Draft:Strawberry Fields (film)

Strawberry Fields is an unfinished 2D/3D animated jukebox musical fantasy film inspired by the music of the Beatles. The film was produced by Al Brodax, who had previously created the animated Beatles television series and produced the feature film Yellow Submarine (1968), which the film was considered to be a spiritual sequel to. Unlike Yellow Submarine, which featured limited traditional animation, Strawberry Fields was planned to combine computer animation with traditional animation painted digitally.

The film centered on a detective, Jude, and his new assistant Michelle going on an interplanetary adventure to Strawberry Fields in order to stop the evil Walrus from acquiring King Maxwell's hammer. Similar to other films that utilize Beatle songs to tell a narrative, the film was set to utilize covers of the songs by artists such as Cheap Trick, Cyndi Lauper, and Michael Jackson. The film was cancelled sometime in 1992. The biggest factors regarding the film's cancellations were in regards to rights issues regarding the Beatles' music, as well as a rumor stating that the remaining Beatles refused to allow their likenesses to be used in the film.

History
The film was first conceived in 1985, when producer Al Brodax signed a production deal with the Computer Graphics Laboratory of the New York Institute of Technology to produce a computer animated feature film. Much like Brodax's previous animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine, the film's narrative was comprised entirely out of Beatle songs, but rather than be about the Beatles like Yellow Submarine, focus on an original cast of characters. ITC Productions would later sign on to provide financing as well as acquire the rights to use the Beatles' music due to Apple Records no longer owning the rights, and Vestron later purchased the distribution rights.

The original plan was for the film to be entirely animated in CGI, however things were changed to instead feature traditionally animated characters placed in 3D environments, as a consequence of computer animation not being able to properly animate humans at this time. The 2D animation was handled by Lion's Den Studios under the management of Al Lowenheim, however they pulled out in 1989 after founder and owner Alexander Schure opposed the traditional style. Later on in the film's production, an attempt was made to switch over to a fully 3D film.

Ultimately, Strawberry Fields was cancelled in 1992 after ITC was unable to secure the rights to use the Beatles catalog, another rumor claims that the surviving Beatles, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison refused to allow the film to depict their likenesses.

A common rumor about the film was that Don Bluth was attached to direct. No sources have been able to confirm his involvement, however one of the film's lead animators, Jeff Merghart, had previously worked with Bluth on An American Tail (1986), which may have influenced the film's more Disney-esque aesthetic.