Short on time?

Get essay writing help

Significance of Music, Soundtracks and Sound Effects in Animation

Topics:
Words: 2138
Pages: 5
This essay sample was donated by a student to help the academic community. Papers provided by EduBirdie writers usually outdo students' samples.

The silent film of the ‘golden era’ was the classic entertainment during 20th and early 21st century, this made the world to astonished by moving image in the screen using the innovative technology. Silent films were ones in which the scenes and other aspects of the film take precedence over the dialogue between the characters and where the music is exceptionally particular, slow, moving, and nearly always playing in the background. Classical music like popular song would put into the silent films. The debut of sound in pictures in the late 1920s astonished the world, improving the potential of what came next and slowly putting an end to the silent film period. However, the animation industry continues to produce silent characters.

Wells (1998) states that “music may be normally interpreted through the feelings it inspires and is deployed to elicit specific emotional responses in the viewer and define the underlying feeling bases in the story”. Music is a component of the sense of synchronicity with moving images. Allowing oneself to be carried away by the flow of melody. The mood of how the characters feel or where they are set to a situation is illuminated by music and soundtracks, which conveys the impact of the story to the audience. The feeling of the tale that the filmmaker wants to impart to his audience is depicted through sound, which gives life to an inanimate and moving image.

Callaway (2013) states that “music necessarily involves both celebration and critique”, implying the dynamics of changes the atmosphere of the story.

Selby (2013) states: “Sound effects are used to emphasize narrative components of the production. In animation, the idea that inanimate objects may have their own ‘sounds’ is as comprehensible as their having an inner logic controlling their actions and appearance, and this concept needs to be factored into any sound design”.

In late 1920 the sound effect was creating for the recording process where it can be recorded on set, gather around in wild or created with the Foley effects. This improvises the character’s action on the screen for example footsteps, object movement, etc. Foley is a term used in cinema to describe the recreation of ordinary sound effects that are added to films during post-production to improve audio quality. These reproduced sounds, which are named after sound-effects creator Jack Foley, range from swishing garments and footsteps to creaking doors and cracking glass. Foley noises are utilized to improve the movie's aural experience. Foley recreate the sound in the film immersive experience for the audience. “Innovative new practices that challenges stylistic and cultural conventions” (Richardson, 2015: 32).

‘Steamboat Willie’

Historically, Walt Disney Studios are known for pioneering music in animated films. Walt Disney Pictures was established in 1923, and in 1928, Walt Disney made the short film ‘Steamboat Willie’, which was the first to use synchronized sound to transmit the characters’ emotions and convey the story. However, ‘Plane Crazy’ was the first short film in the Micky Mouse cartoon series, and it was originally filmed as a silent feature before being retooled and broadcast with sound after Willie's success. During the early years of Disney Studios’ film production, all music heard on top of films was produced with instruments created by a live orchestra or their invention.

In ‘Steamboat Willie’ (1928), Disney presents the establishing shot Mickey is cheerfully whistling along to the melody of ‘Steamboat Bill’ (by Arthur Collins) as he pilots a steamboat along a river. To sound the steamboat’s three whistles, he pulls on a rope. The tall and medium whistles enthusiastic both go off at the same time, but the shortest whistle remains silent until it gets a good hit from the medium one, portraying the humor as the short was inattentive. Suddenly, an enraged Captain Peg Leg Pete arrives behind him and grabs Mickey’s body, extending it in the process, before taking over the wheel. He then yells at Mickey before kicking him off the deck. This scene perceives the dynamic shifts in emotions depicted by the characters in this scene, ranging from pleased to angry. This illustrates the idea of the typical relation between a grumpy boss and his employee.

After the huge achievement of making ‘Steamboat Willie’ (1928), Disney expanded the idea of Micky Mouse to made into series and further “Disney realized that success depended upon telling emotionally engaging stories” (Scott, 2015: 25). Walt Disney created the ‘Silly Symphonies’ to go along with the Mickey Mouse series. The animators were allowed to experiment with plots that relied less on the quips and rapid humor of the Mickey cartoons and more on mood, emotion, and musical themes because each picture had a distinct cast of characters. ‘Fantasia’ (1940) was also one accomplished Disney’s film, which used classical music to accentuate the character motion and “critics of music on film can learn much about the chemistry of sound and images...how gestures of melody and motion reinforce one another, and how musical rhetoric and images fuse to create meaning” (Clague, 2004: 92).

