Sound in Animation

It is virtually impossible to look at sound and not think of the classic Kids shows like Tom and Jerry and The Flint Stones. Previous Animation Directors of MGM, William Hanna and Joeseoph Barbera left to form there own company Hanna-Barbera. The legends of creating animations with minimal talking and the maximum amount of sound effects.

Effective sounds bring the animation to life by emphasising the characters movement. At the end of the day the majority of animation leans on the amount of emphasis in a character because it's not real so to make it funnier actions need to be emphasised to make them bigger and better. Just like with explosions the bigger the better.

Watching this short Tom and Jerry clip shows the nakedness of the animation, because actually the movements are quite basic, in the opening shot nothing moves but the Mouse's Pupil's. But with the sound that part of the animation is anticipation for the packaging coming through the door and the sound helps build the anticipation. All these little actions come together to bring it to life. Hanna-Barbera as a studio were the masters of this, and they had several award winning shows, varying from the Flint Stones, the Smurfs, Scooby Doo and Yogi Bear. In total the won eight emmy's and a Golden Globe. They truly earnt in. Unfortunately the company was swallowed by Cartoon Network following William Hanna's death in 2001.