Movie  1968
Yellow Submarine      Back      Home
[last lines]
John, Paul, George, Ringo: All together, now!
George: He looks wrong.
Paul: He doesn't look at all well.
George: In fact, he's horrible.
John: He's so ugly.
All: REALLY UGLY!
Ringo: George, what are you doing up there?
George: [driving in Ringo's car] Now, what is it Ringo? Is it a matter you want to take up... or down?
Ringo: [indicating Fred] This lad, here.
Old Fred: [crazy gibberish]
Old Fred, Ringo, John: Blue Meanies!
George: Aww, you're nuts, the pair of ya.
[drives off]
Ringo: Hey, that's my car, lad.
George: How do you know it's yours?
Ringo: I know it anywhere. Red with yellow wheels.
[the car changes colors]
Ringo: I mean... blue with orange wheels.
[the car changes colors again]
George: It's all in the mind.
[Ringo picks up a hole and puts it in his pocket]
Ringo: I've got a hole in my pocket.
[seeing John looking through a telescope, concerned]
Paul: What's the matter, John Love? Blue Meanies.
John Lennon: Newer and bluer Meanies have been sighted in the vicinity of this theatre. There's only one way we can go out!
George: How's that?
John Lennon: Singing!
Ringo: Hey, I wonder what'll happen if I pull this lever.
Old Fred: Oh, you mustn't do that now.
Ringo: Can't help it. I'm a born "Liver-pooler."
Old Fred: Well, lads, what do you think?
George: I think that...
Old Fred: Remember, there'll be rough seas ahead! What do you think?
Paul: Well, um...
Old Fred: Pounding overwhelming waves! What do you think of that, eh?
John: Well, I think that...
Ringo: As a matter of fact, I think that...
George, Paul, John, Ringo: I think...
Old Fred: Well?
George, Paul, John, Ringo: I've forgotten.
Chief Meanie: Tomorrow the world!
Old Fred: [the motor has conked out] By Neptune's knickerbockers! She's puttered out!
George: Maybe we should call a road service?
Paul: Can't, no road!
Ringo: And we're not sub... scribers?
John/Paul/George: 'Sub'scribers...
[groan]
Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD.: If I spoke prose you'd all find out / I don't know what I talk about.
John: Hullo, there, blue people! Won't you join us? Hook up, and otherwise co-mingle? Whaddaya say?
Chief Meanie: Max...
Max: Yes, your Blueness... er, your NEWness?
Chief Meanie: It's no longer a blue world, Max. Where could we go?
Max: Argentina?
John: Are you with us? Will you join?
Chief Meanie: Shall we?
Max: [nodding] No!
Chief Meanie: [threatening] AARGH!
Max: [hastily] N-n-y-y-y-y-YES! Your Newness!
Chief Meanie: Yeeeees, Max!
Jeremy: Yes! Ah, yes is a word with a glorious ring! A true universal utopious thing! Engenders embracing and chasing of blues, the very best word for the whole world to use!
Chief Meanie: Yes, let us mix, Max. I've never admitted it before, but my cousin is the blue-bird of happiness!
John: Break the glass.
George: We can't!
Paul: It's Beatle-proof.
John: Nothing is Beatle-proof!
Old Fred: Help! Help! Help!
Ringo: No thanks, don't need any.
Old Fred: Won't you please, please help me!
Narrator: Once upon a time, or maybe twice, there was an unearthly paradise called Pepperland. 80,000 leagues beneath the sea it lay, or lie. I'm not too sure.
Old Fred: All right then. Let's get this vessel shipshape.
Ringo: I kind of like it the way it is. Submarine shape.
Jeremy: Ad hoc, ad loc, and quid pro quo! So little time! So much to know!
Chief Meanie: Today, Pepperland goes... BLUEly!
Paul: Senile delinquents.
George: As a matter of fact, there's a war on.
John: Then brothers in war, to the skirmish must we hence! Shall we hence?
