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Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction

The laws physics are often violated in animated films, but it is done in a way that makes the film more entertaining. This is one of the great things about animation, you can make characters do things that are impossible in the real world, due to the laws of physics. As I watched the feature films Bolt, Wall-e, and Ratatouille, I noticed a lot of scenes that kept true to laws of physics, but it seemed like the scenes that violated a law, did so for a good reason. These scenes have more impact in way that makes the scene funnier, sadder, or more cool-looking. An animator can make a character run into a speeding vehicle without getting one scratch on him, or have him hide behind objects that get blown to pieces, and yet he doesn’t get blown up as well, or even having a character get electrocuted and thrown on the ground without dying or being injured. These things are impossible in real life, due to the principle of action-reaction. This was my focus as I observed these films, and each one violated this principle in a completely different way.

There is a scene in the movie Bolt, that illustrates a huge violation of action and reaction. The opening action sequence actually has a lot of laws of physics that are violated, but I found one scene to be the most interesting, and not as commonly used. The sequence starts with Penny, the main female character in the fictitious hollywood television series they call Bolt, spying on The Green-Eyed Man, who has kidnapped her father. Penny and Bolt eventually follow one of The Green-Eyed Man’s henchmen into an alleyway. Once they get deep into the alley, they realize it’s a trap. The henchman then comes speeding down the alley, and tries to run them over with his car. Bolt is a very brave dog, and in the television series he has a lot of super powers. So as the car approaches Penny and Bolt, Bolt runs straight towards the speeding car, and the two collide. The car goes flying into the air, over Penny and Bolt, and then crashes upside-down. Now when bolt hits the car head-on, he has no effect by the impact. The car on the other-hand has a huge smash in the front of it, and gets propelled into the air. There is an unrealistic action and reaction in this particular scene. The action-reaction principle states that “for every action force there is an equal reaction force in the opposite direction.” Using this explanation, Bolts reaction after hitting the car should have been greater. One would think that he would be the one thrown in the air, but he endured not one scratch on his little body. He would have been squished with guts everywhere, or he would have broken ribs or other broken bones. He doesn’t even look dazed, he just sits there like a cute innocent dog. I guess Bolt’s super powers include super strength and being made of steel. If he was indeed made of steel, the action-reaction that occurred between him and the car would a bit more accurate, because Bolt would be of equal or greater mass than the car. Then again, even if he was made of steel, he would’ve been effected in a similar way to the car. Even though this interaction is unrealistic, it makes for a really good scene. It makes us believe that Bolt is strong, and unbreakable, and that he can do anything.

The Pixar animated film Wall-e is next up. As I watched this film, I noticed that most of the time it kept true to a lot physics principles. However, there was one scene that I feel violated the principle of action-reaction. This scene happens more towards the beginning of the film when Wall-e comes in contact with Eve. When Wall-e first meets Eve, he tries to be really secretive. One day, he’s looking at her through a tire that he’s hiding behind, and he makes a noise and Eve hears. Her instincts were to shoot first and ask questions later. So that is what she did. There were three piles of tires and Wall-e was hiding behind one, but ran to the second pile as Eve shot at the first pile, and then he ran to the third pile as she shot at the second pile. Wall-e had no place else to hide, so he stayed behind the third pile of tires and of course, Eve blew those tires away with her ray gun. After all the debris cleared, there was Wall-e, shaking with fear. The unrealistic thing is that when she blew those tires away, Wall-e was hiding right behind them, but he did not get blown away. When you really pay attention to this part of the scene, you see little bits of tire, dust, and rocks flying in the air. Since Wall-e was hiding behind one of these blown away piles of tire, he should have been blown away as well. I know for the sake of a good scene, and movie, they couldn’t have Wall-e get blown to smithereens, but in reality, he would have endured some major damage. He is made of metal so he may not have been blown completely to pieces, but he would have broken parts or holes in his body.

In contrast to this scene, there is another scene in the film that shows an accurate representation of the principle of action-reaction. Towards the middle of the film, when Wall-e and Eve board the Axiom spaceship, there is a scene where Wall-e gets separated from Eve. She gets taken away by robots and Wall-e tries to go after her, but the ship’s halls are filled with moving traffic of robots and people in floating chairs. Wall-e wants to stop the traffic so he can get through to Eve, so he sticks his little foot out, and basically trips a robot, and causes a pile up. The action-reaction makes sense because when Wall-e sticks his foot out, as soon the robot trips over it, Wall-e goes spinning because of the impact of the robot hitting his foot. It wasn’t a huge and noticeable reaction, but it was a reaction to the action, and both Wall-e and the robot involved were affected.

