The
Laws of Physics in an Animated Universe- The Incredible
In
the world of animations, there are always stories that need to break
the rules of believably or reality in order to push the story
telling. One example of this is The Incredible which is a
full-length 3-D animated movie that was released in 2004.The movies
follows a family of superheroes and their hardship of trying to
become a normal family after superheroes are banned from saving the
world. Pixar, who created the film wanted to create a more enjoyable
story that could showcase these hero's powers and create a magical
world by defying the laws of physics. The first element that was used
in the movie was squash and stretch. Another Rule that was used was
the laws of inertia which is this case was ignore to push certain
elements of storytelling. The final one is ignoring the law of
gravity which in this case helped pushed certain attributes of our
characters.
The
first example that will be examined will be the use squash and
stretch. This effect will be most often broken by elastic girl who is
essentially almost a giant rubber band herself. In one of the
scenes of the movie there is a fight that ensues when Dash and Violet
start fighting and the mother of the family has to push them apart ;
however, they both are too powerful for her to hold that she
stretches around the table. This scene helps add a comedic effect and
also shows her ability as a superhero.
Another moment is when
the plane is hit by missiles and Elastic girl is able to expand
to create a parachute to float her family down into the ocean. There
is then another moment in the movie where Dash races to the door and
there is a moment where he stretches from the door and back to his
table. In real life this would not be able to happen ,but this was
used to indicate how fast Dash is. Also, there is another intent
scene that shows some good squash and stretch. It is when Mr.
Incredible grabs his boss by his hand. The bosses head is stretched
upwards and when he is thrown into the wall he squashes and stretches
to show the impact of the throw. In real life, this would not be
possible but the squash and stretch was used in this scene to show
Mr. Incredible strength and made it feel more comedic.
The
second concept that will be discussed is breaking the law of inertia
which is the resistance of any physical objects to any change
in it’s of motion. For example, if a person were to jump from a
moving car then that person would still be moving because the force
of the car is pushing that person forward.In
the world of the Incredible, the regular humans are the ones who can
only experience it the rule of Inertia. There is an incident in the
movie where Mr. Incredible stops a moving bart and the people inside
the brat are hauled forward by the bart's motion. This shows that the
superheroes are not affected by this law of inertia. In the
Incredible, there are times when this rule is ignored to help with
storytelling.
for instance, When Dash runs through the water while
being chased by the villains. He runs back and forth, but if he
was going fast enough to walk on water then there would be a force to
push him forward or back but there is no force. This is ignored
because Pixar wants the audience to see how fast Dash is going and to
increase the pacing of the movie. Another incident of this is when
Dash swings on a vine and when he land, he stopped immediately. If
this was in real life then the law of inertia would hold true and
swing him forward. The reason the movie ignores this is to keep the
movie pace moving forward and keep the audience glued to the scene.
there is also another case in which Mr.incredible is in a car and
immediately stops to help an older woman. It is strange that the car
has fire blasters to show that the car is going at a fast speed but
is able to stop immediately after he steps on the breaks. Despite,
the evidence of where the law of inertia doesn't affect the
superheroes, there are cases in which the law of inertia does affect
them to give more of an effect. One scene in the movie is when
Violet Dash are in the plane and the motion of the plane lifts them
up to the roof of the plane after a quick descend. This helps add of
the suspense of the movie and shows that this family is in danger.
One
example of a scene where the laws of gravity is broken is whenever
Mr.Incredible lifts objects heavier than him without any effort. For
instance, when he lifts a huge tree in order to save a cat or when he
lifts a person onto his shoulder like a rag doll. This shows that he
as a superhero defies the laws of gravity. Objects that are heavier
than him should easily crush him but he is able to lift them so it
means that no gravity is affecting him.
This was not the only case
for Mr. Incredible, Freezo was also able to ignore the laws of
gravity because he was able to lift 3-4 guys without slowing down.
Another case is when violet puts a force field around herself and is
able to float within her bubble. This means that inside her bubble,
gravity does not affect her.Then is also the case of when the main
villain creates a weapon called the zero point energy which has the
ability to lift objects into the air without any effort.
On the
other hand, there are times when gravity does affect the superheroes.
one example is when Dash runs through the water and he stops and
instead of floating he falls into the water.
On
a whole, The laws of physics are constantly broken in The Incredible.
The movies uses Squash and Stretch to shows more of a comedic effect
and an emphasis of speed or ability. Second is the breaking of the
law of inertia to show the super speed of Dash or to the keep
the pacing of the movie. Last is ignoring the laws of gravity which
is to show the abilities of the superheroes and to show that they are
on a different level than the regular humans in the movie, but there
are also cases in which gravity does affect them. The reason for the
breaking of the law of physics is due to several reason but it is
mostly because of story. It’s to push the story telling into a more
exciting movie so that it can be more enjoyable to the audience. If
these laws of physics weren't broken then these superheroes would not
feel super and the movie would not be as interesting.