Paul: Oh, let's not waste any more time sitting on the hence! Beatles to battle! Charge!
Ringo: Oh, your story has touched me heart. Jump in. We'll get me friends.
Old Fred: Oh, bless you.
Ringo: Did I sneeze?
[after Ringo ejects himself from the submarine]
Paul: Poor Ringo.
George: Poor lad.
Paul: Never did no harm to no one.
John: Hey, lads, now that Ringo's gone, what do we do?
Old Fred: Learn to sing trios.
Paul: Naw, let's save the poor devil.
Paul: Say, Ringo, you're not half the lad you used to be.
[opening a door to find King Kong abducting a woman]
George: Do you think we're interrupting something?
John: I think so.
George: Hey, it's seen us! Find the boxing button!
Paul: Whoever heard of a "boxing button"?
John: Who cares! Find one!
Chief Meanie: A thing of beauty; destroy it forever!
[Jeremy is cornered by the Chief Meanie]
Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD.: He does, in truth, seem quite annoyed. Some reference material be-be-before I'm destroyed!
[reading]
Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD.: "Where ground is soft most often grows, arise! Arise! Arouse! A rose!
[a rose sprouts on the Chief Meanie's nose]
Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD.: A rosy nose?
Chief Meanie: SPEAK YOUR LAST PIECE!
Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD.: Peace! Peace! Supplant the doom and the gloom! Turn off what is sour! Turn into a flower and BLOOM! BLOOM! BLOOM!
[roses sprout all over the Chief Meanie]
John: Hey, Jeremy, what do you know about holes?
Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD.: There are simply no holes in my education.
Paul: You mean you haven't composed a "hole" book?
Max: Here, your Blueness... have some nasty medicine!
John: It appears to be a group of fellas.
Ringo: It's time... for time!
Paul: Let's show him our motor.
John: Steady on! I mean, you don't want to be showing your motor to just anybody.
Chief Meanie: What, what, what! The glove is losing his touch!
Paul: Look, it's a school of whales.
Ringo: They look a little bit old for school.
Paul: University then.
Ringo: University of whales.
John: They look like drop-outs to me.
John: If I could come in, here, I think the theory put forward by Einstein...
Paul: [singing] Any old Ein, any old Ein, any-any-any old Ein...
John: Could well be applied here. The people in the ball are obviously extensions of our own personalities, suspended, as it were, in time, frozen in space...
George: Uh, John...
John: ...According to the now-famous theory of relativity...
George: John...
John: Which, briefly explained...
George: John!
John: Is simply a matter of taking two eggs...
George: JOHN!
John: Beating lightly, and adding a little salt and pepper to taste...
George: Hey! There's a Cyclops!
Paul: Can't be. It's got two eyes.
John: Must be a "bicycle-ops" then.
Ringo: There's another one.
John: A whole "'cyclopedia"!
Chief Meanie: Ah, here you are my glovey-dovey. Go get thee hence, and destroy yon upstarts. SMASH THEM, SMASH THEM, CRAASH THEM! O-BLUE-terate them!
Chief Meanie: Pepperland is a tickle of joy on the blue belly of the universe. It must be scratched. Right, Max?
Max: Yes, Your Blueness.
Chief Meanie: WHAT? We Meanies only take "no" for an answer! Is that understood, Max?
Max: No, Your Blueness!
Chief Meanie: That's better.
Old Fred: "H" for "Hurry," "E" for "'Ergent,'" "L" for "Love me," and "P" for "P-P-P-Please help!"
Old Fred: [after they have all been turned into much younger versions of themselves] Now I don't mean to alarm you, mates, but the years are going backwards.
George: What does that mean, Old Fred?
Old Fred: It means that if we don't do something soon, we're all going to disappear up our own existance!
Ringo: [Sniffing] I want me mom

[in the Sea of Holes]
John: This place reminds me of Blackburn, Lancashire.
[being swallowed by the vacuum monster]
John: The monster's packing in!
