Reverse Video Reference of Walking

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The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

Laws of Physics in Kung Fu Panda

Imagine a world full of animals that walk and talk, just like us, but they can also perform exciting kung fu moves that bend the laws of physics. That is the world created in Kung Fu Panda, a 3D animated film produced by DreamWorks Animation. In ancient China, nestled next to the mountains, is a peaceful village where a large panda named Po resides. Po lives and works with his father in their family-owned noodle shop. He dreams of one day escaping his ordinary life to become a kung fu master and fight alongside his heroes, the Furious Five. High up in the mountains beside the village, where the Furious Five train, their master, Shifu, receives some horrible news; his mentor has had a vision of Shifu’s former student, Tai Lung, escaping prison to take revenge on the village for being denied the opportunity to become the Dragon Warrior. While Shifu sends a messenger to the prison to warn them, unknowingly setting off a chain of events that will free Tai Lung, his mentor, Oogway, makes the decision to choose someone that will become the Dragon Warrior and protect the valley from Tai Lung’s rage. When Po is seemingly, accidentally chosen as the new Dragon Warrior, he must deal with the irritated Furious Five, who feel he does not belong amongst kung fu masters, and Shifu who tries everything to get him to leave. As Po struggles through these obstacles to achieve his dream of being a kung fu master, the movie also works hard to maintain a balance between realistic physics and creating entertaining imagery for a better story.

            Kung Fu Panda is based in a world where normal gravity constraints are applicable. This is evident in many scenes throughout the film, but is easily established within the first few. Po wakes from dreaming about being a skilled and respected kung fu master and tries to perform a flip to get up and out of his bed. However, he fails and only manages to get a few inches off the ground before thumping back down onto his floor. Only a few moments later when he rolls over and stands up, he picks up some ninja stars and throws them at a wall. Again, his attempt fails and they bounce off the wooden wall and tumble to the ground, pulled by gravity. The rate of the fall and subsequent bounces is what anyone would expect to see given the forces gravity exerts on our own world, so it is safe to assume that the world of Kung Fu Panda operates under the same gravitational pull.

            Along with the rules of gravity, the movie also follows realistic guidelines about mass; larger objects have greater mass and weigh more, and smaller objects have less mass and are lighter in weight. This becomes apparent rather quickly as the characters are introduced. Po is large and overweight, so his mass is great. It is clear that he is heavy through his attempts to clear the wall surrounding the temple so he can witness the choosing of the Dragon Warrior. When he tries to bend some bamboo stalks back and use them to fling himself over the wall, he fails because he is too heavy for the bamboo to lift off the ground. Po also has to struggle to hold his weight up when he’s trying to peek through a hole in the wall of the temple, not only indicating that he’s out of shape, but that he is heavy enough to need more force to lift his own mass. This is very different from the character, Viper, who is a slender snake. She has much less mass than Po, so she is light and capable of being quite quick. Viper is able to jump higher and further than heavier characters like Po or Tai Lung.

            While the world of Kung Fu Panda does operate on the same physics of our world, there is one major difference that is used to create exciting scenes within the realm of the movie, which is that the force exerted upon objects and characters during kung fu moves does not have an equal and opposite reaction as it should. For example, when Tigress decides to leave and fight Tai Lung, she leaps from atop the temple and falls down into the valley below. Although the temple is on top of a high mountain, she lands safely and gracefully on the roof of a house. If the scene was realistic, she would have crashed through the roof of the house and died, but the bend in the rules of physics created a dramatic and interesting action that works to the advantage of the story in this film. Another great example of how the force exerted during a kung fu action does not have an equal and opposite reaction is illustrated during Tai Lung’s escape from prison. On two separate instances, he kicks or punches a rhino guard and sends them flying not only much further than they should, given their mass and the gravity of the world, but Tai Lung also experiences no recoil whatsoever.

            Despite these three laws on which the physics of the movie is based, there are a few scenes that contradict the set rules on gravity and mass. One of the most obvious rule-breakers is Po’s attempt to gain access to the temple arena by lighting a bunch of fireworks that he’s attached to a chair in which he sits. Not only is he propelled into the air, but also when he reaches the top of his parabolic arc, Po hovers in the air while the chair disintegrates before falling back towards the ground. This is not likely to happen because the force required by the fireworks to lift a heavy panda and the chair would need to be much greater. In another scene where the Furious Five attempt to defeat Tai Lung, Mantis holds up a rope bridge that is also supporting the weight of the other members of the Furious Five and Tai Lung as well. Mantis is a very small character with less mass than all the others, so he wouldn’t be able to hold up so much weight without going over the edge of the cliff. Once again, when a metal wok is kicked at Tai Lung’s head during his battle with Po, Tai Lung experiences no recoil when it hits his face. Instead, the imprint is indented into the surface of the wok for comedic effect.

