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Castle thunder (sound effect)

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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 - alternate versions
An older variation of the sound effect, followed by the more recent version
Problems playing this file? See media help.

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 Weasle, 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
[1]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Castle Thunder". Hollywood Lost and Found. Retrieved 16 February 2010.
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