In early April of 1967, while visiting Jane Asher in Denver, Colorado (Jane was doing Shakespeare with the Bristol Old Vic company, and April 5th was her 21st birthday), Paul McCartney came up with the concept of filming what was originally to be a theatrical film, but finished as an hour long Beatles television special. He jotted down his ideas on his return flight home on April 11 and presented them to the rest of the band a few days later. Paul enjoyed making movies on his own and essentially, MMT was one of his films on steroids. The first MMT recording session took place April 25 with the title track.
It is interesting to note just a few of the events going on during this period: Finishing touches to Sgt. Pepper were still being recorded up through April 21, Yellow Submarine recording sessions began May 11, the Sgt. Pepper press release party was held May 19 where McCartney met Linda Eastman, "All You Need Is Love" was performed live on the BBC for the Our World Live broadcast June 25, in late July the Beatles went to Greece looking to buy an island where they could live and record together, Ringo's son Jason was born Aug.19, the Beatles manager Brian Epstein visited the Beatles while they worked on recording "Your Mother Should Know" at Chappell Recording Studios, the last before he died on Aug. 27. The Beatles met at Paul's home Sept. 1 to discuss their future plans where it was decided to continue with the MMT project and put everything else on hold. Filming for MMT began September 12, Apple was formed Nov. 17. MMT was premiered in monochrome on BBC Television Dec. 26th, 1967.
MMT was released on VHS in Hi-Fi Digital Stereo in 1988 (all songs supervised and re-mixed by George Martin, visual and dialog materials restored and re-mastered by Ron Furmanek), on DVD in Dolby Digital in 1997 (just a transfer of the 1988 production where the film negative was transferred to video at VTR Studios, London on 6/23/88 and the sound relayed from the original mag track and digital audio masters at Abbey Road Studios on 6/24-25/88), and now in surround sound in 2012.
Video: The company of Eque, Inc. under the supervision of Paul Ruttan Jr. (Yellow Submarine) was responsible for the picture restoration. Cleaned up are all the film dirt, damage and defects found in the original, as well as the colors enhanced from anemic to vivid. To compare what was to what is now, check out some of the extras, which do not have all the clean-up administered. That's the way the 1997 DVD looks throughout. Understand, this was not a high budget 35mm film and that it was intended for television broadcast in 1967, so the original material was never intended to be seen on the big screen in high resolution. Still, it looks good considering and the clean-up job is most appreciated.
Audio: Many people were involved in the audio reproduction of the 2012 re-release of MMT: Sound Producer was Giles Martin (Sir George's son). The soundtrack and songs were re-mixed at Abbey Road Studios by Sam Okell. Project coordinator was Allan Rouse. Assistant Engineer was Matt Mysko. Audio restoration was by Simon Gibson. The original recordings were made by Geoff Emerick and Ken Scott.
The audio sounds good with much improved dynamic range and very little "flash" given to the surround sound channels, which I'm happy about. The DTS-HD Master sounds superior to the Dolby Digital 5.1 as typical. However, similar to the 2012 Yellow Submarine Blu-ray, though the dynamic range is actually improved by 5.6 dB over the Dolby Digital DVD, the over-all level is set more than 10 dB above reference level, so be cautious!
Bonus Features: There are eight, including Paul giving commentary of the whole film, but my two favorites are "Meet The Supporting Cast", which has many fun and interesting tid-bits, and the big surprise to me, Traffic's "Here We Go Around The Mulberry Bush". I never knew about this video or that it was made to be a part of the film. Fun to see the original Traffic line-up making a silly music video back in the psychedelic days.
There is also a 10" square deluxe box set, which includes a 60 page soft cover book, two vinyl EPs of the original UK album, and both the Blu-ray and DVD.

Cat: Apple Films 5099940490595
Format: 1.33:1, 1080i/60, DTS-HD Master 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, PCM Stereo
Re-mixed by: Sam Okell at Abbey Road Studios
Sound Quality:
Content: 4 of 5 Classic rock
Extras: 3 of 5 Fun and interesting