The Voice of Movie Magic: R.I.P. Don LaFontaine

In a world where original concepts are growing thin and the magic of cinema has become so post-modern that even 3 year olds know that their favorite cartoons are not real, one man manages to incite excitement and wonder in audiences everywhere using only the sound of his voice. That man is Don LaFontaine. You probably know him as the “movie trailer guy” or the voice of movie trailers.

Don LaFontaine is easily one of the most recognized voice actors in the world. Donating his voice to well over 3,000 projects in his 33 year long career, he managed to bring life to even the dullest of projects. A lot of the time, his voice made the projects more exciting than they otherwise would be (read Chicken Run, Daddy Day Care, etc.).

Although some might have found them to be cheesy as hell, LaFontaine’s narrations really brought a sense of nostalgia and enormity to any film trailer that carried it. That was the magic. That was the imagination. His voice grew so prominent in pop culture that it even turned into a cliché. That’s how impactful his voice was. It became the standard.

Now, I could go on to write about how the cliché was parodied and satired left and right or that he even participated in a lot of the fun-making himself, but we all know this. We’re all going to remember him fondly, but his death punctuates the loss of something special for me and it didn’t dawn on me until today after hearing of his death. For me, this is so much more than the end to these types of trailers.

Let’s go back to the late 90’s. Either that or let’s go back to when you started “maturing”.

In the same vein that you started realizing, as you got older, that Jean Claude Van Damme was indeed getting old and that copies of “Legionnaire” and “In Hell” weren’t selling very well at all – you realized that the magic of something that you grew up feeling was permanent and something that you once loved as the pinacle of quality was gone. It was not pervasive enough to carry over for decades, but it was so very important to the way that you saw entertainment that you felt there is no turning back for the world. The generation of High School Musical, Shrek, and Japanese saturday morning cartoons will not get to appreciate what meant so much to you and helped shape who you are and how you see what you enjoy. His death marks a moment like this for me.

The cheesiness of his trailers is something you don’t find to be as common anymore because it is seen as too common, or overdone. So the world has turned to seriousness in trailers (either that or whatever this year’s “(Hey Now) All Star” is; most recently it seems to be M.I.A.’s “Paper Planes”). Even the Superman reboot is rumored to be planned as more “dark”. Taking something seriously does not mean that you can’t treat it with imagination.

In the age of $100+ Million adaptations, CGI wolves or prairie dogs in movies, and an abundance of self-aware satire, you don’t find people being enticed to go to a theatre to experience a dream, a nightmare or a fantasy world. People are promised reality; because that’s what sells biggest on the television. People are promised faithfulness to the source material; because that is what they demand. Why though? Why be faithful to the book? Why be faithful to the show or the comic?

Because those original concepts took a chance. They took a chance to be original and they took a chance to stand out among the trends of the day and they transcended enough decades to make it where they are today as franchises. Since the Matrix, when is the last time that has happened? (Even then, the Wachowskis didn’t fully invent the concept). Don Lafontaine’s voice is an example of one of these instances of true originality.

Don LaFontaine’s voice and work remind me of something modern media lacks – and that something is Haecceity. Go ahead, you can look it up. I had to. It’s that something that made the Star Wars trilogy epic beyond your belief when you first saw it. It’s that something that made Santa Claus seem like a God. That something that made the Ninja Turtles seem real. That Haecceity is exactly what describes Don LaFontaine’s voice and impact on the movies and television that I grew up with. His voice is an example of my childhood.

With his departure, part of what made movies great to me is gone. I can only hope that the concept of such unparalleled talent, originality, and innovation in the smallest, and seemingly mundane or unimportant, facets that make up the entertainment that we love, and hold so dear, doesn’t die with him.  

His voice meant imagination, it meant a huge fucking movie was coming, and it means that imagination had a chance.