Pixar co-founder and former chief creative officer John Lasseter has credited the film with generating wider interest in animation as a serious art form, as it had been generally considered a children's medium at the time.

Ringo uses the hole in his pocket to release the Lonely Hearts Club Band, and they join the Beatles in combating the Meanies' multi-headed dog.

John extends an offer of friendship, and the Chief Blue Meanie has a change of heart and accepts, confessing that he is related to the Bluebird of Happiness.

Many fans have assumed that the cartoon did not meet the contract's requirements, but the documentary film Let It Be (1970) was not connected to the original three-picture deal.

[12] The Beatles make a live-action cameo appearance in the final scene, which was filmed on 25 January 1968, shortly before the band's trip to India.

While Starr and McCartney still looked the same as their animated counterparts, Lennon's and Harrison's physical appearances had changed by the time the cameo was shot.

The original story was written by Lee Minoff, based on the song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and the screenplay was penned by four collaborators including Erich Segal.

In the DVD commentary track, production supervisor John Coates states that many of these lines were written by Liverpudlian poet Roger McGough (who, coincidentally at that time, was married to Thelma Pickles, a former girlfriend of both Lennon and McCartney), though he received no credit in the film.

However, Millicent McMillan recalls that the Blue Meanies were originally supposed to be red, or even purple, but when Heinz Edelmann's assistant accidentally changed the colours, the film's characters took on a different meaning.

The Beatles' animated personas were based on their appearance during the Sgt Pepper's press party at Brian Epstein's house, on 19 May 1967.

[14][15] Charlie Jenkins, one of the film's key creative directors, was responsible for the entire "Eleanor Rigby" sequence, as well as the submarine journey from Liverpool, through London, to splashdown.

A large crew of skilled animators, including (in alphabetical order) Alan Ball, Ron Campbell, John Challis, Hester Coblentz, Geoff Collins, Rich Cox, Duane Crowther, Tony Cuthbert, Malcolm Draper, Paul Driessen, Cam Ford, Norm Drew, Tom Halley, Dick Horne, Arthur Humberstone, Dennis Hunt, Greg Irons, Dianne Jackson, Anne Jolliffe, Dave Livesey, Reg Lodge, Geoff Loynes, Lawrence Moorcroft, Ted Percival, Mike Pocock, Gerald Potterton, and Peter Tupy, were responsible for bringing the animated Beatles to life.

"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was Dunning's idea, which he turned over to Bill Sewell, who delivered more than thirty minutes of rotoscoped images.

By that time, Dunning was unavailable, and Bob Balser, with the help of Arne Gustafson, edited the material to its sequence length in the film.

It has been replaced by a shorter battle scene where the people of Pepperland, led by the Beatles, attack and defeat the Blue Meanies.

Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band from the glass ball and a small additional shot of Jeremy after his liberation.

Released in the midst of the psychedelic pop culture of the 1960s, the film drew in moviegoers both for its lush, wildly creative images and its soundtrack of Beatles songs.

[20] The website's critical consensus states: "A joyful, phantasmagoric blend of colorful animation and the music of the Beatles, Yellow Submarine is delightful (and occasionally melancholy) family fare".

[22] Roger Ebert of the Chicago-Sun Times praised the film for its creative animation and screenplay, giving it 3 and a half stars in his original review, saying ''Yellow Submarine", curiously enough, exists on two levels with nothing in between.

[23] Of all the Beatles films released by United Artists, Yellow Submarine had been the only one to which UA retained the rights, leading up to its purchase by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1981.

[25][26] Amazon negotiated exclusive streaming rights to the film via its Prime Video service, starting 13 July 2018 in the UK, the US, Canada, Germany, Spain, France and Italy under a deal with Apple Corps.

[24] The sound was remixed to Dolby 5.1, and the film was re-edited to its European theatrical version, with the "Hey Bulldog" number restored.

The delicate restoration was supervised by Paul Rutan Jr and his team, which included Chris Dusendschon, Rayan Raghuram and Randy Walker.

For the 30th anniversary of the film, the soundtrack and score were remixed in 5.1 stereo surround sound at Abbey Road Studios by mix engineer Peter Cobbin.

[25] On 14 September 1999, United Artists and Apple Records digitally remixed the audio of the film for a highly successful theatrical and home video re-release.

The previous DVD release also featured a music-only audio track, without spoken dialogue, leaving only the music and the songs.

In August 2009, Variety reported that Walt Disney Pictures and filmmaker Robert Zemeckis were negotiating to produce a computer-animated remake of the film.

[41] On 14 March 2011, Disney abandoned the project, citing the disastrous opening weekend results of Simon Wells' Mars Needs Moms.

By December 2012, Zemeckis expressed that he had lost interest in the project, stating: "That would have been great to bring the Beatles back to life.

[42] In 2021, footage of the remake surfaced online, revealing that the film would have potentially utilized soundbites from the original and even recreate certain scenes.