Castle thunder (sound effect)

Castle thunder is a sound effect that consists of the sound of a loud thunderclap during a rainstorm. It was originally recorded for the 1931 film Frankenstein, and has since been used in dozens of movies, Disney and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and TV series, and television commercials.

History

After its 1931 use in Frankenstein, the effect was used in many films from the 1930s through the 1980s (including Mel Brooks'/Gene Wilder's Young Frankenstein (1974)), until it was mostly retired by 1988. It was also heard on various Disney and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, particularly the original Scooby-Doo cartoons, while more recent Scooby-Doo series only used the thunder sound effect in a couple of episodes to make way for newer, digitally-recorded thunderclaps (with the case of What's New, Scooby-Doo?, the Foley department of Warner Bros. Animation would actually record real thunderstorms for use on the show.) With the exception of two made-for-video movies in 2003, nearly none of the made-for-video Scooby-Doo movies have used Castle Thunder.

The "castle thunder" effect has also been utilized as part of various sound "mixes" along with other sound effects to achieve a desired outcome. For example, in the 1974 film Earthquake, the effect is mixed with several others (including rumbling, cracking, waterfall, and glass breaking) to simulate the sound of a dam bursting. It was also used as the sound effect of the bombs dropped from a TIE Bomber in the video game Star Wars: Rogue Squadron, as well as on The Powerpuff Girls when the girls would zoom off in flight. Both the old and more recent version were used in the popular computer game Oregon Trail II when the player would encounter a thunderstorm.

It was also heard regularly on the TV series Gilligan's Island and in the opening credit scene of Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The sound effect is used in the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland within the Stretching Room, as well as on the Disney World version of the ride, but it was replaced with new thunder sounds in 2007. It was also heard on a Mike's Super Short Show segment on Disney Channel advertising the movie based on the Haunted Mansion attraction.

The sound can be found on a few sound effects libraries distributed by Sound Ideas (such as the Network Sound Effects Library, the 20th Century Fox Sound Effects Library and the Hanna-Barbera SoundFX Library).

Castle Thunder can also be heard (usually not very often) on several contemporary animated shows such as Rocko's Modern Life, SpongeBob SquarePants, Codename: Kids Next Door, Courage the Cowardly Dog, Pucca, Camp Lazlo, Doug, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, George of the Jungle, Samurai Jack, The Batman, The Fairly OddParents, Loonatics Unleashed, The Magic School Bus, The Powerpuff Girls, The Ren & Stimpy Show (mainly the Spumco-produced episodes), Pink Panther and Pals, Dexters Laboratory, I Am Weasel, The Looney Tunes Show, New Zoo Revue, Animaniacs, Tiny Toon Adventures, The High Fructose Adventures of Annoying Orange and Little Bear. Similarly, the sound effect was also used in the closing logo for Thunder Pictures, the company that produced Clarissa Explains It All. Since the late 1980s, many cartoons have featured a variation with an electrical zap-like sound at the beginning. Castle Thunder was also used frequently during Nickelodeon's former "Shriek Week" and "Shocktober" blocks.

List of appearances

In film

• Citizen Kane (1941)
• Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)
• The Reluctant Dragon (1941)
• Bambi (1942)
• Chicken Little (1943)
• Make Mine Music (1946)
• Fun and Fancy Free (1947)
• Melody Time (1948)
• Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)
• The Little House (1952)
• Ben and Me (1953)
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954)
• Lady and the Tramp (1955)
• Kronos (1957)
• Darby O'Gill and the Little People (1959)
• Noah's Ark (1959)
• Sleeping Beauty (1959)
• Swiss Family Robinson (1960)
• Dinosaurus! (1960)
• One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961)
• Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol (1962)
• Cleopatra (1963)
• Savage Sam (1963)
• Mary Poppins (1964, original soundtrack version)
• The Sound of Music (1965)
• The Jungle Book (1967)
• Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968)
• The Aristocats (1970)
• Snoopy, Come Home (1972)
• Charlotte's Web (1973)
• Robin Hood (1973)
• Where the Red Fern Grows (1974)
• Young Frankenstein (1974)
• The Hindenburg (1975)
• Murder by Death (1976)
• Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (1977)
• The Rescuers (1977)
• Pete's Dragon (1977)
• Prophecy (1979)
• The Muppet Movie (1979)
• Escape from Alcatraz (1979)
• Banjo the Woodpile Cat (1979)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
• Airplane! (1980)
• The Watcher in the Woods (1980)
• The Blues Brothers (1980)
• History of the World, Part 1 (1981)
• The Fox and the Hound (1981)
• Conan the Barbarian (1982)
• The Secret of NIMH (1982)
• First Blood (1982)
• Airplane II: The Sequel (1982)
• The Last Unicorn (1982)
• National Lampoon's Vacation (1983)
• Trading Places (1983)
• Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
• The Day After (1983)
• Ghostbusters (1984)
• Conan the Destroyer (1984)
• The NeverEnding Story (1984)
• Frankenweenie (1984)
• The Care Bears Movie (1985)
• Back to the Future (1985)
• Pee-wee's Big Adventure (1985)
• Clue (1985)
• Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (1986)
• Short Circuit (1986)
• Big Trouble in Little China (1986)
• The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
• An American Tail (1986)
• The Brave Little Toaster (1987)
• The Care Bears Adventure in Wonderland (1987)
• The Monster Squad (1987)
• Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987)
• Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988)
• The Land Before Time (1988)
• Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)
• Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988)
• Back to the Future Part II (1989)
• The Little Mermaid (1989)
• All Dogs Go to Heaven (1989)
• Bride of Re-Animator (1990)
• Total Recall (1990)
• Beethoven (1992)
• Death Becomes Her (1992)
• Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1993)
• The Halloween Tree (1993)
• Space Jam (1996)
• Snake Eyes (1998)
• Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet the Wolfman (2000)
• Hey Arnold! The Movie (2002)
• Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire (2003, 5.1 Surround version only)
• Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico (2003)
• Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)
• The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004)
• Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers (2006)
• A Matter of Loaf and Death (2008)
• Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009)
• Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare (2010)
• A Fairly Odd Movie: Grow Up, Timmy Turner! (2011)
• Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur (2011)
• Happiness Is a Warm Blanket, Charlie Brown (2011)
• A Fairly Odd Christmas (2012)
• ParaNorman (2012)

See also

• Wilhelm scream
• Howie scream
• Tarzan yell
• Goofy holler

External links

• Video compilation of Castle thunder in modern animation