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This Cartoon Didn’t Actually Exist, But It Should Have

I don’t know if this will be comprehensible to those who didn’t watch the old Beatles cartoon, the one where the foursome (voiced by others, including Paul Frees) would have some kind of wacky adventure for two minutes and then spend the rest of the cartoon singing (to the real records). It was fairly typical ’60s limited-animation stuff, maybe a bit above the normal standard, with lots of re-used footage. You can find examples online, like “Taxman.” (I give the cartoon producers credit for finding an interpretation of that song that doesn’t led itself to claims that it’s a “Conservative Rock Song” or whatever.)

Anyway, the cartoons continued into the late ’60s, as the Beatles themselves started to look nothing like the caricatures from the cartoon (which were based on the way they looked and dressed in 1964-5) and as the songs started to become a bit heavy and elaborate for the cartoons. The series was canceled after “Penny Lane.” But this guy online has used stock cartoon footage, plus a bit of new dubbing and flash animation, to create Beatles cartoons for songs the cartoon series didn’t get to. So here are John, Paul, George and Ringo trying to get to a gig in “Republic, Georgia,” only to find that they’re in the Republic of Georgia. Which, as it happens, is always on their mi-mi-mi-mi-mind.

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