Old Fred: By all the sea nymphets! We're losing power!
George: We're being swallowed!
Paul: What should we do?
John: Serve tea?
Paul: Lovely.
John: Move over, I'm driving.
George: No, I got here first.
Ringo: I'll drive if you like...
George: No, you sit in the middle.
John: No, I'm sitting in the middle.
Ringo: You said you were driving.
John: I am driving.
George: I'll get in the back, then.
[they drive off camera]
George: [CRASH!]
Old Fred: Oh! Frankenstein!
Ringo: Yeah, I used to go out with his sister.
Old Fred: His sister?
Ringo: Yeah, Phyllis.
Old Fred: You've got to steer clear.
Ringo: Steer clear?
Old Fred: Yes, steer. Clear?
Ringo: Yes, dear.
[George tries to fix the sub's motor, receiving a huge electric shock instead]
Old Fred: What do you think?
George: I think I burnt me finger.
[Jeremy is writing with his foot]
Jeremy: These are the footnotes for my nineteenth book. This is my standard procedure for doing it. And while I compose it, I'm also reviewing it!
John: ...Were your notices good?
Jeremy: It's my policy never to read my reviews.
Lord Mayor: Four scores and 32 bars ago, our four fathers
Old Fred: A quartet?
Lord Mayor: And four mothers
Old Fred: Another quartet?
Lord Mayor: Made their way in this yellow submarine...
Old Fred: What, that little thing?
Lord Mayor: ...to Pepperland.
John: It's blue glass.
George: Must be from Kentucky, then.
Paul: Do you ever get the feeling...
Ringo: Yeah.
Paul: That things aren't as rosy as they appear to be under the surface?
Ringo: Hey, would you believe me if I told you I was being followed by a yellow submarine?
Police Officer: No, no, I would not.
Ringo: Oh, yeah, didn't think you would. I could've sworn I saw a yellow submarine. But that's not logic now. Is it? It must've been one of them "Unidentified Flying Cupcakes". Or a figment of me imagination. But I don't have an imagination.
Ringo: [as Jeremy disables the Chief Blue Meenie with flowers] First time I saw that Nowhere Man, that Nobody, "I" knew he was Somebody.
John: You're right.
[seeing the Chief Meanie for the first time]
John: He reminds me of my old English teacher.
Ringo: Look, it's Father Christmas!
Paul: That's not Father Christmas, that's Father Time.
Ringo: How'd you know that?
Paul: Well, I read it in a book.
Chief Blue Meanie: Hee, hee hee hee hee! Oh, I haven't laughed so much since Pompeii.
Chief Blue Meanie: Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... the hills are alive!
Max: [singing] With the sound of music.
George: Maybe time's gone on strike.
Ringo: What for?
George: Shorter hours.
Ringo: I don't blame it. Must be very tiring being time, mustn't it?
George, John, Paul: Why?
Ringo: Well, it's a twenty-four hour day, isn't it?
John: You surprise me, Ringo.
Ringo: Why?
John: Dealing in abstracts.
George: Okay, instruments at the ready...
John: Okay, on the beat of one, a-two, a-three, a-four, a-five, a-six...
Ringo: Hey, can't you make it three?
John: Oh, all right, on the beat of three: A-one, a-two, a-three...
Chief Blue Meanie: [as Blue Minions are routed] You're advancing the wrong way! Retreat backwards!
John: Well, in my humble opinion, we've become involved in Einstein's time-space continuum theory.
George: All right.
John: Relatively speaking, that is.
Chief Meanie: My dear friend... let us not forget that heaven is blue.
Ringo: Hey, uh, Mr. Boob - you can come with us, if you like.
Jeremy Hillary Boob, PhD.: You mean... you'd take a nowhere man?
Ringo: Yeah. Come on, we'll take you somewhere.
Paul: Shhh!
George: What did you say?
Paul: Shhh!
George: Good plan.
