It’s official: no classic is sacred enough to not be considered for a remake. Any day now I fully expect to wake up and find they’re remaking “Casablanca” or “Gone With the Wind.”
Far-fetched, you say.
Maybe not so much when you consider the news that Disney and director Robert Zemeckis are in final negotations to remake the 60’s animated Beatles film, “Yellow Submarine.”
The deal has been months in the making, due to complicated negotations between all the parties involved in the orginal. The biggest piece of the puzzle appears to be Zemeckis’ desire to have the rights to reuse all the classic Beatles songs used in the original.
Zemeckis’ desire is to update the movie using the same 3-D motion capture technology and animation employed for this year’s upcoming “A Christmas Carol,” starring Jim Carey.
The hope is to have “Yellow Submarine” ready to premiere around the 2012 Summer Olympics, which begins July 27 in London.
The desire to bring back the Beatles ties into a renewed interest in the iconic rock band. The Fab Four will be featured as part of an upcoming Rock Band title later this year.
In the original, actors provided voices for the animated version of the Beatles. John, Paul, George and Ringo appeared in the closing moments of the film.
I love the Beatles. Anything that introduces a whole new generation to their music is all right with me.
Once again, Hollywood proves it is creatively bankrupt.
Oddly enough, the two posts above sum up my own feelings on the subject. In a word; conflicted.
Repeat: History; repeat: history; repeat: history…etc etc etc I LUV Beatles!!!
Unreal! Heinz Edlemann must be turning in his grave – the aesthetic is such a huge part of what Yellow Submarine is , when you hear the name you immediately picture the quirky trippy colorful illustrations, how sad will it be if a new generations sees a creepy avatar looking character instead?
http://twoifbysee.blogspot.com/2009/07/looking-back-at-heinz-edelmann.html
I certainly am NOT going to condemn this project until I see it for myself. I just don’t get what all the backlash is about. Everyone is totally thinking the worst instead of realizing that we have some of the most brilliant minds at work here(Hello… The Beatles and Disney together…) and you know damn well that if Paul, Ringo, Yoko and Olivia signed on to this then they are going to have a hand in it as well which will be a good thing. They’re not going to let anyone just release something that doesn’t hold up to the Beatles legend. Look at everything in the past 10 years that came out with the Beatles personal guidance, Circe de Soliel and The Love Soundtrack, the remasters, Rock Band, etc… Everything they put their stamp of approval on has been nothing short of brilliance. Especially with how protective they are with the Beatle name. So I believe alot of integrity is going to happen here. And you would have to be a dummy to think for one minute that Zemeckis isn’t going to be handling this one with kid gloves. For he realizes how beloved the original movie is and he has stated many times himself how much he loves the 1968 film and is a true fan of it. So why would he want to ruin something he loves so much? And incidentally, if you look in the Disney history books, years before Toy Story was made, the Disney execs so wanted their first CGI animated film to be a sequel to Yellow Submarine and it was to be titled “Strawberry Fields Forever”. (look it up) They even had Pixar animate 10 minutes worth of test footage, which is out there somewhere, God I would love to see that footage!!! And seriously, that is what my hopes of this film will be, more of a continuation of the story instead of a retelling of it, because the Pepperland characters are so rich that they can tell more than one story. Plus there are many more songs to animate and with characters like Bungalo Bill, Lovely Rita, Dr. Robert, Maxwell, Mr. Mustard, Taxman, Day Tripper, etc… You can have multiple stories. I truly hope this becomes the next big franchise… Oh the merchandise… I am digging this all the way people… Beatles forever…