‘Yellow Submarine’: Blue Meanie Blu-ray

The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” resurfaces in late May, making its debut in high definition and sporting an extensive hand-crafted restoration.

Apple Corps. is releasing the 1968 psychedelic animated film on Blu-ray and DVD, along with a new CD version of the soundtrack album.

Extra features include a feature-length commentary by producer John Coates with some input from art director Heinz Edelmann; an odd 7-minute introductory piece from 1968, “Mod Odyssey”; various drawings and photos; and a trailer. These bonus features are almost certainly the same as those found on the DVD release of 13 years ago.

Pixar’s John Lasseter wrote the new booklet essay, calling the film a “revolutionary work.” The discs come packaged with reproductions of animation cells.

Beloved by Boomers and widely considered the second best of the Beatles movies, “Yellow Submarine” has been allowed to rust over the years, with the previous DVD version currently out of print.

MGM released a single-disc “Yellow Submarine” DVD in 2009, with a 5.1 mix Dolby Digital soundtrack that was highly praised at the time (although it sounds a bit thin these days).

No major restoration of the film had been undertaken in well over a decade, despite the obvious need to update the images. As with all things Beatles, the finger probably points to legal complications.

The new “4K digital resolution” was done by Paul Rutan Jr. and his Triage Motion Picture Services. “Due to the delicate nature of the hand-drawn original artwork, no automated software was used in the digital clean-up of the film’s restored photochemical elements,” Apple said in confirming the rerelease. “This was all done by hand, frame by frame.”

Rutan’s restoration credits include two other Beatles films — “A Hard Day’s Night” and “Help” — as well as “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.”

George Dunning, who worked on the Beatles’ Saturday morning cartoon series, directed the original film. It was released in 1968 to the delight of a stoned generation. Any top 10 of psychedelic movies would include the animated feature, which was surprisingly strange and included obvious drug references.

The Beatles had little involvement with the film, but agreed to appear at its end in a live-action sequence. They reportedly were fans of Edelmann’s psychedelic imagery.

“I thought from the very beginning that the film should be a series of interconnected shorts,” Edelmann says in the commentary. “The style should vary every five minutes or so to keep the interest going until the end.”

While Edelmann has some comments spliced into the feature-length commentary, it’s mostly producer Coates’ talk, and he does a terrific job, dishing up insider info on topics such as the (once-)deleted “Hey Bulldog” sequence. (Edelmann died several years ago.)

Apple did not offer details on the new soundtrack CD. Songs appearing in the movie and used on the previous soundtrack CD include the title track, “Eleanor Rigby,” “When I’m Sixty-Four,” “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,” “All You Need Is Love,” and “It’s All Too Much.”

The proper “Yellow Submarine” album has long been a love-hate item for Beatles fans, who got a half serving of Fabs songs (six) along with George Martin’s orchestral score. That original “Yellow Submarine” album was rereleased in September 2009 along with the rest of the Beatles catalog.

The “Yellow Submarine” Blu-ray, DVD and soundtrack CD will be released May 29 in the U.S. and a day earlier in Europe.

Walt Disney Pictures was listed as a co-producer of the “Yellow Submarine” remake attempted by director Robert Zemeckis. Disney pulled the plug on that project about a year ago, reportedly over concerns about its cost and planned used of 3D via motion-capture. Lasseter is chief creative officer at Disney Animation.

Dead on DVD: the stash from Shout!

There is no such thing as too much Grateful Dead, apparently.

Adding to the mountain of Dead software that’s been released in the past 12 months, we have on the horizon the 14-DVD box set “All The Years Combine: The DVD Collection” from Shout! Factory.

The Dead box set drops April 17, just in time for workingman Dead fans to tap their tax refund checks for the $100.

Shout! as you may recall rereleased “The Grateful Dead Movie” in high definition Nov. 1. The movie (this time in standard def) anchors the upcoming DVD box set.

Second billed is “The Closing of Winterland,” a lengthy and well-regard Dead-only film that Rhino originally released to DVD in 2003. The double-DVD has about four hours of footage from the last night of Winterland on New Years Eve 1978.

Then there’s “Dead Ahead,” another existing DVD, with three hours of footage from Radio City Music Hall in October 1980. (The Shout! box retains the extra hour of bonus footage from the 2005 Monterey Video DVD.)

Making its DVD debut is “So Far,” a highly regarded title last seen on VHS in 1991 (Arista). Jerry Garcia gets a co-directing credit on this experimental 1987 movie, which highlights the Dead drummers and a swarm of trippy computer graphics. “We were after the idea of electronic mind-altering and consciousness-altering,” Garcia wrote of the hourlong film. “And on that level, I think it’s pretty successful.”

Other DVDs in the Shout! set include “Ticket to New Years” (Oakland, 1987), “Truckin’ Up to Buffalo” (1989), “Downhill From Here” (Wisconsin, 1989) and the four “View From The Vault” titles.

A bonus disc features Justin Kreutzmann’s video “Backstage Pass” (1992), an interview with archivist David Lemieux and a handful of bonus Dead performances.

Shout! also is selling “The Grateful Dead Bundle,” which throws in the fall 2011 “The Grateful Dead Movie” on Blu-ray for another $8.

A 40-page booklet includes liner notes by Deadhead journalist Blair Jackson, who wrote the book “Garcia: An American Life.”

The project is billed as “in collaboration with Rhino,” reconnecting the original Rhino people at Shout! with their old label, long owned by WEA.

More Dead content:
Grateful Dead exhibit at Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
Jerry Garcia documentary feature film
Dead brings to life Dave’s Pick CD series

Meet the ‘Yellow Submarine’ Beatles

Looks like director Robert Zemeckis has found his fab four actors for that new version of “Yellow Submarine.”

Dean Lennox Kelly (TV’s “Collision”) will be John; Peter Serafinowicz (“Shaun of the Dead”) will play Paul; Cary Elwes (“The Princess Bride”) is doing George; and Adam Campbell (“Date Movie”) has the Ringo part.

The Beatles imitators the Fab Four will be used for musical performances featuring the band, the Hollywood Reporter said. The acting deals for the new “Yellow Submarine” are “in negotiations,” THR reported, trade talk for pretty much done.

Director Zemeckis reportedly has approached both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr about participating in the film, to be shot in 3D using motion-capture.

The director and co-producers Walt DIsney Pictures have rights to the 16 original Beatles recordings, which should bring a windfall for fans: more surround-sound mixes of Beatles songs. Let’s hope the results are at least as good as the 5.1 take on the title song from the “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” project of 1999.

The movie “Yellow Submarine” hasn’t been treated all that well over the years, with the DVD version currently out of print. No major restoration has been undertaken, despite the opportunity to greatly update the sound.

George Dunning, who worked on the Beatles’ Saturday morning cartoon series, directed the original film. It was released in 1968 to the delight of a stoned generation. Any top 10 of psychedelic movies would include the animated feature, which was surprisingly strange and included obvious drug references.

The original “Yellow Submarine” album finally was rereleased last September along with the rest of the Beatles catalog.

Zemeckis, understandably, is taking heat for his decision to fool with the classic Beatles animated film (made in 1968 without much help from the Beatles). (You have to ask: Does anyone really need to see an “improved” Blue Meanie?) The director’s CGI-laden films using the performance-capture process include the Jim Carrey “A Christmas Carol” and “The Polar Express.”