1 minute read
Tony Sheridan
TRY AS YOU MIGHT, YOU CANNOT HATE THE Saturday-morning animated series titled, simply, “The Beatles.” Yeah, it’s lame. Yeah, the voices don’t sound a whit like the Beatles (with the possible exception of Ringo). Yeah, sometimes the wrong Beatle sings a given tune.
But the songs are terrific. (It’s the Beatles, yo!) And though the series is an easy target for ridicule, once the cartoon Beatles plug in and play, it’s ... it’s ... charming.
The series was produced by Al Brodax, the animator behind the series “Beetle Bailey” and “Barney Google and Snuffy Smith” — not exactly Disney-level stuff. Though the Beatles initially disliked the series, they later OKed Brodax to produce their 1968 movie “Yellow Submarine.”
The episodes are named after song titles. The formula has John, Paul, George and Ringo thrown into various settings such as a jungle, a cruise ship, a rodeo, a movie studio, the ruins of Rome. There is always a gig to get to, and the ongoing problem of being chased by screaming girls. (Of course, this kiddie show never alludes to the fact that these screaming girls represent the brink of sexual awakening.)
Sometimes the boys land in the realm of classic literature, such as Victor Hugo’s “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” or Alexandre Dumas’s “The Three Musketeers.” Sometimes they are dropped into an alternate universe, and encounter leprechauns or monsters. (The Beatles meet Dracula in an episode set at a wax museum in Piccadilly.)
For fans of the great voice artist Paul Frees, “The Beatles” is a treasure trove. Still, John and George are inappropriately voiced. John has the posh “I say” accent. George sounds like an Irish farmer — nothing against Irish farmers. Ringo’s approximated Liverpudlian accent is, eh, passable.
But, to give the devil his due, the likenesses are outstanding. These deceptively simple caricatures are instantly recognizable. Brodax’s team truly captured the Fab Four.
Inveterate TV watcher John Lennon later called the shows “a blast.” Mused George Harrison: “They were so bad or silly that they were good, if you know what I mean.”
Ya see? It couldn’t have been all that terrible.
