DVD Review: Yellow Submarine

My family and I recently received a copy of the new DVD Yellow Submarine to review.

Once upon a time… or maybe twice, there was an unearthly paradise called Pepperland, a place where happiness and music reigned supreme. But all that was threatened when the terrible Blue Meanies declared war and sent in their army led by a menacing Flying Glove to destroy all that was good. Enter John, Paul, George and Ringo to save the day! Armed with little more than their humour, songs, and of course, their yellow submarine, The Beatles tackle the rough seas ahead in an effort to bring down the evil forces of bluedom.

It had been a very long time since I had seen Yellow Submarine, but you could clearly see that it had been digitally restored for this release - even with a simple DVD picture, as compared to the Blu-Ray release. (I bet that's outstanding!) The sound and music has been restored as well. In fact, if you didn't know the age of this movie, you'd almost think it had been recently created! It was amazing - I was shocked to find out it was all done by hand, frame by frame. That's a lot of work.

Both the DVD and the Blu-Ray contain a host of special features, including audio commentary by Art Director Heinz Edelmann and Producer John Coates, as well as a documentary titled “Mod Odyssey”, the film’s original theatrical trailer, several brief interview clips with others involved with the film like Paul Angelis, storyboard sequences called "Sea of Monsters" (split screen footage), "Battle of the Monsters, and "Pepperland", 29 original pencil drawings and finally 30 behind-the-scenes photos.

Yellow Submarine will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray tomorrow, Tuesday June 5th, 2012. (It was originally released on June 6th, so they came pretty close to the same day!) Not rated, the total running time not including special features is 89 minutes long. The suggested retail price is $21.98, but Amazon has it available on pre-order for just $13.99 as of this posting! (Blu-Ray is $17.99!)

I received a viewing copy of this DVD in order to watch it and share my thoughts on it. All opinions are my own.