The Animations of Billy Shears
The esoteric meanings found in McCartney-Dunbar animations.
WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
Rupert and the Frog Song
Let me take you back to 1984. “Paul” (AKA Billy) and Linda McCartney release the first in a series of joint animation passion projects. They collaborated with the animator Geoff Dunbar for all of them. The first animation is Rupert and the Frog Song, from which comes the well-known song We All Stand Together. As well as providing the music for the 13-minute animation, Billy wrote the screenplay, based on the Daily Express Newspaper comic strips, and stars as the lead character, Rupert (and several of minor parts). Along side him as voice actors, are the two British national treasures, Windsor Davies and June Whitfield, who play Rupert’s parents.
The story involves Rupert the (very humanoid) bear exploring some forbidden caves, where he watches a rare performance of the frog chorus. This animation starts what seems to be a small obsession for the McCartneys with animated amphibians. Five of the six animations discussed here (all of the ones aimed at children) feature frogs. So, why so many frogs? Throughout folklore and magical practices all over the world, frogs are ubiquitous. Depending on which tradition is being cited, frogs either promote healing, or they cause medical afflictions. Some say they bring good luck, whilst others say bad luck. Sometimes their behaviour is used to predict the weather, especially rain; likewise some folklore states that the presence of frogs can cause bad weather. Then of course there is the classic story of the frog prince. Maybe Billy sees himself as a bit of a frog prince which, through the use of magic (with a ‘k’) transformed him from a ‘frog’ into a ‘prince’ of the hit parade overnight?
In the stories of the Sumerians and Egyptians, frogs are frequently used as a symbol of life and fertility, partly because they are born en masse when the Nile waters return each flood season. In the Sumerian epic poem, Enki and the World Order, Enki sends an army of frogs to retrieve the sacred mes (which are divine decrees, practices, technologies and objects) from his daughter, Inanna, when she tricks him into giving them to her.
The Egyptians also have several frog-related deities. For example, there are eight deities at the centre of one creation myth, now referred to as the Ogdoad of Hermopolis, which was the centre for the cult of Thoth. The four male members of the Ogdoad are frog-headed. Their four female counterparts are serpent-headed. They create the world from a cosmic egg. In a following story, a lotus flower emerges from the waters near Hermopolis. The petals open to reveal a scarab beetle, thought to symbolise Khepri, god of the rising sun. The scarab transformed into a young boy whose tears formed the first human beings. After the mythologies of Ra and Horus were merged, the boy was sometimes considered to be the young Horus. At the climatic ending of the animated frog chorus, we see the frog king and queen. Were they inspired by their Egyptian counterparts?
Above: The Ogdoad.
Below: The animated frog king and queen.
This still from Rupert and the Frog Song conjured up a couple of ideas for me. At first, I thought they just resembled Wagnerian opera singers or cast members of Mozart’s freemasonic opera, the Magic Flute, but then, with reflection, they also reminded me of Bodhisattvas in so many Buddhist stories. In particular, the frog king and queen summoned up the idea of Ksitigarbha, although I known him by his Japanese name, Jizo. Jizo was a Buddhist monk turned Bodhisattva (a buddha-to-be), who travelled to Hell on a lotus flower to retrieve and convert lost souls. He is also considered a guardian of departed children’s spirits, which is why you see figurines of him near children’s graves in Japan. He holds a monk’s staff and an wish-fulfilling jewel, called a cintamani, which glows like an orb to light up the darkness. It’s a bit like the philosopher’s stone in Western alchemy.
Below: A statue of Jizo.
In 2004, the 20th anniversary DVD release of Rupert and the Frog Song added an extra live-action introduction, with Billy going through a dusty attic in search for his old Rupert the Bear book inside an ‘treasure' chest.
During that search, we see a flash of a book called Nursery Rhyme Magic, to provide the audience with a glimpse of the ‘magic’ to come (but not with a ‘k’!) As Billy blows off the dust from the book, it is transformed by CGI wizardry into sparkly magical dust.
Below: A still from Billy’s dusty attic search.
This is reminiscent of a similar situation with Raymond Briggs’ 1982 classic Christmas animation, the Snowman. The original UK introduction just has a farmer (played by Raymond Briggs) walking through his open ploughed field in Sussex, England. TV executives obviously thought this wasn’t exciting enough for the US audience, so they called in David Bowie to play the adult version of the boy in the story, and asked him to walk through a dusty attic in order to find the old scarf that his magical snowman wore when he was a child. Just to proof that animation is as incestuous as every other form of entertainment, the director of the Snowman, Dianne Jackson, was one of the animators on a couple of episodes of The Beatles cartoon (in 1967) and and also Yellow Submarine (in 1968). The producer of the Snowman, John Coates, also worked on Yellow Submarine.
