The Blue Meanies take over Pepperland, draining it of all its color and music, firing anti-music missiles, bonking people with green apples, and turning the inhabitants to stone by way of the pointed finger of a giant blue glove. As the only survivor, the Lord Admiral escapes in the yellow submarine and goes to Liverpool to enlist the help of the Beatles.
There's such a wide disparity of graphic styles from sequence to sequence. Some of them, though, still look terrific.
– Tony Rayns,
Time Out,
24 Jun 2006
rotten:
The animation is imaginatively conceived, but stiffly executed.
– Dave Kehr,
Chicago Reader,
6 Sep 2007
fresh:
This 1968 Beatles musical gets somewhat plot heavy near the end, but it's a marvel of innocence and free association, blending several animation techniques in a loose narrative full of gentle bad puns and flowing visual segues.
– Lisa Alspector,
Chicago Reader,
6 Sep 2007
fresh:
Here are all the ingredients of a novel entertainment.
– Variety Staff,
Variety,
6 Sep 2007
fresh:
Sure, some of the puns and in-jokes sound a little dated, but any movie that strings together lines from Shakespeare merely as a throwaway comic riff is, in my book, a film for the ages.