I just watched the extras off this DVD last night. Amazing stuff. I particularly liked the choreography guy-- astounding dancing.
Regarding the Beatles' tunes, the director made the decision early on to deliberately
not try to imitate the Beatles, because they'd only come up short. So they looked for ways to reinvent the tunes to make them fresh and unexpected-- like leaving out one of Paul's well-known basslines because "the brain knows it's there and we'll hear it anyway". The music director was so cute. At the end he says, "Paul, if you're out there, we know that you did it better, but please understand that our hearts are in the right place." (Or words to that effect.)
The more I see the creative effort that went on to produce this, the more I stand by my first impression that this was a labor of love. Yes, they wanted to make a commerically viable movie, but they really did want to bring the Beatles catalog to life in a new way. But then, I also thought
Love was terrific, so you can tell where I'm coming from. I happen to think the reinventions only reveal more of the strength and flexibility of the music, while in no way challenging the original catalog.