Upon its release in 1984, Rupert and the Frog Song won a BAFTA for Best Animated short film and the single, We All Stand Together reached no. 3 in the UK charts. You can watch the 2004 version of the animation here:
Daumier's Law
In 1992, Billy and Linda were back with Geoff Dunbar to release an animation not aimed at children. This project started with Billy writing about 20 minutes of minimalist music with no vocals. It was Linda’s idea to fuse the music with animation. There were six pieces of music (Billy’s favourite number!) and they were called: Right, Wrong, Justice, Punishment, Payment and Release.
Daumier’s Law was inspired by Linda’s love of the French 19th century artist, Honeré Daumier, whose works centred around social commentary, especially concerning the corruption of the legal system. The animation captures the style of Daumier’s sketch-work perfectly. It is a beautiful animation, even in its grotesque moments. In the 15-minute story, a man is wrongfully accused of a crime and sentenced to hard labour. He is quite literally swallowed up and pooped out by a giant Gargantua, before finally reaching salvation at the end of the story.
However, put through the filter of the McCartneys, I find commentaries such as these a little baffling. Injustice within a system is top-down problem. Working class people don’t create it (aside from not rebelling enough against it). It’s people at the top of the social hierarchy - where Billy is - that are responsible for the shape of things like the implementing of the judicial system, so who exactly is he calling out and for what reason? Consider how many people, whose careers are involved with law and order, are freemasons. It’s probably quite a lot. If so, what is Billy, as a Past Master and Illuminati member trying to say? Is he sounding an alert about these people to the precious few who will listen or he is just virtue signalling to his nommie fans? Either way, the BAFTA-winning animation is worth a watch and you can do so here:
Tropic Island Hum
By 1997, Billy and Linda’s final animation project together, Tropic Island Hum, was released. Around this time, Linda was battling with breast cancer. It was a battle that she sadly lost the following year. I remember the moment that I heard that she had passed away. I was 17 and standing in my 6th form art room at school during break. There were 14 of us in that room, just painting, hanging out and listening to the radio. Then the news broke and we held an impromptu minute of silence for her. We didn’t agree on much as a group but we all liked Linda.
The 13-minute animation, Tropic Island Hum, borrowed some ideas from Rupert and the Frog Song to make a new story about a magical paradise island that animals can escape to and live without care. The screenplay and character’s voices are provided by Billy and Linda, along with the trad jazz-inspired title song, which reminds me a little of Billy’s “Bonzo" songs.
The central character is a grey squirrel called William (but nicknamed Wirral). After being shot at by hunters, he is rescued by a hot-air balloon-riding frog, called Froggo. When they reach the tropical island, Animalia, Wirral meets his red squirrel girlfriend, Wilhamina (seen below).
Ok, let’s unpack this story. The grey squirrel, indicating death by being ‘greyed out’, is called William, which of course is Billy’s real name. The grey squirrel’s nickname is Wirral, which is an area of Merseyside, which is where the biological Paul McCartney was from. Both of them have died in some sense; Paul died literally and William died metaphorically by becoming “Paul”. The red squirrel, Wilhamnia is symbolically both Billy and Linda. Wilhamnia is the feminine form of William and the character is a redhead, like Billy was in his youth. However, the character only exists because of Linda’ s suggestion that Wirral should have a girlfriend and the story should have a female character. Wilhamnia is quietly strong, loving, loyal and beautiful; all the characterises of Linda herself.
You can watch the animation, Tropical Island Hum here:
You can watch a short documentary about the making of Tropical Island Hum here:
Tuesday
2001’s Tuesday is an animation based on an almost wordless picture book by David Wiesner. The film was dedicated to Linda. It is the third McCartney-Dunbar animation to be 13 minutes in duration. The occult significance of the number 13 is such a huge topic that it is worthy of its own presentation. Here’s just a few examples. In the Bible, the 13th chapter of Revelation talks about “The Beast”. The 13th apostle was the betraying Judas. There were 13 original colonies of America, formed by its freemasonry founding fathers. The Bilderberg group has 39 core members, divided into 3 groups of 13.
In the animation, around 8pm, on a magical Tuesday night, a group of frogs fly off on their lily-pads across the nearby neighbourhood, to the amazement of everyone. At the end of the night, the frogs lose their magical ability to fly as they return home. Baffled residents wake to find their town covered in lily-pads. On the following Tuesday night, the magical gift of flight then transfers to a group of floating pigs.
