There is a sweet legend most Beatles fans know about how John Lennon met and fell in love with Yoko Ono. When Lennon attended one of the young, hip artist’s openings, he was encouraged to climb a ladder there. At the top, he found a small piece of paper with the word “yes” written on it, and he knew that Yoko was the one. While the Beatles themselves originally wanted nothing to do with the making of Yellow Submarine (they had hated the TV cartoon show about them), the protagonists of the story, the citizens of Pepperland, believed in “Yes” as well. When the evil Blue Meanies, of the “No” persuasion, invade the peace-loving, hippie-styled, underwater world of the Peppers, the Beatles are called in to help. The movie’s trippy animation is deliberately mind-bending, but meant as a learning tool for children. The music is culled from four albums with four hastily produced songs written exclusively for the film. And while the speaking voices are not the Beatles’, the band eventually got to “yes” after viewing the finished project and agreed to film the live-action epilogue to the film. Get out your tie-dyed digs and groove on the lawn of the N.C. Museum of Art, especially when The Spongetones, a Beatles cover band, performs before the film, Saturday, July 29. See “Special Showings” for details.
