Werner Herzog Helped Stanley Kubrick with The Iconic Sound of Danny’s Tricycle in THE SHINNING

Pixar movie director Lee Unkrich is a huge fan of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and I’m sure that you may have noticed little easter eggs placed in the Pixar films that he’s made. He’s been obsessed with The Shining since he was 12 years old and over the past 12 years he’s been working on a book titled Stanely Kubrick’s The Shining, which is a 2,200-page detailed account of the creation of the classic horror film.

Unkrich was given an all-access pass to Kubrick’s archives, and he also worked with the late J.W. Rinzler to collect hundreds of photographs, production details and interviews with virtually every available cast and crew member.

During a recent interview with Variety promoting the book, Unkrich shared a few of the fascinating stories and details that he came across. One of those things involved filmmaker Werner Herzog coming to the set of the film and helping Kubrick! In fact, he can be credited for the sound of Danny’s tricycle while riding through the hotel.

I always loved the alternating sounds of the tricycle going over the wood floors and the carpet as Danny rode over them. For some reason, it’s just a satisfying sound! Dan Lloyd, who played Danny in the film, talked about his memories of that, saying:

“I have pretty good memories of riding the trike — I remember being excited because I was riding inside. They kept trying to figure out how they were going to do the shot and it couldn’t be a dolly shot because of the tracks. But because they were experimenting, I got more and more time to ride around.”

One of the other things that Kubrick was worried about in regard to the trike was the sound, but it was Herzog that convinced him to keep alternating sounds from wood to carpet. Unkrich explained:

“I had a photo of Danny and his brother sitting with Vivian Kubrick on the back lot at Elstree, and there’s a guy in the background. It wasn’t until I was sitting with Leon and I brought that picture up and he said, ‘That’s Werner Herzog.” That then led to a whole story about Werner Herzog being the person who convinced Stanley that the sound of Danny’s trike going over the hardwood floors and the carpet back and forth actually sounded cool because Stanley was worried that it didn’t sound good.”

As for getting those great shots, Kubrick brought in Garrett Brown, the inventor of the Steadicam, to “capture the corridors of the Overlook Hotel with liquid smoothness.”

I love those haunting shots of Danny riding his trike through the hotel, and when I saw this movie when I was growing up, I wanted to ride through a giant hotel like that! I still do!

The tricycle scenes in The Shining effectively created a sense of unease and foreboding. Watching Danny ride through the empty, labyrinthine hallways of the Overlook Hotel created a feeling of isolation and vulnerability, while the alternating sounds of the wheels on the hardwood floors and the carpet added a layer of auditory complexity to the scene. Then there were the fluid camera movements that added to the dreamlike, surreal quality of the scenes.