In one scene, Minnie’s fiddle and sheet music for ‘Turkey in the Straw’ (Wilfred Jackson use a folk song as a soundtrack), which was land on a goat. When the goat notices it, he starts eating the music sheet. Then Mickey tries to take the fiddle from the goat’s mouth as he begins to play. Mickey tries but fails to get it out and falls to the ground, launching the fiddle into the goat’s body, bouncing around and producing music notes. When Mickey hears this, he has the brilliant idea of turning the goat into a phonograph and Minnie reels the animal’s tail. He puts his hand into the goat’s mouth and opens it. This demonstrates the musical rhythm and animation synchronization with important points of action in the character's movement. Additionally, the audible musical notes produced by vibrating add to the comedic image. As this “animating cue marks on the film that would indicate the musical beat” (Bohn, 2017: 11). More importantly, this advances the plot by inspiring Mickey to spend the next few minutes of the short producing music out of animals and various objects about the ship, which eventually leads to his punishment. “The unique, humorous nature of this musical synchronization entertained and fascinated the early sound-era audience” (Bohn, 2017: 10). The sound accentuating astonished the audience of all ages even today, since this is a comedy genre where highlighting the funny timing, action, and reaction of the characters is crucial to the story's progression.

Save your time!
We can take care of your essay
  • Proper editing and formatting
  • Free revision, title page, and bibliography
  • Flexible prices and money-back guarantee
Place Order
document

The characters have more stretchy and rubbery body in 1920’s to create a surreal visual the music synchronized with the comical impact with the use of trumpets, drums etc.

‘Wall-E’

‘Wall-E’ (2008), directed by Andrew Stanton, is generally recognized for its music and sound effects. Ben Burtt (a.k.a. The father of modern sound design) had created the most astounding sound effects to keep a human's soul while developing a credible synthesized sound that complemented the characters' robotic look and attributes emphasizing their personality. Burtt uses of synthetic language, having developed the voice for another diminutive sci-fi creature, ‘E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial’ (Richardson, 2015; 223), creates a sense of the character’s emotions and ideas portrayed even without use of having dialogues, unlike most of the films which rely on dialogues to deliver the sense of tone in voice expressing their own emotions. As Burtt works could include exploring the Foley’s spectrum content and physics and capture from an acoustic standpoint. He directs our attention to collecting real-world sounds in unconventional ways and creatively thinking about sound sources and their numerous uses by looking at how sound foley capture technologies and instruments were used to simulate otherworldly noises in the past.

The protagonist Wall-E is seen completing his regular routine of collecting trash from one block and returning home to relax as the sun sets in beginning of the scenes. This drew attention to the fact that it depicts a human persona, despite the fact that the character is a robot, in order to elicit emotions. Ben used his sound collection to produce sound effects that highlighted the character's emotions and ideas. As the protagonist's sensation of desire fills the gap of his loneliness, when he watches ‘Hello, Dolly!’ and stores new objects, the diegetic music and sound design are crucial in generating the sense of space and magnifying the emotion of longing caused by the character but also in the viewer, which naturally means to empathize with the protagonist.

EVE’s character appears to have humanlike emotion despite being a robot. Each of her gestures has its diegetic sound, consisting of unique sounding futuristic like noises. In contrast to Wall-E, this much more antagonistic movement sounds. For example, the metal clunks, the friction of hard surfaces as his parts move against each other, and other industrial factory sounds, to name a few, give the impression that the media treats gender opposition and stereotypes negative light.

EVE’s female voice combined with her curvaceous structure, white body and quality workmanship makes it possible to distinguish the gender between her and Wall-E. Wall-E has a much straighter body, old, rusted parts, loose wires and is generally much less authentic (which helps to portray Wall-E’s old rustic sounds). This implying the different time and generation they were created as Wall-E was a robot produced when the human population was still living on the Earth and EVE was made over billon of years later in the galaxy.

