The Beatles (TV Series) A Hard Day's Night/I Want to Hold Your Hand (1965) User Reviews

The Escape From Beatlemania

[survivorofakuze · 8/10 · 10 December 2013]

I should probably get some kind of special demerit for unkindness for unfavorably comparing the Monkees to the Beatles, but I think that "The Beatles" TV show is at least as good, if not better, than "The Monkees" TV show (which is alright). Probably the weakest part of "The Monkees" show is how the songs are kinda dropped in randomly, often being played simply because people are running around being goofy, and the lyrics of the song usually have nothing to do with what's going on in the show. "The Beatles" show is better, I think, in this respect, in that the episode is named after one of the songs that are played, and the plot has something to do with it too.

In this one, "A Hard Day's Night", we get a very 1964, Height-of-Beatlemania song, which the band can't play properly because of the hordes of fans thronging them. So, they have to try to escape the mob, just like they did in real life. Here, though, the story takes a very cartoon-y riff, with the boys finding an old abandoned castle to play in-- only to find that the ghouls living there soon become their new fans.

The second part, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", is another Beatlemania song with a Beatlemania story to along with it. And it's amusing that the one whose hand he wants to hold is an octopus, (due to the date, unfortunately without a garden), and not, you know, my mom. ^^

Anyway, I thought it was pretty funny. Good fun.

(8/10)

This first episode of the cartoon series "The Beatles" is, quality-wise, not very good which doesn't bode well for the rest of the run

[tavm · 2/10 · 7 September 2009]

Having looked for a lot of Beatles stuff on YouTube, I stumbled on this-the first episode(s) of the King Features cartoon series of the Fab Four. The animation is not good and it's disappointing to realize the voices are not theirs (I recognized right away that Paul Frees voiced John Lennon). Still, it's interesting to know that executive producer Al Brodax would eventually also produce the movie Yellow Submarine with its more creative visuals. Before I review the episode proper, I must confess that I actually first encountered this series when it aired on MTV in the late '80s (This was when the network still lived up to its name Music Television by actually showing music videos). Okay, in "A Hard Day's Night", they end up performing that song in a haunted castle. They're there because Ringo says it's big and empty meaning there's no people to bother them. (This scene had the only chuckle from me when Paul-before Ringo mentioned the place-says they all can't fit in his head when Starr mentioned "big and empty") But of course it's next to a graveyard with the usual spooks. Next is a sing-a-long segment where Paul intros not-as-well-known songs "Not a Second Time" and "Devil in Her Heart" with words printed on screen with Ringo as prop man dressing as Cupid (with a "k") and the Statue of Liberty (for the "torch" number). Finally, in "I Want to Hold Your Hand", the Mop Tops are on a ship who escape the crowds by going in a round submarine and finding a lovesick female octopus underwater. Since there's a male one on board, guess what happens next? Like I said, these cartoons are lame but if you're interested in all things Beatles and are curious enough in these limited animated programs from the '60s, "The Beatles" series is at least worth a look.