[Ccook50]

At the moment, Disney is prepping a motion-capture remake of the Beatles' 1968 movie Yellow Submarine with Robert Zemeckis directing it, and the announcement has been met with widespread disapproval. They've already lined up who will "portray" the Beatles (Cary Elwes will be George), and a soundalike band, named the Fab Four, will do the music.

The disapproval stems from the thought that Submarine was a film for its time, the late 1960s. Its irregular linear art and its fireworks palette of colors cannot be adequately done in motion-capture since the technology is supposed to make things "lifelike" and the Heinz Edelmann-designed inhabitants of Submarine were all very un-lifelike to begin with. Also, two of the Beatles (John and George) are no longer around, so this remake cannot even do the original ending (where the group appears live) without it feeling creepy.

And finally, will the Disney audience weaned on the likes of Hannah Montana and High School Musical be able to appreciate the music of the Beatles? In 1978, kids thought that the Bee Gess and Peter Frampton thought up Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band after that movie came out, prompting Capitol records to re-release the Beatles' version with the label "The Original Classic." There's fear that the Beatles on-screen will be thought of as fictional and that Disney thought up the movie and the music. (I digress, my sister tells of two ten-year-old girls at a school talent show who did a duet of "I Will"--from the White Album--and she was absolutely floored by them). Time will tell...but the red flags are already out.