The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

Super Hero Physics: The Incredibles

Pixar’s The Incredibles is a fun filled superhero family animated movie released in 2004. Pixar grounds their movie in a balance of realism and fantasy, in a post 1960’s Americana universe, sticking to this universe, the audience is granted the belief of a realistic universe. However with the benefit of animation, in this case 3D animation, Pixar is granted the ability to push poses, arcs, paths of actions, and with that comes the ability to push physics to their limit, and build a world that cannot exist outside of animation. But how often can Pixar move away from realistic physics or push believability to it’s limit and get away with it. However as it will be presented in some cases, the physics are pushed beyond their breaking point but we believe and buy into it for entertainments sake, or certain laws will be brushed aside for the sake of a plot device. But throughout it all they maintain complete control of the viewer.

One of the first elements of The Incredibles that leapt out at me was the physics of the cars within their universe. Cars are heavy bodies that have a hefty amount of acceleration behind them, so when they go they have a good amount of weight behind them. However in certain scenes it can be seen how that is disregarded for the sake of the story and the moment in entertainment. A good first example is in the opening scene of The Incredibles, Mr. Incredible is en route to intercept a car chase, and has to help an old lady, in the cut away scenes we can see the cars traveling at a high rate of speed. Mr. Incredible is traveling through the city and passing through each block in less than 6 seconds, if a city block is 1/8^th of a mile, and traveling 60 miles per hour, means 1/10^th of a mile in 6 seconds. In simplest terms Mr. Incredible is traveling over 60 miles per hour and when he stops in front of the old lady, he stops in less than 30 feet, and most vehicles given basic physics most vehicles require 120 to 140 feet to stop, in the real world, Mr. Incredible would’ve hit that old lady. But for the sake of cinematic intensity Pixar bends the rules to hold onto the viewer.

The next instance of physics defying cars comes in near the end of the movie, where the whole Incredible family is flying in from space in a mobile home towards the city where a robot is attacking. A normal plane object on re-entry reaches speeds of around 17,500 mph, and upon re-entry, the space shuttle has to enable a series of s-shaped breaking maneuvers to bleed off speed, even after bleeding speed upon landing the speed is still so great that the space shuttle still employs a parachute to slow itself down. Looking at the mobile home it is not aerodynamically sound, so given its shape it has to bleed off speed as well, but at a speed to keep it hurtling through the air given its weight, a passenger airplane is traveling between 120 to 150 miles per hour on landing, giving the car a little more speed than that because it has no way to break, and it still has to be traveling fast enough to be flying through the air. Mr. Incredible’s mobile home is moving at a rate of 90 mph according to his speedometer, given the discrepancy in speed, the mobile home should bounce forward more than it does, and at the momentum it is carrying it could possibly rip out the bottom axel of the rear wheels that aren’t matching speed. Neither happens, the mobile home makes two hops forward of about 50 feet and then given its rate, continues at its present speed does not decelerate at all, while slightly bleeding on the edge of realism, when actually analyzing the scene, it falls a little short, but the next sequence with the mobile home coming to a stop is the most obvious set where there are car defying physics.

As Mr. Incredible tries to hit the brakes on the mobile home, the vehicle fishtails from extreme deceleration and begins to tumble sideways. As we watch the mobile home fishtail from side to side hitting other cars before pulling real hard on the rear axel before it turns side and begins to tumble sideways end over end. The mobile home bounces up and down before coming to a complete stop right on the sidewalk. This scene right here is where Pixar suspends belief in it’s farthest stretch for entertainment value. As we see the mobile home rolling side over side down the street, it not only comes to a complete and arrested stop right at the curb of the sidewalk bleeding off any extra momentum it has with a really careful play. Pixar tips the mobile home on its side, but not just a slight tip, the vehicle tips to a point where the side of the tires are resting on the curve, and it’s line of gravity passes a vertical limit and pushes past that. The line of gravity passes the outward wheels its balancing on and leans heavily to the right all before it pulls itself right and balances itself out. Pixar pulls a quick punch that in its split second we accept, but at a second glance the vehicle tips way beyond it’s balance point and somehow recovers is where Pixar pushes physics it’s furthest for entertainment and comedic value.

