This special screening will include an introduction from Fantasy-Animation.org, a website and podcast dedicated to the study of fantasy cinema and the medium of animation curated by Dr. Christopher Holliday (King’s College London) and Dr. Alexander Sergeant (University of Portsmouth). The screening of Yellow Submarine will also be followed by a live Q&A with academic, playwright and journalist Dr. Jingan Young.

Inspired by the music and melodies of The Beatles, and released a little over two years after the song from which it took its name, Yellow Submarine (1968), directed by George Dunning, offers a magical mystery tour through psychedelic British animation of the 1960s. The film is dazzling in its designs and perhaps the fullest realisation of animation as a flexible and creative graphic art, with tonal shifts in its narrative that are well-matched to a jerky cel-animated style that also counts Rotoscoping among its many artistic techniques. It comes as little surprise that the film has been credited with briefly reviving popular interest in animation in the 1960s, coming at time when British cinema was largely dominated by ‘kitchen sink’ realist traditions, socially-conscious subject matter and a wealth of Angry Young Men. Yellow Submarine’s unusual cacophony of vibrant colours and forms as it brought to life the Fab Four’s rock and roll repertoire therefore presented to audiences the possibilities for animation as a significant and serious art form.

Yellow Submarine is essentially a part-hero’s journey part-fairytale that follows the Fab Four in Pepperland, a world protected by Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Pepperland comes under attack from the Blue Meanies, who imprison its population and drain the realm of its colour and vitality. It is up to The Beatles to free Pepperland and restore its energy, travelling across Salvador Dalí-esque landscapes and encountering the seas of Time, Science, Monsters, Nothing and Holes (as well as the mysterious Foothills of the Headlands). The outcome is a carnivalesque cartoon of music and myth that, following other big-screen vehicles for the band released during the decade such as A Hard Day’s Night (1964) and Help! (1965), further secured The Beatles’ place in the pop cultural consciousness.

The screening of Yellow Submarine will be followed by a live podcast recording and Q&A with Dr. Jingan Young. Jingan is the curator and editor of Foreign Goods: A Selection of Writing from British East Asian Artists, published by Oberon Books, and is a regular contributor to the Guardian on film. Her next play Life and Death of a Journalist will run at the VAULT Festival 2020. She is also an expert on postwar British cinema, successfully completing her PhD on representations of London’s Soho.

Doors open at 18.30, and the film starts at 19.30.

Refreshments will be available in our licensed cafe/bar.

TICKETS & PRICING

Tickets £6.

Advance tickets may be purchased from Ticketlab, or direct from the Museum by calling 020 7840 2200 in office hours.