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No one was thrilled with the idea of Robert Zemeckis remaking the trippy toon Yellow Submarine as a 3D Mo-Cap extravaganza. Well, he doesn’t listen to us. Anyway, he’s doing it for the kids who have absolutely no way to connect to the Beatles without his technology.
So, he’s gone and cast the Fab Four. Meet your new Beatles: Cary Elwes as George Harrison, Peter Serafinowiczas Paul McCartney, Adam Campbell as Ringo Starr, and Dean Lennox Kelly as John Lennon. According to The Hollywood Reporter](Heat Vision), they’ll be the walking-and-talking Beatles, but the Beatles tribute band The Fab Four will play the group in all the musical sequences. The music-hating Blue Meanies have yet to be cast. Is Jim Carrey busy? He could play all of them!
Zemeckis has polished up *Yellow Submarine with a new script, though THR *doesn’t say what changes have been made to the original story of the Beatles, the Blue Meanies, and Old Fred. Will all the puns and innuendo be gone since this is a Disney production? Will it be firmly set in the land of adventure, and not “all in the mind” as the original was? We all know what Yellow Submarine was really getting at, but that’s hardly the kind of message Hollywood wants.
Anyway, the whole project is still bewildering to me and I’m honestly weirded out by the new Beatles. It would be odd enough if this was a straight-up biopic, but there’s just something about actors imitating the Beatles who were really just playing* fictional *cartoon versions of themselves that’s too hard for me to wrap my mind around. I’ll just go listen to the White Album instead and leave you to talk about Zemeckis’ choices.