YELLOW SUBMARINE (1968)

50 years ago Canadian animator George Dunning directed the groundbreaking and charming Yellow Submarine. Dunning had previously worked on The Beatles’ cartoon show for ABC in the US and was also known for creating the opening animated sequence for Blake Edwards' A Shot in the Dark (1964)

Aside from providing four new songs and filming a brief live-action closing scene The Beatles had no direct involvement in the film. Having been dissatisfied with their previous cinematic effort Help! the four were pleased to have been handed a way of fulfilling their three-film contract with United Artists without actually making another movie.

As for the plot: the undersea music-loving Pepperland is invaded by the nasty music-hating Blue Meanies and veteran sailor Old Fred journeys to Liverpool in the Yellow Submarine to get help from the Fab Four. The film strings together a selection of classic Beatles songs married to striking visual set pieces with an additional orchestrated score by the band's producer, George Martin.

The voice cast includes John Clive as John, Geoffrey Hughes as Paul, Peter Batten as George plus Paul Angelis, best known as PC Bannerman in Z Cars, as Ringo, Chief Blue Meanie and the opening narrator. Lance Percival voices Old Fred and Dick Emery is variously Max, the Lord Mayor and Jeremy Hilary Boob. On one level Yellow Submarine is simply an entertaining children's cartoon – and a fantastic introduction to The Beatles for children. But the strikingly colourful, highly stylised 'limited animation' format proved to be immediately, incredibly influential not least upon Terry Gilliam's upcoming work with Monty Python in the UK and the animations of the Children Television Workshop in the US.