The Beatles Roll Out Two New Animated Videos To Enthrall Modern Listeners
Video screenshot via The Beatles / Apple Corps Limited
As some of the most prolific musicians in the world, The Beatles could have just let it be. Instead, with the expanded reissue of the 1966 album Revolver, two new animated music videos have been released to reinterpret its tracks for today’s visually-hungry fans.
Material involving The Beatles is limited, but the extended album ushers opportunities to create all-new content, says Danny Sangra, who was commissioned to work on the revitalized music video for Taxman. For his riff on a Beatles classic, the film director went all out with typography, reacting to lines with blown-up letters and endearing wordplay without them turning into a lyric video.
“My approach was influenced by Yellow Submarine mixed with comics and Saturday morning cartoon shows,” Sangra writes on his website.
Filmmaker Em Cooper’s approach to The Beatles was quite different. Tasked to portray I’m Only Sleeping, Cooper straddled between the states of dreaming and wakefulness with 1,300 hand-painted oil artworks, all joined to form a fluid visualization of John Lennon’s thoughts.
With the surreal take, Cooper captured John Lennon drifting in and out of sleep with a swirl of dream moments, memories with The Beatles, and their anti-war sentiment. As per It’s Nice That, Cooper says the band already set the tone for the animation’s “languid, dreamy state” with the song, and all she did was follow with her paintbrush.
"The Beatles — I’m Only Sleeping"
— José C. Vales (@josecvales) November 2, 2022
Dir. Em Cooper (2022) pic.twitter.com/vRU0FHjkLl
[via It’s Nice That and Far Out Magazine, videos and screenshots via The Beatles / Apple Corps Limited]
