AND OUR FRIENDS ARE ALL ABOARD; SURVIVING BEATLES APPROVE DIGITALLY RESTORED RELEASE OF `YELLOW SUBMARINE' FILM, `SONGTRACK'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Writer

It has become a rite of autumn, as much as falling leaves, shortened days and post-Labor Day Christmas displays.

New Beatles product will soon be arriving in stores, just in time to make the Christmas gift-giving season seem truly fab. In recent years, we've seen the vaults raided for archival albums like ``The Beatles Live at the BBC'' and the ``Anthology'' series, as well as special packaging efforts that have returned classics like ``The Beatles'' (White Album) to their original form (albeit a tad smaller).

This year's offerings will be a feast for the eyes as well as the ears, as MGM has restored the Beatles' psychedelic celebration of love, love, love, ``Yellow Submarine,'' for video and DVD. Capitol Records will release a complementary ``songtrack'' album that, for the first time, includes all 15 songs heard in the film.

And there will be the obligatory array of Beatles merchandise, ranging from ``Yellow Submarine'' cookie jars and action figures to a commemorative stamp from the U.S. Postal Service.

`` `Yellow Submarine' is a living, breathing example of what the Beatles were saying and believing in the late '60s, namely that love is all you need,'' says rock journalist Bill Flanagan, who, as editorial director for cable music channel VH1, has put together a ``Yellow Submarine'' special that will air on Sept. 14.

``The movie touches into that part of the '60s counterculture that was trying to preserve a youthful innocence,'' Flanagan continues. ``Much of the counterculture seemed X-rated, but, at the same time, there was a tremendous nostalgia for childhood. That probably had a lot to do with the war and the draft and the fact that when you turned 18, you were in danger of being shipped off to the jungle and shot.''

``Yellow Submarine'' was an unlikely artistic and commercial triumph. The animated film was made in less than a year for a paltry $1 million. (By way of comparison, Disney these days typically spends four years and more than $100 million on its animated movies.)

And the Beatles themselves wanted nothing to do with the movie, reluctantly contributing only four new songs that were more or less throwaways. (Albeit Beatles throwaways, i.e. minor classics.)

``It'll do for the film,'' John Lennon would say of a song that didn't live up to the group's lofty standards.

``They didn't want to invest the time to make another movie,'' says Bruce Markoe, the MGM executive who spearheaded the ``Yellow Submarine'' restoration. ``But they owed United Artists one more movie, and they figured this was the easiest way to fulfill their obligation.''

Indeed, after making two movies with Richard Lester - the classic ``Hard Day's Night'' in 1964 and its follow-up, ``Help!'' the following year - the Beatles struggled to find the time and the inclination to go before the cameras again.

At one point, it was announced they would make a western titled ``A Talent for Loving.'' That was scratched in June 1965.

Another idea, ``Shades of Personality,'' had John Lennon playing a man with three different personalities other than his own. (Talk about ``Mind Games.'') Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, naturally, would play the multiple manifestations. Michael Antonioni, coming off his acclaimed ``Blow-Up,'' would direct.

Sadly, the timing was off. The Beatles started their own company, Apple, and made, gulp, ``Magical Mystery Tour'' instead.

Other concepts: Remaking ``The Three Musketeers'' with Lester (who later went on to make the movie - and its two sequels - with Richard Chamberlain, Oliver Reed and Michael York) and a gay-themed film that the group ultimately vetoed. ``It wasn't that we were anti-gay,'' Paul McCartney said at the time. ``It's just that we, the Beatles, weren't gay.''

King Features, who was making a Saturday morning Beatles cartoon series for ABC-TV, approached the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, with the idea of making an animated movie based on a Beatles song. The band agreed - as long as they didn't have to provide their own voices. Actors were hired, not that anyone noticed the difference. Many reviews of the film erroneously praised the Beatles for their vocal work.

King Features subcontracted the animation to Britain's TVC (Television Cartoons). Four writers (including Erich Segal of ``Love Story'' fame) are credited with the screenplay, which finds the cartoon Beatles sailing the sea of green to help liberate Pepperland from the gloomy Blue Meanies, an evil bunch of baddies who suck the color out of people and whack them on the heads with apples.