            By the end of the film, it is apparent that although Kung Fu Panda sets rules for gravity and mass, it bends those rules as it fits for the story. Upon close examination, it is obvious where movements and actions are not realistic, but stretching and possibly breaking the rules of physics set for this world serves to be entertaining for the viewers and keep the story interesting and flowing smoothly. These unrealistic parts are either written off in a comedic manner, or not obvious enough to pull away from the story of the film, while the rest of the movie is in line with realistic physics, so it is believable. This is why Kung Fu Panda is successful in spite of the errors in physics.

Outline for the First Term Paper

I. Introduction
     A. Short intro and synopsis of movie: Kung Fu Panda
     B. Thesis: The universe in which Kung Fu Panda takes place is based on the gravity of the world we all live in, but has contradicting physics.

II. Kung Fu Panda is based in a world where normal gravity constraints apply.
     A. Objects and people are weighed down by the force of normal gravity.
            i. When Po tries to flip himself up out of bed, he doesn't get more than a few inches off the ground before falling back down.
            ii. Po throws ninja stars at the wall and when they bounce off, they fall to the ground in a manner that indicates the gravity of our world.
            iii. When Po knocks over the Legendary Urn of Whispering Warriors, it falls and breaks on the floor due to gravity.

III. Larger objects have more mass, and weigh more than smaller objects with less mass.
     A. Po has a large mass and is heavy.
            i. When he attempts to get into the temple, the bamboo cannot spring back upwards with his weight on it.
            ii. Po has to struggle to hold his weight up when he's trying to peek through the hole in the wall of the temple.
     B. Viper has a small mass and is lighter.
            i. She can jump higher and further than heavier characters like Po, illustrated in scenes like the entrance of the Furious Five
            ii. Viper can move quickly because of her smaller mass.

IV. The force exerted on objects and characters during kung fu moves do not have an equal and opposite reaction.
     A. The Furious Five
            i. The entrance of the furious five has them falling from a ridiculous height, yet the landing on the ground does not kill them.
            ii. Tigress leaps from the temple atop the mountain and falls all the way down to the village houses and does not crash through the roof when she lands.
     B. Tai Lung's escape from prison
            i. Tai Lung's mass would not allow him to fly up as far as he does on each jump
            ii. In two instances during his escape, Tai Lung kicks or punches a rhino guard and they go flying much further than would be expected given the mass of the character and the gravity of the world in which they reside.
     C.  Fight scenes
            i. When the Furious Five face Tai Lung on the bridge, Tai Lung is able to kick Tigress back very far without much recoil at all.
            ii. During the final fight involving Tai Lung and Po, Tai Lung punches Po, who then flies back, hits a pole and is flung back towards Tai Lung.
            iii. When a metal wok is flung at Tai Lung's face, his head should recoil with hit, but it does not. Instead the impression of his face is indented into the wok.

V. There are scenes which contradict the rules on both mass and gravity throughout the movie.
     A. When Po ties a bunch of fireworks to a chair in an attempt to launch himself into the temple arena, despite his large mass, he is propelled into the air.
     B. In this same attempt, he is also launched much further into the air than would be expected, and he also hovers for a moment before beginning to fall back down to the ground.
     C. Mantis is able to hold up a long rope bridge in addition to the added weight of the rest of the Furious Five, and Tai Lung
     D. Tai Lung swings the rope bridge around, but there would be no way to gain enough momentum for him to leap all the way across the gap, even with the help of the rope.

VI. Conclusion
     A. Kung Fu Panda sets rules for gravity and mass, but bends those rules when it fits for the story, and to make it more entertaining.

Stop Motion Animation of Falling

Stop Motion Animation -- Bouncing Magnet

To create this animation, I used a round refridgerator magnet on the surface of the fridge. I plotted out the different positions, using the odd rule, and marked them lightly on the fridge. Then I took the pictures while having someone else move the magnet after each one, so that I would be taking each photo from the same position. It still turned out a bit jiggly, but not too bad.