Although the story isn’t written by Billy, the thought occurred to me that the lily-pads might be a subtle nod to L.I.L.Y., which stands for “Linda I love you”. It was a private nickname that Billy had for Linda. This is why L.I.L.Y. is written in tiny letters on the front cover of Billy’s RAM album (see below). Stella McCartney produced a perfume called “L.I.L.Y.” for the same reason, in remembrance of her mother.
The visuals and the score for Tuesday work extremely well together. Billy’s score is especially beautiful and sympathetic to the telling of the story. Of all the McCartney-Dunbar animations, this one is my favourite. You can watch the film here:
High in the Clouds
In 2005, Billy published a storybook aimed at 6-8 year-olds called High in the Clouds. The book is based on the animation, Tropic Island Hum and includes many of the same characters. Most importantly, Wirral, Wilhamina and Froggo return.
One of the issues that is developed in High in the Clouds is the ‘green agenda’, which is the underlying message of this story. Whilst it’s true that ecological issues present genuine problems on our planet, this is not the reason why the dark cabal thrusts the ‘green agenda’ into our faces. The real reason is to guilty-trip us into surrendering our rights, traditions and maybe even our lives.
High in the Clouds was written around the same time that Billy was still married to Heather Mills and we all know how well that ended, since they split up in May 2006. I get the impression that Billy was quietly longing for Linda at this point, especially as it was increasingly clear that Heather was nothing like her. Since Tropic Island Hum was one of the last projects that he worked on with Linda, maybe he wanted to revive and extend upon it, in order to remember her?
In the story, Wirral’s woodland home is destroyed by bulldozers and, with flashbacks to Disney’s Bambi, his mother is killed. I think the cabal love traumatising children because they know how effective it is in shaping their minds and behaviour! Wirral loses his mother in his mid teens. Similarly, in Memoirs, we are told that Billy, like Paul, lost his mother when he was young. The distraught Wirral goes off to scratch a living in the polluted neighbouring city, because he has nowhere else to go. On his way, he is almost run over by a car, which mirrors the car-crash death of the real Paul McCartney. Wirral has to cross a shanty town called Styx, which has an underground river; in Greek mythology, the river Styx symbolises the crossing point between the living and the dead. In the storybook, this rivers flows into the factory where animals are used for slave labour and kept in a dungeon. At this point, the squared-off ‘G’ logo on the wall is pointed out in the story by Wirral, which immediately made me think of freemasonry. A prison break and animal vs human war ensues. Eventually the animals claim victory and find their way to Animalia. Linda was famously an animal lover and vegetarian, with Billy following suit. For both them, and the characters in the story, Animalia is their symbolic island paradise.
Above: A still from the making of Tropic Island Hum, featuring Billy and Linda.
In the storybook, the lead villain, Gretsch, is a bizarre looking woman but in the up-coming feature-length animation of High in the Clouds, she is said to be an evil owl. This is interesting for two reasons: firstly, because it reminds us of esoteric things like the Roman goddess, Minerva, the giant figure of an owl at Bohemian Grove and aerial shots of US Capitol building (see below); and secondly because an evil, red-eyed owl features in Rupert and the Frog Song (also below).
The animation of High in the Clouds was meant to be released in 2015, with original music provided by Billy. However, the project was delayed. It had new release dates in 2019 and 2021 but both of these came and went. For one reason or another, it failed to be finished and shown to the public. A 2022 press release states that it is due to be streamed on Netflix sometime in 2023.
When Winter Comes
Lastly, I want to mention the official music video for When Winter Comes from 2020’s McCartney III. This was also animated by Geoff Dunbar. It seems to be a song about dying and spiritually returning home. It features images like those filmed on Billy’s farm in Scotland when Linda was alive and his children were young. You can watch the video here:
In one scene, we see a character sitting under a tree, which could easily be John Lennon or George Harrison. We see this image when these lyrics are sung:
“I must find the time to plant some trees
In thе meadow where thе river flows
In time to come, they'll make good shade
For some poor soul”
This still image reminds me of the cover for the John Lennon/Plastic Ono band album. It also reminded me of an article I read, where Billy said that George gave him a fir tree, which Billy planted by the front gate to his East Sussex home. Billy claimed that George’s spirit dwells within the tree and he says “hello George” to it every time he passes it.
This poster image for the song and music video, taken from the closing scene of the animation, sees the souls of the featured family drifting off into the setting sun. It seems that Billy is really preparing for his own finale, as his time is drawing to an end.