Disney Scrapped a Remake of The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ and it Was the Right Decision
Yellow Submarine is a cult classic animated film featuring the blue meanies and music from The Beatles. Decades later, Disney wanted to remake the classic film but later scrapped the project for several reasons. While it would have been intriguing to see a modern take on this film, it’s for the best that Disney didn’t move forward with this.
Disney wanted to do a remake of The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’
Yellow Submarine is a 1968 animated musical featuring music from The Beatles. The film was influential at the time due to its impressive animation and distinct visual style. The film centers around a town called Pepperland, where evil creatures have taken over called the Blue Meanies that suck all of the music, color, and joy from this land. It is up to The Beatles to travel to Pepperland and bring back peace, love, and beauty to the land.
In 2009, over 40 years later, Disney officially announced a remake of the film at the inaugural D23 Expo. The film would be directed by Robert Zemeckis and use the same motion-capture animation utilized in The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol. The cast included Peter Serafinowicz as Paul McCartney, Dean Lennox Kelly as John Lennon, Cary Elwes as John Lennon, and Adam Campbell as Ringo Starr.
Robert Zemeckis’ animated projects aren’t wildly successful
The project didn’t last too long, as Disney scrapped it in 2011. The main reason is due to A Christmas Carol‘s poor performance and the box office bomb that was Mars Needs Moms. While Zemeckis didn’t direct the latter, it was from his production studio. Another factor was that motion-capture animation didn’t have the effect Zemeckis wanted with audiences.
Zemeckis is an accomplished director who has directed award darlings such as Forrest Gump and classic blockbusters like the Back to the Future trilogy and Who Framed Roger Rabbit. However, in the early 2000s, the director developed a fascination with motion-capture animation, which tries to blend an actor’s movements with an animated character and environment.
The technology was groundbreaking, but it has already aged poorly. The Polar Express has become a holiday classic for many, but it has an uncanny valley effect, especially with the conductor, played by Tom Hanks. The characters have dead-eye expressions that comes off as more creepy than charming. Yellow Submarine is a classic because it blends The Beatles with colorful and inventive hand-drawn animation.
‘Yellow Submarine’ would have been a visual mess
Test footage from the Yellow Submarine remake leaked online, and it was the nightmare fuel many expected it to be. The Beatles looked robotic and had the same creepy dead expressions that many of the characters do in other Zemeckis animated productions.
Besides the animation, Disney wisely scrapped this project because it likely wouldn’t have done well. Yellow Submarine isn’t a movie many are familiar with today, and the animation would have created confusion about who this movie was for. While The Beatles’ music is always iconic, younger audiences would not have flocked to the theaters for Yellow Submarine, an animated musical that should remain in the 1960s.
