The Beatles (animation): Difference between revisions

[[File:Beatles_cartoon.jpg|frame| From left to right: [[John Lennon]], [[Ringo Starr]], [[George Harrison]], [[Paul McCartney]]. Just in case...]]

 

 

A cartoon series that ran from 1965 to 1969 following the [[Hilarity Ensues|wacky hijinks of]] [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]]. Notable for [[Trope Maker|being the first]] [[Celebrity Toons|cartoon about actual people]] made for television.

The series followed a [[Three Shorts|Two Shorts Format]], with each short separated by two singalong segments. The singalongs would always start with either John Lennon, Paul McCartney or George Harrison trying to introduce the song and encourage the viewers to sing along, and Ringo Starr interrupting to try and "set up the proper mood" with props.

 

 

Produced by Al Brodax (who would later go on to produce ''[[Cool McCool]]'' and ''[[Yellow Submarine]]'') for King Features, who produced a number of other cartoon series based on its own popular comic strips. Notable in that making the show was literally a world-wide effort, and an early example of farming out animation overseas to save money. A majority of the production was done in England, but episodes were also farmed out to studios in Australia, Canada, and Holland. This lends the show a bit of discontinuity when it comes to animation style; the Australian episodes are particularly prone to poor quality because Australia had a limited animation industry before the show arrived there and therefore fewer experienced professionals to draw from.

Many of the same people from the English studio who worked on the cartoon, as well as the American producers, went on to work on ''[[Yellow Submarine]]'' (including Lance Percival as Old Fred), one of the many reasons why the Beatles initially wanted nothing to do with the film.

 

----

* [[Accidental Marriage]] - One of the stock plots for this show.

* [[And You Were There]] - Inverted in "I'm Only Sleeping":

'''Ringo''': "We know, we were there." }}

* [[Animals Not to Scale]] - "I'll Get You" features the Beatles riding one tiny elephant.

* [[Disguised in Drag]] - George, in "What You're Doing", to get Ringo out of a Gypsy wedding. It backfires spectacularly.

* [[Distress Ball]]

* [[The Door Slams You]] - "She Loves You".

* [[Downer Ending]] - Some of the episodes end with injuries. And the first episode ends with them fainting at the sight of spooks.

* [[Evil Laugh]] - John ([[Truth in Television]], depending on whom you ask) at the end of "It Won't Be Long".

* [[Executive Meddling]] - The Bat-Woman from "Baby's In Black" originally had a lot more...[[Most Common Superpower|curves]], but the higher-ups saw the pencil test and thought that that was a bit much for a kids' show, so the animators had to redraw her.

* [[The Faceless]] - Brian Epstein.

* [[Facial Profiling]] - Their trips to Japan. Just...[[Values Dissonance|their trips to Japan.]]

* [[Marie Antoinette]] - Ringo dreams he's having an affair with her in "Run For Your Life".

* [[Mirror-Cracking Ugly]] - [[Butt Monkey|Ringo]]

* [[Monumental Damage]] - The Beatles go to rehearse in the Coliseum and cause it to fall apart.

* [[Green-Skinned Space Babe|Normal Skinned Space Babe]] - One of these tries to "save the universe from The Beatles" by stranding them on a random planet in "Day Tripper".

* [[Off-Model]] - They're hardly ever on model. Paul is often the worst offender.

* [[Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping]] - John, quite often. And George is a bizarre mix of Asian-Irish-[[General Mills|Boo Berry]].

* [[Parental Bonus]] - "I'm Down":

'''Paul:''' "I don't think they're quite ripe yet." ''[points to a little girl standing nearby]'' }}

* [[The Power of Rock]] - Can turn a [[Deliberately Monochrome]] orphanage into a psychedelic wonderland!

* [[Real Song Theme Tune]] - "Can't Buy Me Love" for season 1, "Help!" for season 2 and "And Your Bird Can Sing" for season 3.

* [[The Runt At the End]] - Ringo. Partial [[Truth in Television]].

** Ooh, and "James Blond" in "Penny Lane"!

*** On a related note, in the "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" episode, the evil competitors in the race are a Generic Archvillain and a very obvious Mook. He's the spitting image of Oddjob from ''[[Goldfinger]]''.

** Their performance in "I'm Down," makes a lot of references to their Shea Stadium performance.

** The Beatles imagine themselves as [[The Three Musketeers (novel)|The Three Musketeers]] in "Any Time at All".

* [[Simpleton Voice]] - Ringo.

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]] - The images they put to the songs are relevant to varying degrees.

** Why Ringo never sued King Features is completely unknown to us. In comparison to his [[Only Sane Man|actual]] [[The Quiet One|persona]], the show's [[The Ditz|portrayal]] of him borders on libel.

* [[Trope Maker]]/[[Ur Example]] - As mentioned above.

* [[What the Hell, Hero?]] - When Ringo reveals his hobby is catching "birds" (read: women) and putting them in cages in "Ticket to Ride", this is everyone's general reaction.

 

[[Category:Trope Makers]]

[[Category:Western Animation]]