Evengyny
Thanks for the memories!
KnotStronger
This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.
Humbersi
The first must-see film of the year.
Zlatica
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
Tommy Nelson
The Beatles were huge in the 60s with just about everyone. Why not turn little kids onto their great music right? Well, this was a nice try, but this cartoon series was really lacking in something. It wasn't very funny or clever, and every plot was created to wrap around a Beatles song, making each episode like a poor animated music video. This wasn't a horrible show, it just wasn't very good.John, Paul, George and Ringo go on lots of exciting adventures, and tucked away in each of their journey's is a special song they share with the audience. The plots may be nonsensical and stupid, and the animation may pale in comparison to already poorly animated shows, like the Flintstones, but the music in each short is what made this not a complete flop.One of the major problems with this show was the voices. It's as though the casting directors just picked random people to do the Beatles speaking voices, because they sound nothing like their real life counterparts. When they are talking the entire episode, and then go into song, with music from the actual Beatles it sounds weird that their voices do an 180 degree flip. Anyone who doesn't pay attention or isn't a fan of the Beatles may not notice this.The animation is really bland. When the Beatles are playing instruments, they like to reuse animation a lot, and it's just not very good looking, except for the interesting caricatures of the Beatles used as the characters. The writing is poor, but occasionally an interesting plot came about. Really, this was just kiddie fair with music that could be enjoyed by anyone.My rating: ** out of ****. 30 mins.
Crazy Ian
I remember several of this show's episodes because it replayed on Teletoon in Canada (I think, it might've been the Family Channel). Anyways, the cartoons were very Monkey-esque, that is they usually ended up in some sort of a jam or situation, but then they sang a song and everything worked out well. I realize that it's silly to describe the Beatles' cartoons as Monkey-esque, because the Beatles predated the Monkees, however that seems like the most apt way to describe these cartoons. They were NOT very good. They typically invoked rarer songs that really didn't get a lot of airplay (not the hits). For the longest time I understood that the Beatles actually voiced themselves, however this apparently was not the case. They don't really voice themselves in 'Yellow Submarine' either, except in the live-action epilogue. These cartoons seemed very formulaic for the time, and the basic premise was often redone to correspond to the musical group of the time. For example, I recall large similarities between the Beatles cartoons and the Jackson 5 cartoons, however the Jackson 5 typically had a more 'futuristic' viewpoint (they went into space and encountered aliens and stuff like that). I'm also reminded of old Scooby-Doo cartoons, where there were those interminable chase scenes over the dubbing of a musical number. Apparently the Beatles themselves were not overly enamoured with these pieces either. Having said that, I'm sure that now is a good time to get these cartoons out as a DVD collection to span the entire Beatles' media contributions. I'm sure that a lot of people would be all over them purely for the sake of nostalgia, entertainment, and curiosity.
FabErica86
I first saw the cartoon when I was 14 at Beatlefest 2000 of Chicago, IL. My first cartoon was "Got To Get You Into My Life", and it's really funny. I got the cartoon on the video I got from ebay.com called "Best of The Beatles Cartoon Show". There were 11 cartoons and 10 sing-alongs on the tape. My dad saw the cartoon when he was 11-years-old. My favoritest Beatle of all is Ringo. He's VERY funny from the way he laughs, the way he walks like Groucho Marx, and the way he talks. I've been Ringo's fan since I was 8. I also like the REAL Ringo besides the CARTOON Ringo. I've seen 43 cartoons so far. There were 78 cartoons. 2 cartoons in each episode, which is 39 episodes. I'm still gonna love the cartoon forever.
Brainy-2
The thing I remember most about this series was the fact that George's speaking voice sounded exactly like Frankenberry's, from the Frankenberry/Count Chocula breakfast cereal commercials that were popular at the time...In other words, nothing even remotely resembling the baritone nasal scouse of the real George Harrison. I also seem to recall a couple of occasions where the animators didn't quite get the lead vocalist correct (in one episode, Paul was singing lead on "No Reply"). In spite of all that, the series still managed to be quite entertaining, and was the first place I had ever heard the songs "From Me To You" and "Paperback Writer." I only owned Beatle albums and not singles, and neither of those songs were on any Beatle LPs at the time.