The Beatles 1968 animated classic Yellow Submarine is getting the re-mastering treatment, and will make its way to DVD this May 28, 2012, according to THR.

Instead of going the usual route of computer software to re-master the film, the unanimous choice by Apple Corps (confirmed by them this past Tuesday), was to hand clean the film, frame by frame, preserving the hand-drawn artwork. This process took four months to bring to fruition.

The soundtrack for the film will also be released on May 28th as well, which will also be re-mastered.

Originally released as a single off of their 1966 album Revolver, Yellow Submarine was another number one smash hit in the band’s long line of chart toppers. Sung by drummer Ringo Starr and evoking a whimsical, loose style with its infectious chorus and makeshift sound effects simulating a submarine, the song was and is, one of the Beatles’ most memorable tunes.

The film itself set new standards in animation and almost singlehandedly changed animation design. Very unlike the Disney templates which dominated most animation before it, Yellow Submarine is a palette of ’60’s pop art. It combines garish, vivid backgrounds and psychedelic sights and sounds with the cartoon Beatles squarely in the middle of it all. Art Director Heinz Edelmann, creates a memorable cinema zeitgeist that influenced scores of animators in the film’s wake, Terry Gilliam of Monty Python most notably.

The animated film is chock full of Beatles songs from their albums released around that time or earlier (Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper) and even had some new songs created for the film by the quartet (“Hey Bulldog,” “Its All too Much,” and the catchy “All Together Now”). While the Beatles themselves did not use their voices for their animated counterparts, they do make a nice albeit brief live-action cameo appearance near the film’s end.

Out of print on DVD for many years now, this re-mastered release of Yellow Submarine on May 29th is great news for the casual Beatles fan, or the Beatlesphile who knows every tidbit about the Fab Four.

Back in 2009, director Robert Zemeckis was working on a motion-capture remake of Yellow Submarine for Disney and had even cast the voices for the film, but Disney scrapped the project completely in early 2011.

[Source: THR]