People sad after realising why film trailers don’t sound the same anymore

What's the deal with movie trailers these days?

You tend to know what you're getting when new releases are teased at your local multiplex.

There will likely be an ominous cover of a classic pop song, a swelling bass and drum heavy soundtrack to bring the drama, various Easter eggs designed for people to pick apart online.

Like this:

But things weren't always this way. In fact, 20 years ago trailers were very different.

Turn the clock back a few years and there was a little more 'oomph' to some of the movie trailers.

And you might not realise it, but that was largely thanks to this guy:

You might not have seen Don LaFontaine but you've definitely heard him. (Dan Tuffs/Getty Images)

Recently people took to Reddit to complain that movie trailers had lost their sparkle.

Recent trends that attracted Redditors' ire included the Inception 'BWAAAAAAAAAH' noise, 'gun shots in beat with music', a 'single piano note', or indeed: "Unsettling high pitched tone rising > Bass drop > Badass/humourous line > Frenetic 0.5 second cuts of action > Silence/sparse piano keys > Coming summer 2025."

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

You see, back in the day, trailers were more like this:

"In a world..." they'd begin courtesy of a deep, purring voice which let you know you were in for something good to watch.

But those days are long gone now, and there's a very good reason for that.

First off the nature of a trailer is obviously going to change as time goes by, as once the 00s rolled around those bombastic 'In a world...' trailers had been around so long that they started being mocked and parodied.

However, the main reason is that for many classic trailers you were hearing the voice of a man with the nicknames 'Thunder Throat', 'The Voice of God' and 'The King of Movie Trailers'.

You may not have known his name, but you've almost certainly heard the voice of actor Don LaFontaine.

He's the guy who said 'In a world...' in all those trailers and had vocal work for more than 5,000 movie promotions under his belt during his career.

LaFontaine's voice was so associated with movie trailers that when he died in 2008 the sound and feel of them was bound to change.

As Dexerto also points out, for years the voice of Disney was Mark Elliott who retired in 2008 and died in 2021, so the iconic voices of yesteryear are no longer with us.

Mark Elliott was the voice of Disney trailers for years. (YouTube/VO Buzz Weekly)

We really have lost something from the industry which we might never regain and that's sad, but who knows what the future holds and whether trends in trailers will one day shift in a new direction.

Redditors were downbeat when they heard the news, with one writing: "In a world where Don LaFontaine no longer walks among us…movie trailers just aren’t the same."

Perhaps we'll end up nostalgic for the sort of trailers you see these days.

Topics: TV and Film, Celebrity

Joe Harker

Joe graduated from the University of Salford with a degree in Journalism and worked for Reach before joining the LADbible Group. When not writing he enjoys the nerdier things in life like painting wargaming miniatures and chatting with other nerds on the internet. He's also spent a few years coaching fencing. Contact him via [email protected]

@MrJoeHarker