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.