail) and his insistent lapses into the first-person are, at times, overly congratulatory. The many anecdotes provided by Heinz Edelmann are reasonably incisive, yet they are inexplicably scattered throughout the book with no chonological guide for the reader.
The one advantage of such a book is that I finally have a strong sense of just who it was who did indeed create (or co-create) SUBMARINE, an aspect of the film I have always found troubling (Boy, Al Brodax certainly allowed himself a large onscreen credit!). I've always been aware of Edelmann's contribution, but not so those of Charlie Jenkins, who was the apparent other genius who worked extensively on giving the film its one-of-a-kind style. The author does quite a decent job sorting through the primary participants, and he does (inadvertently?) put Brodax squarely in his place.
A full-color picture book, though cost-prohibitve, would have proven far more satisfying. For a film so purely visual, the book displays little of the actual ART of the project - anyone who, upon picking up the book for the first time and flips directly to the color panels in the center, will be woefully disappointed, for there is nothing new here whatsoever, and too much time is spent on the 1999 reissue. As I quickly discovered, the cover is completely misleading.
Still, I respect the effort, but can't disguise my disappointment.

Rating:
Summary: Very detailed and highly recommended
Review: So you thought you knew a lot about the Yellow Submarine. Think again. This book puts you into a whole new dimension. One of the cold hard facts and the blood, sweat and tears that went into making one of my all time favorite animated movies ever! Dr. Robert, did an exceptional job in putting this fantastic and utterly fascinating book togehter. I was only sad to read that he was never given a chance to actually interview each of the Beatles about the movie in depth, but even this did not stop him from moving ahead and writing one of the all time best and probably the only detailed book of its kind in relation to Yellow Submarine. Highly recommended.