What emerges is a vivid time capsule of the late 1960s and a minor milestone in animation. The music represents the quartet's zenith--Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The story line, cobbled together by producer Al Brodax and a committee of writers, is a broad, feather-light allegory set in idyllic Pepperland, where the gentle citizens are threatened by the nasty, music-hating Blue Meanies and their surreal arsenal of henchmen, with the Beatles enlisted to thwart the bad guys. Visually, designer Heinz Edelmann mixes the biomorphic squiggles, day-glo palette and Beardsley-esque portraits of Peter Max with rotoscoped still photographs and film; Edelmann's animated collages also nod to Andy Warhol and Magritte in properly psychedelic fashion, which works wonderfully with such terrific songs.

High-orthodox Beatlemaniacs can still grouse that the animated Fab Four are (literally) flat archetypes, but that's missing the sheer bloom of the music or the giddy, campy fun of the visuals. Making sense of the story is second to submerging blissfully in the sights and sounds of this video treat. --Sam Sutherland

Video Description
DVD Special Features

Featurette "The Mod Odyssey"
Music-only track highlighting the film's score
Three storyboarded sequences - including two not used in the final film
Original pencil drawings
Behind-the-scenes photo
Interviews with the crew and vocal talents
Collectible booklet that drives behind-the-scenes of this landmark animated adventure
Audio: English/English mono/German/Italian
Subtitles: English/German/Dutch/French/Italian/Spanish/Portuguese/Swedish/Danish/Norwegian/Finnish/Polish/English for the Hard of Hearing

See all Reviews