``Yellow Submarine'' was the first animated feature made in Britain in 14 years. Work began in 1967; the film premiered on July 17, 1968, in London.

``Some of the animation is very creative and ground-breaking, and some of the work is very bad,'' says MGM's Markoe. ``They just didn't have the time or the money to make everything perfect, which, I think, is part of the movie's charm. And when you look back on the kinds of movies that were being made in 1968, `Yellow Submarine' comes off incredibly fresh and innovative.''

True enough. The five films nominated for the best picture Oscar in 1968 - ``Oliver!'' ``Funny Girl,'' ``Rachel, Rachel,'' ``Romeo and Juliet'' and ``The Lion in Winter'' - reflected the tastes of an aging Hollywood power establishment increasingly out of touch with younger audiences.

``Yellow Submarine,'' with its vivid colors, exhilarating animation and make-believe worlds seemed, by comparison, a revolutionary work of imagination. The movie made year-end Top 10 lists in Time, Newsweek and most major newspapers.

The newly renovated version of the film (which will play for a week in a few art house theaters, including the Nuart in Los Angeles) digitally restores the first 40 minutes of the film, bringing back faded colors to their full psychedelic intenVsity.

(``A lot of people think you have to be on drugs to watch the movie,'' Markoe says. ``Maybe that was true at one time, but times certainly have changed.'')

The biggest difference in the new print, however, is heard, not seen. The songs have been remastered, giving them bigger, cleaner mixes that isolate individual instruments in a glorious wrap-around sound. The film's sound design has been digitally enhanced, and the sound effects now perfectly match the wild visual landscapes on the screen.

The movie also reinstates an animated sequence featuring the Beatles' ``Hey Bulldog,'' footage that was cut from the American version and many British prints. (``Paul McCartney was rumored not to like it,'' Markoe says.) An unreleased video of the Beatles recording the song will be shown throughout the month on VH1.

The success of ``Yellow Submarine'' helped many careers, including one person who had nothing to do with the movie. American pop artist Peter Max was frequently credited with the art direction, and he did little to dispel the myth, often allowing interviewers to incorrectly identify him as the movie's designer. He was said to be honored by the mistake. (Talk about a Blue Meanie.) Czech designer Heinz Edelmann actually did all the work.

Modern animators like ``South Park'' creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and John Lasseter of ``Toy Story'' cite ``Yellow Submarine'' as highly influential, Lasseter going so far as to introduce it as his favorite movie at a recent film festival in San Francisco.

The surviving Beatles themselves now embrace the movie and fully approve the newly restored film and its ``songtrack'' companion album.

``The fact is, with the way the culture and the government are now, it's all still happening now as it was in `Yellow Submarine,' '' George Harrison told Billboard editor Timothy White in a recent interview.

``Except the Blue Meanies have got a bigger stranglehold on the planet right now than they had back in '67.''

Perhaps the tViming for the Beatles is - as it always seems to be - perfect.

THE FACTS

The film: ``Yellow Submarine.''

Playing: Today through Thursday at Landmark's Nuart, 11272 Santa Monica Blvd., West Los Angeles.

The video and DVD: In stores Sept. 14. The DVD includes original theatrical trailer, audio commentary track, storyboard sequences and interviews.

The album: Newly remastered ``songtrack'' that includes all 15 songs heard in the film. The songs: ``Yellow Submarine,'' ``Nowhere Man,'' ``Eleanor Rigby,'' ``Love You To,'' ``All Together Now,'' ``Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds,'' ``Think for Yourself,'' ``Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,'' ``With a Little Help From My Friends,'' ``Baby, You're a Rich Man,'' ``Only a Northern Song,'' ``All You Need Is Love,'' ``When I'm Sixty-Four,'' ``Hey Bulldog,'' ``It's All Too Much.'' In stores Sept. 14.

CAPTION(S):

4 Photos

Photo: (1--2--Cover--Color) The Beatles' restored `Yellow Submarine' resurfaces on DVD and video just in time for Christmas gift-giving

(3) The new version of the Beatles' ``Yellow Submarine'' digitally restores the first 40 minutes of the film and improves its sound.

(4) The 1968 animated movie's Blue Meanies suck the color out of people and then hit them on the head with apples.