{"id":47549,"date":"2025-05-09T08:00:54","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T12:00:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=47549"},"modified":"2025-12-30T18:15:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T23:15:18","slug":"the-bootleg-files-disneys-yellow-submarine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/05\/09\/the-bootleg-files-disneys-yellow-submarine\/","title":{"rendered":"The Bootleg Files: Disney’s Yellow Submarine"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOOTLEG FILES 906:<\/strong> \u201cDisney\u2019s Yellow Submarine\u201d (cancelled animated feature from the early 2010s). <\/p>\n

LAST SEEN: <\/strong>Bits and pieces of the pre-production planning are on YouTube and Internet Archive.<\/p>\n

AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: <\/strong>None.<\/p>\n

REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: <\/strong>Disney never made any of the material available for commercial sale.<\/p>\n

CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Not likely, unless a documentary on the subject is made.<\/p>\n

Last month, this column shined its spotlight on \u201cStrawberry Fields,\u201d<\/a> an aborted animated feature using covers of Beatles songs that was being produced in the late 1980s by Al Brodax, the producer of the 1968 classic \u201cYellow Submarine.\u201d This week, we take a look at another piece of Beatles-related ephemera \u2013 a much-ballyhooed but quickly cancelled remake of \u201cYellow Submarine\u201d that was planned for production and release by The Walt Disney Company.
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In August 2009, Disney made a stunning announcement at its D23 Expo \u2013 the Beatles\u2019 Apple Corps agreed to team with ImageMovers Digital, a joint venture between Disney and Robert Zemeckis\u2019 ImageMovers studio, on a 3D CGI remake of \u201cYellow Submarine,\u201d which was slated for a release in Summer of 2012 to coincide with that year\u2019s Summer Olympic Games in London. However, in March 2011 Disney announced the plans for \u201cYellow Submarine\u201d were terminated.<\/p>\n

What went wrong? For starters, ImageMovers Digital\u2019s first two features \u2013 \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d (2009) and \u201cMars Needs Moms\u201d (2011) \u2013 were massive box office flops. In fact, the commercial failure of \u201cA Christmas Carol\u201d was so intense that Mark Zoradi, president of Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures Group and the head of worldwide marketing, was forced to resign while the company announced it would shut down ImageMovers Digital after completing \u201cMars Needs Moms.\u201d When \u201cMars Needs Moms\u201d premiered in March 2011, the $150 million-budgeted film had an opening weekend gross of only $6.9 million. <\/p>\n

Within Disney, there was a great deal of discomfort over the visual style of ImageMovers\u2019 motion capture technology, particularly in regard to human characters. Disney gave Zemeckis permission to shop \u201cYellow Submarine\u201d to other studios, but he was unable to spark any interest in the project. A meeting that Zemeckis planned with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison on the film was repeatedly delayed while efforts were made to ensure the production would go forth \u2013 the meeting was eventually cancelled.<\/p>\n

Along with \u201cYellow Submarine,\u201d ImagineMovers Digital was slated to create a sequel to \u201cWho Framed Roger Rabbit\u201d and a new IP work titled \u201cCalling All Robots\u201d \u2013 those films were never made.<\/p>\n

But \u201cYellow Submarine\u201d had already moved into pre-production, with storyboards and concept art created for the sequences, rendered clips of test animation done for several of the characters, and motion capture footage of a Beatles tribute band that were meant to simulate the Fab Four\u2019s performances. Although actors were cast for the voice performances, their work had yet to be recorded; it is uncertain if a screenplay was completed. <\/p>\n

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Over the years, bits and pieces of the pre-production work emerged on YouTube and Internet Archive. These fragments point in the direction of a film that would have an interesting reconsideration of the 1968, with a darker tone in comparison to the droll wit of the original and musical segments that brimmed with imagination.<\/p>\n

The three storyboard sequences that were discovered were turned into animated footage. The first encompasses the film\u2019s opening in Pepperland \u2013 except that Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band are dead ringers for the Beatles and not the bearded and military-costumed ensemble of the 1968 film. The remake also has the Blue Meanies attacking the defenseless Pepperland in an air assault while this version of the once-bumbling Old Fred is a now more capable and virile character with a sexy young girlfriend and a flying horse.<\/p>\n

The second storyboard sequence is unique to this film, with Old Fred watching live-action footage of the Beatles performing \u201cHey Bulldog\u201d and realizing they are dead rings for Sgt. Pepper\u2019s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In the original film, \u201cHey Bulldog\u201d was part of the Pepperland liberation segment \u2013 although it was cut from the US theatrical release and not seen by Americans until the 1999 re-release.<\/p>\n

The third storyboard sequence is a new interpretation of the \u201cEleanor Rigby\u201d scene. Unlike the original where the number is followed by Ringo\u2019s wandering through Liverpool, Ringo appears before the song. There is a whimsical moment when the submarine\u2019s periscope appears out of a gutter puddle to spy on Ringo, and the \u201cEleanor Rigby\u201d presentation is closer to the song\u2019s lyrics in comparison to the 1968 film\u2019s interpretation.<\/p>\n

The rendered clips have the Beatles in a brief performance and a reprise of the group\u2019s live-action appearance at the end of the 1968 film when they discover a new swarm of Blue Meanies aiming at them. The animation presents the quartet as caricatures of their mid-1967 appearances as opposed to the Pop Art characters in the original film. There are also two very brief character tests of one of the Blue Meanies frolicking maliciously.<\/p>\n

The Lost Media Wiki website<\/a> has a collection of all the available footage and stills from this intrigued but abandoned project. And while Beatles and animation fans will enjoy these rare gems, one person with no interest in the subject is Robert Zemeckis, who looked back on the effort in 2012 and sourly declared, \u201cThat would have been a great one to bring the Beatles back to life. But it\u2019s probably better not to be remade \u2013 you\u2019re always behind the 8-ball when you do a remake.\u201d<\/p>\n