This short video of percussionist and sound effects specialist Josh Harmon (who describes his work as “spreading joy through sound and rhythm!”) collaborating with musician, composer, bandleader and all-around national treasure Jon Batiste to create vintage cartoon sound effects, is exactly the joy-filled experience I needed to witness today.

In the background of the video, you can see a vintage cartoon clip from 1934, from an episode of Popeye called “We Aim to Please.” In the clip, Olive Oyl is busy frenetically making sandwiches. Josh marvels that “it’s amazing to think that these animations were all made by hand without computers,” which is what he recreates in his work. Using tools and materials such as drum sticks, fabric, a slide whistle, and an exercise band, Josh creates sound effects that perfectly match Olive Oyl’s cartoon actions of slicing bread, cutting meat, and more. My favorite part is when Olive Oyl assembles the giant sandwich through a kind of playing card-shuffling move, and Josh flip-flaps his hands back and forth quickly to create the perfect sound.

Of course, I also LOVE watching and listening to Jon Batiste perform just about anything, and his rendition of Scott Joplin’s classic piano rag, “The Entertainer,” is as good as it gets, and fits wonderfully with the Popeye cartoon.

Harmon expresses his excitement about working with Batiste in the video’s caption, stating, “Holy moly it’s an honor to welcome musical icon Jon Batiste onto the channel! The way he thinks about music and sound is so inspiring. Joy levels were reaching unprecedented heights in this room! And his new album BIG MONEY is out now!”

Harmon also promises that next week he’ll be releasing “a long” video that details “the whole process of how we made this, and more!” I can’t wait to see a behind-the-scenes demonstration and learn more about the process of creating cool sound effects!

Enjoy the video, below. I hope you love it as much as I do!

See more of Josh Harmon’s amazing sound effects work at his Instagram or YouTube.

Previously:
• Fred Armisen’s 100 Sound Effects album coming soon!
• BBC sound effect archive posted online
• Don Martin’s sound effects (alphabetical order)
• How some old cartoon sound effects were made
• Watch these fascinating demonstrations of sound effect instruments from the silent film era!

This new experience blends artificial intelligence (AI) with sights, sounds, and scents to create a more interactive take on the well-known story.

The show is set to open on August 28, 2025, inside the Sphere’s 17,600-seat venue. Visitors will follow Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, the Tinman, and Toto through a version of Oz designed to be seen, heard, and felt.

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Instead of just showing the original film, the team used photos, footage, scripts, and music from the original production to help train Google’s AI models—Gemini and Veo. These tools helped sharpen visuals, fill in backgrounds, and even add in scenes with characters who were not visible before.

According to Google, more than 90% of the film includes changes made using AI. Another model, Imagen 3, was used to improve the resolution and visual quality.

Jim Dolan, head of Sphere, said this kind of project involves risk and trust. However, he believes the final result shows how old stories can still feel new when paired with the right tools.

Producer Jane Rosenthal explained that the team considered other ways to rework the story but decided AI was the right fit for this setting. The goal was not to change the film completely, but to make it work with the new technology inside the Sphere.

The project is a team effort between Google, Google DeepMind, Sphere Entertainment, Warner Bros. Discovery, and tech company Magnopus.

Meanwhile, Watch the Skies, a Swedish sci-fi film, is being released in the US using AI-powered visual dubbing. How does the technology work? Read the full story.