Why does the Wilhelm Scream keep bothering me?

[GeffreyDrogon]

How is there any evidence the Wilhelm Scream is available in any sound collections? It seems like one can access it from anywhere.

[GeffreyDrogon]

It doesn't fit Buzz Lightyear probably because the sound designers were being lazy.

[Ben]

And the merry-go-round broke down…


If one can access it from anywhere, then there is your evidence the Wilhelm Scream is available in any sound collection. I mean, right?

They weren’t being lazy. They were layering in an in-joke just as in many other Pixar movies, and all the previous Toy Stories.

We’ve been all through this before…

[GeffreyDrogon]

I feel like I only come here to argue and complain. I'm sorry. I don't belong here. I just wanted a place to talk about animation because I don't understand much of it.

[Ben]

No, you're good! But we've kind of extensively given explanations on some of these topics and don’t have much to add, even if you keep asking. Of course, you’re welcome to your own opinion on things such as not liking the Wilhelm Scream, but we can’t change the fact that it’s a favorite SFX spot that is often used to make certain people smile, of which I happen to be one of them. There’s just not that much more to say about it.

[GeffreyDrogon]

There really isn't much evidence Sheb did that scream, though. The voice of the scream sounds too light to be Sheb's, and the original recording session never implies it was Sheb.

Maybe Burtt just filled in a name to make his "research" sound valid? After all, an AI program could do a better job finding the source.

Also, when people say that Sheb did the scream, they never provide any clips of movies he actually appeared in (flesh and blood) where he screamed, which is the only real means to determine if the Wilhelm Scream was his own creation.

[Ben]

No-one definitively confirms it's Sheb Wooley, but the cue comes from the session that he provided his lines for. At least, it was found on that session's tape. We can only assume. I know that if I screamed in that style six times over, they would all sound different and, most likely, not like my usual speaking voice. Which all means it doesn’t really matter, does it?