It’s not like they were shy of acting – they had already done Hard Day’s Night and Help!
Why should they? Voice work is hard work. It would have taken a lot of time they could have used in the studio. And they didn’t need the money - I’m sure they got plenty already. And, of course, most of the audience never realized it wasn’t them.
Integrity.
I certainly didn’t. I don’t think I knew it before the 90s.
Galen’s account is the one I always heard. The Beatles cartoon series on American TV was pretty awful, and the band figured the movie would be much the same, just longer. They wanted almost nothing to do with it.
By the time the band saw the actual movie, and found to their amazement that it was actually pretty good, it was too late for them to make any real contributions.
They heard Erich “Love Story” Siegel was involved in the script. 
Just wow. Great songs, especially Hey Bulldog.
They liked it so much they dug out and wore their old collarless suits for their brief appearance in it.
IIRC, the Beatles signed a contract in 1964 to make three movies; by the time they’d made A Hard Day’s Night and Help, they were pretty much sick of acting and just wanted to focus on making music. They saw Yellow Submarine as a way to fulfill their contract with as little non-music related effort as possible (hence, no voices). In the end, United Artists didn’t consider it to be a film made by them, so they ended up doing Let It Be (not exactly a wild success) as their final movie.
Hey Bulldog is an absolute treasure.
Agree on “Hey Bulldog,” but “Only a Northern Song” is also excellent. It was supposed to be on Sgt. Pepper as Harrison’s contribution, and is better than “Within You Without You.”
It’s also cleverly self-referential. The Beatles’ music publisher at the time was Northern Songs.
Yes, but it didn’t actually appear in the movie itself. … Did it? (checks Wikipedia)
[QUOTE=Wikipedia]
The song was used in a segment of the animated film Yellow Submarine. Initially it appeared only in some European theatrical prints. It was cut from the American version by the movie’s producer Al Brodax as he and the group felt the film was too long. It was restored for the film’s 1999 re-release.
[/QUOTE]
Hmmm. I may have to look for that.
Holy crap! I didn’t know until reading this thread just now*!* Granted I haven’t seen it in ages, but I loved The Beatles as a kid (in the 70s) and really loved that movie. TV would only show it every couple years so it was a big deal when it was on.
I remember MTV ran the old Beatles cartoon series in the mid-eighties for some reason. I had only the vaguest of memories of my older siblings watching it, so when I saw it I was shocked athow godawful it was*!* Paul Frees doing some of the voices?!? Nothing against him, but no…
It’s fun to see that segment once, but frankly, cutting it was a good idea. (Great song, though.)
This is news to me as well. Kinda bummed out to learn it wasn’t George who said, “I think I burnt me finger!” (or whatever).
One thing I’ve heard is that when the Beatles first watched the movie, all four of them separately said that the actor who did their voice didn’t sound right but the actors who did the other three were all spot on.
This is mentioned inthis VH1 special about the making of Yellow Submarine. Nobody likes hearing their own recorded voice played back, but given that they were the freakin’ Beatles it does seem a little odd*!*
Fans of “Hey Bulldog” might enjoy the isolated bass part…one of the best parts of the song, and sometimes a little tough to make out, especially in the earlier-released versions.