How Godzilla's Terrifying Roar Was Created For The Original 1954 Film, Which Was Reused in GODZILLA MINUS ONE
Thanks to Godzilla Minus One, Godzilla is more popular now than he’s been in a long time. Fans flocked to theaters to watch the movie, and for the most part, everyone who saw it loved it.
There are several aspects about Godzilla that make him so iconic such as his epic size and his destructive atomic breath. But, it’s his roar that sets the initial terrifying tone for the Kaiju creature. It’s that roar that sends people running in the streets! I’d say in the most iconic monstrous roar ever in film.
Over the years since Godzilla was first introduced to the world in 1954, the roar has gone through an evolution, with sound designers trying out new things by using different kinds of sound recipes to cook up a slightly different version of the roar.
The original roar for the 1954 version of Godzilla initially tried to use animal sounds to create the roar, but that didn’t have the desired effect that the creative team was looking for. So, Japanese composer Akira Ifukube came in with the idea to use a musical instrument to create the roaring shriek that has become the signature sound of Godzilla.
During a past interview with NPR, the sound designers of Gareth Edwards’ Godzilla movie, Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl, revealed how the original sound for Godzilla was created, saying:
"It was actually a double bass, using a leather glove coated in pine-tar resin to create friction. They'd rub it against the string of the double bass to create that sound."
It’s pretty awesome that Ifukube thought of that being what they needed to do to conjure up that awesomely terrifying sound, the accepted spelling of which is, "SKREEONK!”
Godzilla Minus One reused the roars of the Kaiju from the opening titles of the 1954 film, but it was more amplified and it had a more reverberative quality to it. His initial form in the movie also uses this roar, but with some additional snarls and screeches mixed in. It worked out perfectly!