‘All Together Now’: “Yellow Submarine” (1968), The Beatles, and Children’s Film

Abstract

This article examines The Beatles’ classic animated film, Yellow Submarine (dir. George Dunning, 1968) in terms of its appeal to multi-demographic audiences. While it has become de rigueur to argue in favour of Yellow Submarine as an artefact of the late-1960s counter-culture, its status as a children’s film has largely been overlooked. This article will argue that Yellow Submarine invites, and is able to sustain, a range of interpretations, particularly regarding its dual status as a quintessential film for children and family audiences, and as a much more adult-oriented production that captures the revolutionary spirit of the period. While Yellow Submarine embodies aspects of late-1960s British and North American culture, the author argues that the narrative transcends national cultural specificities and attempts to appeal to universal human desires and emotional states through its balancing of utopian consensus and cultural diversity, and through the galvanizing presence of The Beatles.