I figured with "Wabbit" now airing, this seemed like an appropriate time to discuss so.
I've noticed that ever since the early 2000s, Warner Bros. Animation hasn't really gotten the sound effects right when they revive a classic property like Looney Tunes or Scooby-Doo. You'd swear they, or the sound editing teams, did not watch the actual original cartoons (or at least with the sound on) to get an idea on how they should sound. Here are the cases to present...
"What's New, Scooby-Doo": Did not have very many of Hanna-Barbera's sound effects. There were some, but it was a very limited selection, and simply repeated them over and over (very much like the Looney Tunes shorts the company produced in 1967-1969 under Bill Hendricks's ownership.) Otherwise, they actually created a bunch of their own realistic sound effects from scratch to use (as the show was generally meant to be more like the real world instead of a cartoon), along with a bunch of Warner Bros. cartoon sound effects (even the intro has them, like that high-pitched ricochet.) Occasionally an old Disney sound effect would pop up, too.
The 2000s Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movies: The first two produced under Sander Schwartz's ownership ("Legend of the Vampire" and "Monster of Mexico") were very heavy on H-B sound effects, to go with the "retro" feel. But after that, when the retro format was dropped, the H-B SFX were nearly nonexistent, just like "What's New Scooby-Doo" (I remember "Goblin King" and "Samurai Sword" having a lot of hyper-realistic and LOUD sound effects, making it sound very close to real life.)
"Loonatics Unleashed": I haven't seen much of it, but from what I gathered, the Warner Bros./Treg Brown sound effects were virtually nonexistent. I even recall hearing some Hanna-Barbera sound effects on the series, which was odd, given how the show was a generic action/superhero cartoon meant to be more "realistic"...
"Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue": This show seemed to use some more H-B sound effects than "What's New" and the direct-to-video movies did, but it still wasn't enough, probably due to the unusual premise of the show.
"Tom and Jerry Tales": This show mostly used the Treg Brown/Warner sound effects, and they were quite out of place with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera's famous cat-and-moute duo, save for an occasional Bill Hanna Tom scream.
"Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers": Unlike the above series, this movie made heavy use of classic MGM cartoon sound effects, along with some H-B ones, and so far was the only one to do so. Some of the other "Tom and Jerry" direct-to-video movies would just use several H-B SFX and more "realistic" modern ones.
"Bah Humduck: A Looney Tunes Christmas": For the most part, this film had many Treg Brown/Warner Bros. SFX, and they fit pretty well, though some Hanna-Barbera SFX still popped up at times (during the orphanage flashback, we even heard H-B's "door open" sound effect, which was rarely heard in Warner's stuff outside of the Bill Hendricks/Seven Arts cartoons and the two 2003 Scooby-Doo DTV movies.)
2010-present Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movies: Again, the norm seems to be that they rarely use H-B's sound effects. One odd instance I recall was the trailer for "Big Top Scooby-Doo" had many familiar H-B sounds, while the actual movie had almost none! A major exception was "Mask of the Blue Falcon," which was heavy on H-B SFX, ala those two 2003 Scooby-Doo DTV movies, but that may have been due to the movie referencing other H-B properties as well.
"Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated": The norm was to go for more realistic sound effects, including a bunch of those same modern stock sounds we've been hearing since the '90s (unlike "What's New," where they created many of their own SFX). The use of Hanna-Barbera sound effects varied wildly, and seemed to depend on the plot. There could be one or two an episode, usually, whole some would have none at all, and some would have a whole lot (like "The Mystery Solver State Club Finals" or the Dynomutt crossover episode "Heart of Evil"). I recall the show having a bunch of Treg Brown/Warner Bros. sound effects as well, like having Scooby run off to Warner's "spinning whistle" sound (instead of the traditional "temple block riot!")
"The Looney Tunes Show": Again, mainly realistic sound effects, given the show's "sitcom" feel. The Warner Bros. sound FX were very sparse, in most cases, and often when they'd do anything cartoony, they would use Hanna-Barbera's sounds (like the CGI Road Runner segments using the H-B jet sound instead of Warner's, Daffy Duck running off to the "temple block riot," etc.)
"The Tom and Jerry Show": Quite a few modern and realistic sound effects here, along with some H-B ones and even occasional classic MGM ones (they seem to have taken a liking to using Bill Hanna's Tom vocal effects.)
"The Flintstones and WWE: Stone-Age Smackdown": A pretty good number of Hanna-Barbera sound effects, but a few occasional Warner ones as well.
"Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run": Since it was based off "The Looney Tunes Show," it mostly had modern realistic sound FX. I only heard maybe two or three Warner/Treg Brown sound effects in it; anything else cartoony used Hanna-Barbera's SFX.
"Scooby-Doo and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery": Again, mainly the same modern "realistic" sounds, with some occasional H-B ones, along with quite a few Warner Bros. sound FX that SHOULD'VE been used in "Rabbits Run" (like the Treg Brown junk crash, the chicken scream, etc.)
"Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production": So far, the show seems to mostly use Hanna-Barbera's sound effects, and they are quite out of place (it's like the Bill Hendricks/Seven Arts era all over again!) I did hear a few Warner sound effects on the show, but not very much...
With that said, I blame their unusual choices for sound editing companies. "Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated" and the KISS crossover movie had the sound editing done by DigiPost.TV (formerly called Monterey Post in the 90s), whom also did sound editing for "Tiny Toon Adventures," "Taz-Mania," "Animaniacs," "The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries," "Tweety's High-Flying Adventure," "Baby Looney Tunes," "Duck Dodgers," "Daffy Duck for President," "Tom and Jerry Tales" and "Bah Humduck." They have a LOT of Warner Bros. sound effects, even including ones not on the Sound Ideas Warner Bros. sound effects CD set put out in the early 90s (such as the Tasmanian Devil spin, the falling-down whistles, the original "trombone gobble," etc.)
The first season of "The Looney Tunes Show" had the sound editing done by Audio Circus, while the second season and anything else Looney Tunes-related after that have used Advantage Audio, and from my experience hearing that company's work, they generally avoid cartoon sounds and go for more realistic, modern ones, though generally if they do anything cartoony, they use H-B's sound effects, like in "Wabbit." I know Advantage Audio will also be doing sound editing on "Be Cool, Scooby-Doo," so the sound effects will probably be the same there as "Wabbit."
I don't know why Warner doesn't realize the capabilities of certain sound effect teams, and have most of their new Looney Tunes stuff like "The Looney Tunes Show" and "Wabbit" be edited by DigiPost.TV? They'll have a large collection of classic Treg Brown sound effects to use, unlike Advantage Audio having a small amount. It's almost as if someone at the Warner studio said, "Let's swap the sound effects for both franchises! Maybe they'll sound more interesting than the old stuff did." Thus, we get stuff like Scooby-Doo running off to the WB "spinning whistle" while Daffy Duck runs off to H-B's "temple block riot!"
And I've often mentioned about how these days, they just use the Hanna-Barbera sounds for the Road Runner, like the H-B "jet zoom by" usually being used for the Road Runner speeding by, compared to the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cameo on "What's New Scooby-Doo" that used the proper sound effects, or even Seth MacFarlane's "Die Sweet Road Runner Die" segment, and that wasn't even made by Warner Bros!
Warner really needs some sense knocked into on how the sound effects in their productions with classic characters should, well, sound...
I've noticed that ever since the early 2000s, Warner Bros. Animation hasn't really gotten the sound effects right when they revive a classic property like Looney Tunes or Scooby-Doo. You'd swear they, or the sound editing teams, did not watch the actual original cartoons (or at least with the sound on) to get an idea on how they should sound. Here are the cases to present...
"What's New, Scooby-Doo": Did not have very many of Hanna-Barbera's sound effects. There were some, but it was a very limited selection, and simply repeated them over and over (very much like the Looney Tunes shorts the company produced in 1967-1969 under Bill Hendricks's ownership.) Otherwise, they actually created a bunch of their own realistic sound effects from scratch to use (as the show was generally meant to be more like the real world instead of a cartoon), along with a bunch of Warner Bros. cartoon sound effects (even the intro has them, like that high-pitched ricochet.) Occasionally an old Disney sound effect would pop up, too.
The 2000s Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movies: The first two produced under Sander Schwartz's ownership ("Legend of the Vampire" and "Monster of Mexico") were very heavy on H-B sound effects, to go with the "retro" feel. But after that, when the retro format was dropped, the H-B SFX were nearly nonexistent, just like "What's New Scooby-Doo" (I remember "Goblin King" and "Samurai Sword" having a lot of hyper-realistic and LOUD sound effects, making it sound very close to real life.)
"Loonatics Unleashed": I haven't seen much of it, but from what I gathered, the Warner Bros./Treg Brown sound effects were virtually nonexistent. I even recall hearing some Hanna-Barbera sound effects on the series, which was odd, given how the show was a generic action/superhero cartoon meant to be more "realistic"...
"Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue": This show seemed to use some more H-B sound effects than "What's New" and the direct-to-video movies did, but it still wasn't enough, probably due to the unusual premise of the show.
"Tom and Jerry Tales": This show mostly used the Treg Brown/Warner sound effects, and they were quite out of place with Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera's famous cat-and-moute duo, save for an occasional Bill Hanna Tom scream.
"Tom and Jerry: Shiver Me Whiskers": Unlike the above series, this movie made heavy use of classic MGM cartoon sound effects, along with some H-B ones, and so far was the only one to do so. Some of the other "Tom and Jerry" direct-to-video movies would just use several H-B SFX and more "realistic" modern ones.
"Bah Humduck: A Looney Tunes Christmas": For the most part, this film had many Treg Brown/Warner Bros. SFX, and they fit pretty well, though some Hanna-Barbera SFX still popped up at times (during the orphanage flashback, we even heard H-B's "door open" sound effect, which was rarely heard in Warner's stuff outside of the Bill Hendricks/Seven Arts cartoons and the two 2003 Scooby-Doo DTV movies.)
