The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

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.