In this day in age in Hollywood, every bad idea has been considered with some sincerity. Whether it be sequels, adaptations, or even basic pitches involving flash in the pan ideas (Emoji Movie anyone), nothing is off the table as long as the money is possibly there. Even when they don’t get made, there is still a compelling aura to a bad idea being so heavily considered that real time and money was invested into it even if it ended up not coming to fruition. There has been one misguided project, however, that has practically fascinated me for as long as I can remember. Did you know that there was going to be a Yellow Submarine remake? And not only that, but it was going to be a Robert Zemeckis Motion Capture movie?
If there is any director who has fallen off in terms of talent and skill as of late, Rob might be one of the saddest cases. He had a hand in so many iconic and influential movies in the 80s and 90s and seemingly decided to spend all his goodwill on uncanny CGI and awkward projects that feel more focused on gimmicks than anything substantial. This was most apparent when, in the 2000s, he focused most of his time on the developing Motion Capture technology. He wanted to make films that involved more freedom with the camera and how he could shoot his performers. However, it seemed like he jumped the gun a bit early and focused on the wrong areas with this tech. While motion capture and CGI is everywhere nowadays, there’s an effort to thread the line of the uncanny valley properly in terms of realism or stylization. Zemeckis wanted to have his cake and eat it too with films that both embraced a more realistic approach, but were still focused on designs that didn’t feel like they meshed well with the basic tech or were focused on a detail of realism too complex for the period. It resulted in the movies The Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol which all felt like they were more invested in this new tech than being actual movies.
In the early 2010s, Robert planned to make his next project a motion capture remake of Yellow Submarine with Disney since they produced A Christmas Carol with him. I feel that I don’t have to tell you why this is a bad idea. The issue with motion capture, or the way Robert approached it, is that it is stuck in the uncanny valley with a focus on realism to a point. The original Yellow Submarine is a movie focused on anything but realism. It’s the embodiment of all the bizarre and counter-culture art elements of the mid to late 60s both with pop art and surreal stylization. Its stilted animation is arguably as limited as motion capture was in the 2010s, but the difference is that the people working on Yellow Submarine understood their limits and worked within them with a focus on good design work rather than trying to force something it couldn’t handle. Taking something so abstract and unreal and trying to force it into realism feels like a vain effort.
We have had glimpses and leaks at what the film might have looked like and yup, its as ugly and creepy as one would have expected. And Robert was serious about making this too. He casted actors like Cary Elwes and David Tenant and even got a Beatles tribute band called the Fab Four to perform the motion capture for the leads. The designs and look of the film in general focused on realism and more broad fantastical elements which feels less abstract and more off putting and generic. Thankfully, after the disaster of the Zemeckis produced film Mars Needs Moms, another motion capture effort that is noted as one of the biggest box office disasters in history, Disney cut their losses and canned their deal with Zemeckis. Robert would try to shop the film around to other studios, but eventually threw in the towel as well.
Having watched the original film for the first time recently, I can say for certain that it is a film that simply can’t be remade. Not just in terms of it being an iconic work, but in the fact that it’s attributes are firmly planted in the specific period it was made and that it’s actually a very un-mainstream movie. The film is basically a plotless excuse to show off animation and surreal imagery set to Beatles songs. It is a movie driven by the experience of the art and music rather than by character or plot. Even the comedic elements stemmed more from dry dialogue exchanged by the leads. It’s a movie whose reputation isn’t as representative of what it actually offers. Watching the film made me realize even more that the idea of remaking it in general feels like a futile effort of just bringing back something recognizable. I feel that those in the executive branch who would want to remake it wouldn’t actually understand what the film is and simply view it as “animated Beatles”. At some fundamental level, a film like this is just something that is able to be repackaged as another branded product. It is an art piece that just so happened to have the full support of the biggest band in the world at the time.
As of late, Robert has kind of been stuck in a midpoint between regular films and still trying to make his motion capture efforts work. He still feels lost and it’s kind of sad to see a director who once was such a visionary with technology feel more out of step compared to the current generation of similar directors and even the contemporaries of his time. In my mind, I feel he got fixated on the idea and potential of motion capture and has never really gotten off of it. Welcome to Marwen, another ill fated flop of his late career, was basically a trojan horsed motion capture movie and that Pinocchio remake he did for Disney also focused on similar utilization of realistic CGI. The fact he seriously considered throwing a movie that embodies how art can embrace the unreal into the ugly machine tells me he’s lost a bit of his artistic perspective. I do hope he gets to make another Cast Away or Back to the Future in the last stages of his career, because something like this just isn’t the best look.
As for this ill-fated project, it might be one of the most fascinating films that was never made that I can think of. There are plenty of reboots and remakes that feel pointless or miss the point of the original, but I can’t think of one that just feels so diametrically opposed to the spirit and artistry of the original. The craziest thing is that this wasn’t being springboarded by an egotistical producer or some suit who only views things through charts, but a long-time director who was simply experimenting with something he was genuinely passionate about. I can’t be upset that Robert wants to focus on things that interest him, but I still believe he really should have known better than to try making this film a reality. Frankly, whether the film ended up a good one or a bad one, we’re better off that it stayed on the ground floor given how special the original film truly is and how a remake would just never recapture any of it.
