Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?

               Newton’s first law of motion, the law of inertia, is the principle that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion at a constant speed and the same direction unless acted on by an unbalanced force.  This law is so elegantly simple and easy to recognize in action that its violation stands out in films and television. It’s interesting how often the law of inertia is violated in animation and how it’s even encouraged to violate this law when learning the principles of animation. This largely has to do with the fact that exaggeration can greatly enhance the feeling and adds a visual “punch” to actions that could otherwise feel underwhelming. Breaking this law also adds to the appeal and unique character moments and attributes that make animation such an interesting medium for storytelling. Some wonderful examples of the brilliant breakage of this law can be seen in Looney Tunes when Road Runner pulls his rapid direction changes and abrupt stops, when Dash from The Incredibles uses his speed to perform death defying stunts on the ocean’s surface and when Pokemon’s Team Rocket gets launched into the sky time and time again.  

               Road Runner from the Looney tunes is a wickedly fast bird with a playful disposition. Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner’s nemesis, is determined to catch the bird for dinner through the use of elaborate traps but fails to get his hands on a character that truly defies the laws of physics. Maybe this is why Wile E. Coyote’s hunt is perpetually doomed. Road Runner’s body allows for some pretty amazing things, many of which are a direct violation of the law of inertia. For example, in the episode “Wild about Hurry” Wile E. Coyote places magnets under a pile of bird seed in the middle of the road and waits off the curb with a bomb attached to a magnet which he hopes will get pulled to the bird seed when Road Runner arrives. When Roader Runner reaches the seeds he stops instantaneously. Road Runner appears to go from about 70 mph to a complete stop in zero time at all. This sort of motion isn’t possible because the law of inertia states it would take an unbalanced force to stop a moving object. If his deceleration were gradual and allowed for his body to make the proper speed adjustments that would suffice but here his legs provide the unbalanced force immediately. This should cause his legs to snap and the rest of his body to go flying or for him to trip and roll quite a distance in reality. It’s wildly impossible maneuvers like these that make this character so iconic and the law of inertia gets abandoned with good reason.

               Now over to The Incredibles, a story about a family of superheroes, we see many characters defy the law of inertia. My favorite example of this can be seen with Dash, a boy with superhuman speed. When Dash is being pursued through the jungle by Syndrome’s gang of dastardly workers piloting hover disc crafts, Dash bolts away through the trees. This entire chase sequence is ripe with moments where Dash defies Newton’s first law. A good example is Dash’s ability to run across the surface of water. In reality the law of inertia would have Dash sinking in the ocean because the amount of force exerted by his feet slapping against the surface however fast they may be, isn’t enough of an unbalanced force to suspend his body. If his feet ever could produce a force capable of suspending him, that means his legs would be slapping against the water at 67 miles per hour which is 15 times the amount of force that our legs can withstand. Naturally, his legs would shatter under such force. Even in the film his body mass would have him sinking in no time because his legs aren’t moving at the required speed to keep from sinking. Also in this sequence, Dash performs a similar move as the road runner being able to change direction or spin around almost instantly. When Dash is cornered on both sides in a tunnel-like cave on the water, Dash does a few 180 degree spins without sinking. At his speed of about 60 miles per hour, the G forces his body takes should kill him. He violates the law of inertia by changing his direction 180 degrees and doing so with little force on his part. For that high speed maneuver to be possible his legs would have to slap off the surface of the water in the opposite direction with considerably more force than his directional velocity. Unfortunately for Dash, his body wouldn’t be able to hold up under such pressure.  

               In the Pokemon series, Team Rocket are the dastardly villains who are always after Ash Ketchum’s Pikachu. Unfortunately for them, their plans always backfire and it usually ends with them being hurled into the sky. A good example of how easy it is for this to happen to them is in episode 52: Princess Versus Princess when Lickitung, a large dog sized pokemon is sent rolling into Team Rocket. When Lickitung makes impact, Jessie, James and their cat pokemon Meowth are all sent rocketing into the sky so far that they go completely out of sight. This is an outlandish and comical violation of the law of inertia because Lickitung isn’t rolling any faster than about 15 miles per hour so the effect of impact is grossly out of proportion. Lickitung’s force is strong enough to maybe knock team rocket from a state of rest and push them a few yards but not into the stratosphere. Team Rocket gets sent sky-rocketing for a variety of reasons such as an electric shock, a bomb explosion and a whip from a vine. Most of these would knock the wind out of them or like the explosion just kill them on the spot or send them a small distance into the air but that’s about it. How they survive the fall of these astronomical launches is beyond me.

               With so many animations breaking the law of inertia, it’s clear that there’s some benefit to making the physically impossible possible. These moments are so memorable to me and many others because of the visual surprises they bring. It’s hard to imagine what Road Runner would be without his speed and quick stops, what Dash would do if he couldn’t escape by running on water or Team Rocket if they never “blasted off again”. It looks like some laws are just meant to be broken.