Pixar’s ratatouille is another animated film that has a scene with a false representation of action-reaction. This scene takes place at the beginning of the movie. Remy is the main character, and he is different from all the other rats. He has a love for food in the same way as a chef. He doesn’t just eat any piece of food that he sees like the rest of the rats in his colony. Remy has an acquired taste for fine cuisine. One day Remy comes up with a silly idea to try and cook some scrap food that him and his brother find, he felt it would taste much better if it were cooked. So what does Remy do? He takes his brother up on the roof of the house they are living in, and tries to cook the food over the chimney. They are sitting right next to metal antennas, and on top of that, there is a storm brewing. So of course, lightning strikes both Remy and his brother, and sends them flying off the roof. When they were struck by the lightning, it appeared to be a very powerful shock, the animators gave the effect of seeing their skeletons as they were being shocked, so it did make sense that they would be thrown off the roof, but when they hit the ground, they’re still alive and well. They look a little toasted, and their fur is sticking up like they experienced some static shock, but the reaction to being shocked and hitting the ground was too unrealistic. Remy just pops right up with excitement, and his brother just seems a little dazed. I think they would have been seriously injured or even dead; if not from the shock, then from the impact of hitting the ground. The ground of course is not effected because it is such a huge mass, but the two rat’s bodies are small, which would make them more vulnerable to the combination of the shock and hitting the ground. Even though being electrocuted is a very serious and dangerous thing, the animators and directors have used it in a humorous way that adds to the story.

Animators know when it’s alright to break the rules of physics in order to make a good animation, just like an artist knows when to break visual rules to make a great piece of art. Movie directors and animators understand the laws of physics, so that they can adjust them to fit within a character’s world. Breaking too many rules can break the movie, but making everything completely accurate can break the movie as well. When they break them at the right moments according to the character, and the character’s world and story, it can keep the film together and make for good entertainment.

Differences between Outline and Paper

My term paper is a little bit different from my term paper outline, because after reading your comment, I noticed that I was following a sequence instead of a scene. So I chose one scene out of that opening sequence, and found two other scenes from different films that followed one of the principle that I discussed in the outline. I guess when I wrote the outline, I did not really understand the difference between a scene and a sequence.

Outline for the Second Term Paper

Bolt the Movie: Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

I. Introduction

• brief summary of movie and the scene being analyzed
• action and reaction
• Bolt's jumps
• Bolt's super-bark

II. Action and reaction

• Bolt runs full speed towards an on-coming vehicle
• Bolt and the vehicle collide
• Vehicle is catapulted into the by the force of Bolt, but Bolt does not have a reaction to the action
• Would make sense for Bolt not to move if he had an enormous mass, but there is no evidence of that
• In real life Bolt would have had some reaction- Either run over by the vehicle, or thrown into the air due to the impact

III. Bolt’s Jumps

• He can jump very high
• He can also jump over far distances
  - He jumps from one freeway overpass to another, and they are about a half-mile apart
- He jumps over a hovering helicopter
• He jumps off of a freeway overpass onto a moving train
  - When he lands, he keeps on running and doesn’t even tumble or stumble

• In real life, Bolt could not produce enough force allow to jump as high or far as he does.

  - He has an unrealistic jump magnification

  
  

IV. Bolt’s super bark

• His super bark destroys everything in its path
• It sends vehicles, helicopters, and people flying into the air
• The sound is so loud, that it has a strong force
  -If the sound of his bark was really that loud, him and Penny would probably suffer from hearing loss
• If he did this in real life, it would be related to resonant frequencies

V. Conclusion

• summarize and pull all the key points together

Mid-semester Survey

This is to certify that I completed the anonymous mid-semester survey for Art/Physics 123 and am requesting the five points of extra credit.

As a student at San Jose State, I understand the university's Academic Integrity Policy (http://info.sjsu.edu/web-dbgen/narr/catalog/rec-2083.html).