DVDizzy Forum

One of the few things I dislike about Disney's contemporary films is how they no longer use the sound effects library created by Jimmy MacDonald.

For those who don't know, Jimmy MacDonald was Disney's resident sound effects man (much like Warner Bros' Treg Brown), and gave us much of the beautiful effects heard in Disney's classic shorts and films.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wXzXw3envgk" frameborder="0"></iframe>

Disney's sound effects had more imagination than those of most other cartoon studios. Even the most mundane segments from Walt-era films were made lively by a hint a funny noises.

So, it's a shame that since the mid 80s, Disney has settled for more generic sound effects. In a few cases, like Disney Channel's BLAM segments, they've taken samples from the Hanna-Barbera library.

Do you think Disney should revive their original sound effects library? Or is this not a big deal?

I'd like to know whether existing recordings of Disney's original library are of the required fidelity to allow their use in modern feature films, first.

Disney used the same sound effects WAY too long as it is. In Sleeping Beauty, I can't stand the snapping sound of the Dragon's jaw, the thunder sound it's fire makes when hitting objects or even it's growl. Such a big moment in the movie is ruined by 15 year old stock sound effects that just don't match the scale of what we're seeing on screen. I'd love to see how much better this would be with new sound effects (keeping the music the same of course).

For those of you haven't noticed that all of the Disney sounde effects by the works of Jimmy McDonald are lost over the years. In the 1960's Disneyland Records released a sound effects album called "The Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House". It has a series of sound effects made especially for Halloween along with the narration by Laura Osher. This also has a few of Jimmy McDonald's sound effects used on this album. Many years ago, Disney released a CD called "Disney I.D.E.A.S", an album features 150 sound effects of stuff, but not the original Jimmy McDonald stuff. All of the original Disney sound effects like I said are lost. Now we got the original sound effects from Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. they did a great job releasing CD sets of classic cartoon sound effects from the 30's through the 80's. Disney never saw the light of day of putting the original sound effects that were used in cartoons for many decades.

I think the old sound effects work great for shorts!