Yellow Submarine on Blu-ray

[Ben]

Had a look and couldn't find a thread for this, even though the Zemeckis remake and news of the original's release on Blu-ray has been covered elsewhere.

Anyways...it comes to BD this Tuesday and I have a question: even though I usually import most of my titles from the US, the packaging on any copies I have seen on Amazon.com and other American sites are all using the British/UK cover art with the little BBFC "U" rating icon on the packaging.

This could either mean they've just printed up one version of the sleeve and are simply releasing it worldwide, or that the "U" could be a sticker over here in the UK.

I'm going to check here when it's released, but is there a chance someone could drop into a US store and see if the "U" is indeed in the bottom right hand corner of the cover, please?

If it's there, or if the "U" is a sticker I can remove, then I may as well purchase the disc over here, but I'd appreciate having a first-hand account before I import it or not.

THANKS!

[Randall]

I'd be reeeeally suprised if that U still showed up on the final US package. But, I'll have my copy from Amazon.com in a week or so. I'll let you know if no one else has spoken up yet.

[EricJ]

This could either mean they've just printed up one version of the sleeve and are simply releasing it worldwide, or that the "U" could be a sticker over here in the UK.

OR, that the only "official" shots are coming from Capitol/Apple, and have the UK U-boxed cover to work with. It's not that big an issue.
(And like Rand says, we'll know in a week. As for the movie itself, managed to sneak into part of the theater-event showing, and it looks Disney-restoration-level crisp, without the pumped-up color of MGM's old '99 DVD.

[Ben]

Thanks, guys.

[Randall]

My copy from Amazon.com arrived today, and I am pleased to confirm that there is NO "U".

[Randall]

Here's a scan, including cover sticker:

[Ben]

Thanks Rand! US import it is then!

[Dacey]

WIP footage of doomed Strawberry Fields film emerges online:

https://archive.org/details/strawberry-fields-wip-reel

[Ben]

No idea this got as far as it did! I’ve only read about Al Brodax and Strawberry Fields, and that it was abandoned early on, which originally indicated not much was done. Wow! Not that it all looks great: there's a complete mix of styles that would have looked pretty garish back in '85, or even the early 90s.

There’s almost a dichotomy, or a whole bunch of dichotomies, going on here, from the "Deluxe Paint" style character animation look that conversely looks nicely soft shaded, to the harsh, pointed CG backgrounds mixed with the drawn backgrounds that are all again soft, albeit all with very saturated colors (yes, also not helped by the dupe source of the video).

Very interesting stuff, though! And it’s not all "bad", though very messy and all over the place. Apart from rights issues, it’s no wonder that it didn’t end up being completed, or that there were multiple ways it was going to be done, since nothing really seems to mesh. Then again, it really would have been a perfectly-dated 80s movie, espousing everything about that decade and everything about it in one film — albeit with music that would have then been 20 years old, even in re-recordings!

What a weird thing! Thanks for the discovery!