How Godzilla got his voice....

I've been watching some Godzilla flicks on Pluto TV and the thought came to me where the heck did they get the roar of godzilla? So as usual Google is your friend and here's the answer.

So Aadahl and fellow Godzilla sound designer Ethan Van der Ryn went back to the very beginning. As the legend goes, the team designing the original roar for the first Godzilla film in 1954 tried recording animal sounds, but were unhappy with the results. It wasn’t until the film’s composer, Akira Ifukube, suggested using a musical instrument that they reached their eureka moment: They coated a leather glove with pine tar resin (to create friction) and rubbed the glove down the strings of a double bass, resulting in that classic “aaaAAAAaaaa” shriek.

https://ew.com/article/2014/05/22/godzilla-roar-interview-timeline-video/

Top | Newest First | Oldest First

Ducky · 31-35, F

I read that they were originally going to give Godzilla an all new roar for the 2014 film using that exact same method of dragging a resin-coated glove across brass strings, until they ultimately decided it would deviate too much from his iconic roar and just went with remixing it to make it sound less mechanical and more beast-like. I remember there being a clip on YouTube that showed what it would have sounded like. Didn't sound bad, but definitely nothing like the Godzilla roar we all know and love. Probably best that they simply remixed the original.

JSul3 · 70-79

Fun fact:
In the original Hercules film, starring Steve Reeves, there is a scene where Hercules kills a large dinosaur type creature. The creature emits the exact same roar as Godzilla! I am unsure how Joseph E. Lavine was able to steal that audio, but he did.

Also: Watch the original Japanese film Gojira from 1954. It is a dark tale and warning against nuclear testing, made only a few years after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

robingoodfellow · M

And it's the best, most distinctive roar in the history of monsters.

Add a comment...