Ringo: Liverpool can be a lonely place on a Saturday night, and this is only Thursday morning.
George: Yes, dey do look very nice, don't dey?
Ringo: Yes, dey do.
John: Dey do dough, don't dey?
George: Yes, dey do.
Ringo: Don't dey, dough?
George: Dough?
[Paul enters]
John: Fa-la. Dat dough!
Chief Meanie: GO, glove! Point, and having pointed, POUNCE!
Chief Meanie: Ah, the hills are alive...
Max: [sings] ... with the sound of music!
Chief Meanie: [Punches Max] Who did it? Who is responsible for this?
Max: Rimsky-Korsakov?
[Chief Meanie shoots him, Blue Menial #3 stomps him into ground]
Max: [Poking his head up from ground] Guy Lombardo?
Lord Mayor: It's quite uncanny, your faces...
Paul: We're quite cute, really.
Lord Mayor: You could pass for the originals!
John: Well, we are the originals.
[the Beatles are shown as their live action selves]
George: That was one great party. And we brought back some lovely souvenirs.
[takes out a kite string with a wind-up mistaken for a motor]
George: Here's the motor.
Paul: And I've got a little
[the word "love" comes out of his hand]
Paul: love.
Ringo: [takes out a fake hole from his pocket] And I've got a hole in my pocket.
George: A hole?
Ringo: Well, half a hole anyway. I gave the rest to Jeremy.
George: What can he do with half a hole?
Paul: Fix it to keep his mind from wandering!
Old Fred: Hey, what would your friends be doing here?
Ringo: Just playin'.
Old Fred: Just playin' what?
Ringo: Just playin' around.
Old Fred: By Neptune's knickerbockers! She's puttered out!
Old Fred: Now whatever you do, don't touch that button!
Ringo: Which button?
Old Fred: That button.
Ringo: This button?
[presses the button and is ejected]
Ringo: Aaaahhhhh!
Old Fred: That was the panic button.
Paul: And do you speak English?
Jeremy: Old English, Middle, a dialect pure.
George: Well, do you speak English?
Jeremy: You know I'm not sure.
Ringo: He's so smart he doesn't even remember what he knows!
Blue Meanie: Are you, er... blueish? You don't LOOK blueish.
John: Hey Ringo, I just had the strangest dream.
Ringo: I warned you not to eat on an empty stomach.
George: It's all in the mind.
Old Fred: Not polite to point!
Paul: [singing] Tiptoe... through the meanies...
John: [from the UK version] I am the ego man. Goo goo goo joob!
Amazon.com essential video
This restored, animated valentine to the Beatles offers viewers the rare chance to see a work that's been substantially improved by its technical facelift, not just supersized with extra footage. Recognizing that its song-studded soundtrack alone makes Yellow Submarine a video annuity, United Artists has lavished a frame-by-frame refurbishment of the original feature, while replacing its original monaural audio tracks with a meticulously reconstructed stereo mix that actually refines legendary original album versions.

What emerges is a vivid time capsule of the late '60s and a minor milestone in animation. The music represents the quartet's zenith--Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The story line, cobbled together by producer Al Brodax and a committee of writers, is a broad, feather-light allegory set in idyllic Pepperland, where the gentle citizens are threatened by the nasty, music-hating Blue Meanies and their surreal arsenal of henchmen, with the Beatles enlisted to thwart the bad guys. Visually, designer Heinz Edelmann mixes the biomorphic squiggles, day-glo palette, and Beardsley-esque portraits of Peter Max with rotoscoped still photographs and film; Edelmann's animated collages also nod to Andy Warhol and Magritte in properly psychedelic fashion, which works wonderfully with such terrific songs.

High orthodox Beatlemaniacs can still grouse that the animated Fab Four are (literally) flat archetypes, but that's missing the sheer bloom of the music or the giddy, campy fun of the visuals. Making sense of the story is second to submerging blissfully in the sights and sounds of this video treat. --Sam Sutherland