Frozone is another character that Pixar has created but has grounded in realism for his super power that it becomes believable.  In an early sequence Frozone and Mr. Incredible enter a burning building to rescue the trapped inhabitants, however there plan reaches a halt when they become trapped, in an increasingly dire situation Mr. Incredible asks hastily of Frozone to cool the area with his ice powers. Frozone hastily points out the lack of moisture in the air because of the fire. This is an interesting sequence because of the limits based on the actual nature of fire drying out the air due to it’s heat, gives Frozone a level of believability and a weakness to his character that wouldn’t be given in another circumstance since they apply a certain level of real world rules to the character in this case was the moisture in the Earths air.

Frozone’s power is supported right away in the next scene where we discover his power is not only dependent on the moisture in the air but also his system. If he himself  is dehydrated he can’t generate as much of an ice, which makes sense if he was to siphon off the moisture from himself he could dehydrate himself which leads to the idea his super powers has a very finite limit based on his body. Frozone is being held a gun point by the officer in the jewelry store and asks for a cup of water, he motions to the water cooler next to him, after having a full cup of water Frozone is able to generate ice once more and freeze the officer in his spot. This basically alludes to the fact if Frozone is “out of ice” and proceeds to rehydrate himself he can get back into the battle, basically making water in the air and his environment very useful. As can also be seen in the final battle where he battles the giant robot and uses the lake to his advantage as he lays down a longer strip of ice to skate across and turns the water into snow the lessen its impact.

The most interesting concept however is that of Syndrome’s zero point energy technology, and how it defies the ideas of weight. There are two scenes on the island where Syndrome encounters the Incredible’s family and freezes them with his zero point energy. Forgoing the fact zero point energy seems to also act like a stasis for anything trapped within it, Syndrome in the first scene captures Mr. Incredible and lifts him off the ground and spins him, it’s readily apparent that when Mr. Incredible is held up in the air at least 10 feet off the ground at a distance of more than 20 feet, Syndrome does not alter his stance at all despite his new center of gravity at carrying Mr. Incredible. Paired with how Syndrome spins around, before throwing Mr. Incredible into the rock, there is absolutely no drag whatsoever and Syndrome doesn’t even change his posture to adjust for the weight of Mr. Incredible which is also not taken into account when Syndrome uses this energy to toss Mr. Incredible up in the air, only using his arm in motion. The zero point energy is a piece of technology and one that seems to bend laws of weight and the idea of a center of gravity.

But also laws of inertia are also negated with Syndromes zero point energy as can be seen in one of the final battle scenes, when Syndrome comes swooping in to save the mother he arrests the fall of a tanker mid fall in an instant with no drag or deceleration, he stops it in the stop. That is around 68,000 pounds fully loaded stopped instantly, a serious amount of force needs to be applied to negate all of that tankers inertia immediately and suddenly. Something his zero point energy seems to do, and once again as can be seen in that scene as Syndrome is flying, that dramatic weight increase doesn’t affect his stance as if there is no shift in his center of gravity as he carries this tanker in midair, even when he throws it he just uses his arm. For the sake of the film Pixar seems to have given this character something to balance his powers when he goes up against super powered heroes as the villain. Syndrome is a normal boy who grew up with extraordinary inventions he created, for story and balance they gave his inventions large powers that seem to skirt around the laws of physics while in use.

A studio as top notch as Pixar doesn’t follow the rules and laws of physics to the T, as it seems, the follow it where it works and reference where useful and the ignore it where it can be completely forgotten. Physics are useful in film, they help a films believability and certain characters attributes based around real world conditions such as a necessity of water in the air for Frozone helps bridge the gap for the audience. And in some areas they can disregard it completely such as with the flying mobile home and most of the cars in their movie, and Syndromes zero point energy. Physics can help and hurt the story in different ways what this has shown me is how it can hold a viewer’s attention and actually make a world more believable, so in other areas when they skirt the laws we give them passes because other areas feel believable to the audience. With that delicate balance of believable and pushed physics, Pixar captures the viewer and never lets go for the sake of entertainment and storytelling.