“Pixar is that the primary narrative arc revolves around love story” (Richardson, 2015: 222). The non-diegetic music also seems sad, implying that the relationship between the two characters has lasted long enough to form a bond. In ending scenes when Wall-E's unconscious after replacing the battery, unfortunately he loses his memories, Burtt uses the music sympathizing with EVE’s situation as she may lost a very intimate friendship. EVE searches ceaselessly for a way to bring back the original Wall-E. One attempt is to give him old mementoes to which he is emotionally attached. In the process, an extraordinary but almost disappointing xylophone music played, portraying their relationship as ingenuous. They are both so unaware of the world around them that they only have each other for support. Finally, after EVE plays Wall-E, his favorite ‘Merry Poppins’, he shows nothing of his identity. He leaves the bunker in his unconscious, robotic way while poignant music can be heard. This references EVE’s loss in her determination to bring Wall-E back and gives the scene a very dark tone. These are the kinds of sounds that, while not as noticeable as, say, a spaceship's landing noise, serve an essential role in keeping the characters engaged and conveying emotion.

“Computer animation has a critical role in the aforementioned context as it provides a medium for re-examining nature and exploring digital space, but that a close reading of ‘Wall-E’ demonstrates how the play of alien and naturalized elements can distract from the narrative's perpetuation of specific cultural values and practices: heterosexuality and liberal desire”. Herhuth (2014) make an argument where the human has abandoned all life out of the Earth where Wall-E and EVE save one single plant and also have crave for love for each other creating the sweet moment of two robots finally together fill the void for their loneliness.

Conclusion

To sum up what has been said thus far, I investigate how music, soundtracks, and sound effects play a significant part in animation, allowing viewers to comprehend the mood and plot of the characters even without hearing their words. This emphasizes my point, as music, soundtracks, and sound effects have the ability to transcend language barriers.

The comparison of these two films allowed us to observe how animation has progressed in terms of technology throughout time, and the history of animation has strengthened with advance achievement. Both films had achieved and made their own history, as ‘Steamboat Willie’ (1928) was the first to have synchronized sound in animation history, and ‘Wall-E’ (2008) was the main focus of had created the sound effects delivering human-like emotion on robots. Similarly, in both of the films the character had the romantic relationship, as in ‘Steamboat Willie’ (1928) Micky saves Minnie from the hook as they gradually fell in love in the chaotic moment, in one scene fast pace of melody they had created an amazing music using the objects and animals around the ship. Also, in ‘Wall-E’ (2008) the character Wall-E fell in love on first sight, with EVE and try to impress her with all showing all of his collection. In contrast to ‘Steamboat Willie’ (1928), where music in synchronized with moving image was astonishing made in the 1920’s time period as Disney basically invented the synchronized music. On the other hand, ‘Wall-E’ (2008) is more sophisticated as technology have been so advance during this time period that we live in, the mental sonic can be simplified to create an emotion on robots.

Make sure you submit a unique essay

Our writers will provide you with an essay sample written from scratch: any topic, any deadline, any instructions.

Cite this Page

Significance of Music, Soundtracks and Sound Effects in Animation. (2023, March 01). Edubirdie. Retrieved March 29, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/significance-of-music-soundtracks-and-sound-effects-in-animation/
“Significance of Music, Soundtracks and Sound Effects in Animation.” Edubirdie, 01 Mar. 2023, edubirdie.com/examples/significance-of-music-soundtracks-and-sound-effects-in-animation/
Significance of Music, Soundtracks and Sound Effects in Animation. [online]. Available at: <https://edubirdie.com/examples/significance-of-music-soundtracks-and-sound-effects-in-animation/> [Accessed 29 Mar. 2024].
Significance of Music, Soundtracks and Sound Effects in Animation [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2023 Mar 01 [cited 2024 Mar 29]. Available from: https://edubirdie.com/examples/significance-of-music-soundtracks-and-sound-effects-in-animation/
copy
Join 100k satisfied students
  • Get original paper written according to your instructions
  • Save time for what matters most
hire writer

Fair Use Policy

EduBirdie considers academic integrity to be the essential part of the learning process and does not support any violation of the academic standards. Should you have any questions regarding our Fair Use Policy or become aware of any violations, please do not hesitate to contact us via support@edubirdie.com.

Check it out!
close
search Stuck on your essay?

We are here 24/7 to write your paper in as fast as 3 hours.