2010-present Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movies: Again, the norm seems to be that they rarely use H-B's sound effects. One odd instance I recall was the trailer for "Big Top Scooby-Doo" had many familiar H-B sounds, while the actual movie had almost none! A major exception was "Mask of the Blue Falcon," which was heavy on H-B SFX, ala those two 2003 Scooby-Doo DTV movies, but that may have been due to the movie referencing other H-B properties as well.
"Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated": The norm was to go for more realistic sound effects, including a bunch of those same modern stock sounds we've been hearing since the '90s (unlike "What's New," where they created many of their own SFX). The use of Hanna-Barbera sound effects varied wildly, and seemed to depend on the plot. There could be one or two an episode, usually, whole some would have none at all, and some would have a whole lot (like "The Mystery Solver State Club Finals" or the Dynomutt crossover episode "Heart of Evil"). I recall the show having a bunch of Treg Brown/Warner Bros. sound effects as well, like having Scooby run off to Warner's "spinning whistle" sound (instead of the traditional "temple block riot!")
"The Looney Tunes Show": Again, mainly realistic sound effects, given the show's "sitcom" feel. The Warner Bros. sound FX were very sparse, in most cases, and often when they'd do anything cartoony, they would use Hanna-Barbera's sounds (like the CGI Road Runner segments using the H-B jet sound instead of Warner's, Daffy Duck running off to the "temple block riot," etc.)
"The Tom and Jerry Show": Quite a few modern and realistic sound effects here, along with some H-B ones and even occasional classic MGM ones (they seem to have taken a liking to using Bill Hanna's Tom vocal effects.)
"The Flintstones and WWE: Stone-Age Smackdown": A pretty good number of Hanna-Barbera sound effects, but a few occasional Warner ones as well.
"Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run": Since it was based off "The Looney Tunes Show," it mostly had modern realistic sound FX. I only heard maybe two or three Warner/Treg Brown sound effects in it; anything else cartoony used Hanna-Barbera's SFX.
"Scooby-Doo and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery": Again, mainly the same modern "realistic" sounds, with some occasional H-B ones, along with quite a few Warner Bros. sound FX that SHOULD'VE been used in "Rabbits Run" (like the Treg Brown junk crash, the chicken scream, etc.)
"Wabbit: A Looney Tunes Production": So far, the show seems to mostly use Hanna-Barbera's sound effects, and they are quite out of place (it's like the Bill Hendricks/Seven Arts era all over again!) I did hear a few Warner sound effects on the show, but not very much...
With that said, I blame their unusual choices for sound editing companies. "Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated" and the KISS crossover movie had the sound editing done by DigiPost.TV (formerly called Monterey Post in the 90s), whom also did sound editing for "Tiny Toon Adventures," "Taz-Mania," "Animaniacs," "The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries," "Tweety's High-Flying Adventure," "Baby Looney Tunes," "Duck Dodgers," "Daffy Duck for President," "Tom and Jerry Tales" and "Bah Humduck." They have a LOT of Warner Bros. sound effects, even including ones not on the Sound Ideas Warner Bros. sound effects CD set put out in the early 90s (such as the Tasmanian Devil spin, the falling-down whistles, the original "trombone gobble," etc.)
The first season of "The Looney Tunes Show" had the sound editing done by Audio Circus, while the second season and anything else Looney Tunes-related after that have used Advantage Audio, and from my experience hearing that company's work, they generally avoid cartoon sounds and go for more realistic, modern ones, though generally if they do anything cartoony, they use H-B's sound effects, like in "Wabbit." I know Advantage Audio will also be doing sound editing on "Be Cool, Scooby-Doo," so the sound effects will probably be the same there as "Wabbit."
I don't know why Warner doesn't realize the capabilities of certain sound effect teams, and have most of their new Looney Tunes stuff like "The Looney Tunes Show" and "Wabbit" be edited by DigiPost.TV? They'll have a large collection of classic Treg Brown sound effects to use, unlike Advantage Audio having a small amount. It's almost as if someone at the Warner studio said, "Let's swap the sound effects for both franchises! Maybe they'll sound more interesting than the old stuff did." Thus, we get stuff like Scooby-Doo running off to the WB "spinning whistle" while Daffy Duck runs off to H-B's "temple block riot!"
And I've often mentioned about how these days, they just use the Hanna-Barbera sounds for the Road Runner, like the H-B "jet zoom by" usually being used for the Road Runner speeding by, compared to the Road Runner/Wile E. Coyote cameo on "What's New Scooby-Doo" that used the proper sound effects, or even Seth MacFarlane's "Die Sweet Road Runner Die" segment, and that wasn't even made by Warner Bros!
Warner really needs some sense knocked into on how the sound effects in their productions with classic characters should, well, sound...
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