“Artists use lies to tell the
truth. Yes, I created a lie. But because you believed it, you found something
true about yourself.”
― Alan Moore
― Alan Moore
This
quote by the writer of the vastly popular graphic novel, V for Vendetta, rings
true for all imagined worlds. Having an
element of truth is vital when telling a story.
The physics that exists in an animated world is just as much of a
story-telling device as any other part of the film. When altered physical laws that exist in animation
remain consistent and retain some attributes of our own known laws, they can
add comedy and emotion to a scene. The
audience will not only accept the altered laws, but may subconsciously invent
reasons for why they are acceptable. One
prime example of this effect can occur while watching the Universal Pictures
film, Despicable Me.
There
are a few theories that the audience must accept in order to relate to the
world of Despicable Me. First, there are extraordinary materials that
exist which have not been discovered in our world. Second, the stylization of the characters and
machines make impossible maneuvers and mechanical inaccuracies conceivable. And third, concepts of gravity, mass, height,
and volume have lots of fluidity and dimensions.
In
the first scene of Despicable Me, a tour bus making its way over some
sand dunes stops abruptly in front of the pyramids. In the natural world there would not be
enough traction on such loose sand. This
sets the mood for the film because at this moment the audience can sense that the
laws of physics are not the same as ours.
It may be assumed that advanced materials exist and that extraordinary
tires are available to the bus drivers of this world.
In that same scene, a child falls off of a
ramp onto a giant inflatable pyramid.
Upon contact, the kid sinks deep into the pyramid and is then launched
very high into the air. The kinetic
energy to potential energy is clearly off.
The only way for this sequence to be mildly accepted is if the pyramid
were made of a highly elastic extraordinary material.
Gru’s
platform structure is another case for speculation. The feeble support beams
that lift the weight of his platform could not hold up without being made of an
advanced metal.
And finally, the most curious of extraordinary
materials in Despicable Me is Vector’s soft, plastic-looking bubble helmet that floats around and doesn't burst in the vacuum of space! But its movement complements that of its wearer, meant to enhance the character’s charm.
The
next theory is that because the characters and objects in Despicable Me
are so stylized and often made up of extraordinary materials, they are capable
of impossible maneuvers and prone to mechanical inaccuracies.
The
first example of this is when a minion is manning the guns equipped aboard Gru’s
plane and is shaking with each shot.
This reaction would not occur with the way the controls are
configured. However, it adds comedic
effect to the scene, which the minions are meant to add.
In
a later scene, Gru takes the girls to a theme park on the pier. While riding the roller coaster, the car
accelerates while going up a hill. This
is not how roller coasters work, but I can imagine that this was for comedic
effect since Gru is so obviously unsettled by the ride.
At
one point, Gru becomes frozen from the head-down by means of his aforementioned
freeze ray. He then proceeds to waddle
around, contained by a giant ice-cube.
Even if we accept that the freezing component is harmless to the body, the
act of waddling around the room would still be impossible since Gur has no
range of motion.
Dr.
Nefario is Gru’s elderly partner who rides around on an electric scooter. At one point he accelerates and his scooter
makes the vroom sound of an internal combustion engine exhaust. This is clearly for comedic effect, but inaccurate
in our world.
Toward
the end of the film, Gru is being attacked by Vector who sends heat seeking
missiles to destroy him. In a slow
motion scene, Gru effortlessly jumps from missile to missile to avoid being hit.
But Vector is not finished (nor baffled
by his opponent’s sudden acquirement of superpowers.) He launches a great white
shark at Gru who punches the creature with such a force that it flies in the
other direction. Great whites weigh 5,000
lbs on average, whereas American human males weigh about 177.9 lbs (Gru was
apparently raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, despite what may be inferred about
his accent.) That means, realistically,
the shark would weigh about 28x that of Gru, who would therefore not be capable
of holding his ground when contact was made with the airborne shark. Even if
the shark weighed only about 5x Gru’s weight, he would still travel in the
direction of the shark due to inertia. But
this brings me to my next point because the great white really does appear to
be only about 5x Gru’s weight in the film.
The most obvious example of this is in the dream-like sequences that Gru has. For example when the girls are running with the shrink ray there is a shift in gravity. They have a much higher hang time and appear to be less affected by gravity. Also, on Earth, it is possible to jump about 2ft in the air from a standing position. Though not quite the height of a moon jump (up to 22ft), the girls do get about 4ft in the air with each skip.
So perhaps the surface gravity becomes closer to that of Mars (0.38), on which you can get up to a 9ft jump. (For reference: Earth’s surface gravity is 1 and the moon’s is 0.165). (Wikipedia). But these are dream-like sequences and so they are more easily accepted than other gravitational shifts throughout the movie.
In one scene, a minion consumes an anti-gravity serum and begins to float. He starts off slowly and then accelerates upward, flying out of sight. This could be explained by either looseness with the concept of gravity or by extraordinary materials – a serum that causes you to become exponentially less affected by gravitational pull.
The Minions seem to be the least affected by the laws of physics,
which is not inconceivable since they are an abnormality of biology to begin
with. They seem to constantly change
size depending on the scene. It is not
entirely noticeable and is clearly a tactic that the animators used to get
better compositions for story-telling.
In the grocery store scene, a minion shakes a two liter soda bottle, opens it, and the pressure released causes
it to fly in the opposite direction, pulling the much larger minion with it. The
minions are the most comical element of the film and therefore the audience
gives them their scenes the most lenience as far as physics is concerned.
The weapons that exist in the film are not only made up of
extraordinary materials, but also have physical characteristics that could not
be explained by their composition. At
the pier, Gru pulls a small gun out of his coat that, upon activation, reveals
much larger components. Similarly,
Vector’s squid launcher could not contain multiple rounds of squid ammunition,
and especially not living ones if they were to be compressed into the small
clip (or whatever holds the cephalopodic projectiles). The dimensions of mass are stretched in these
cases for a surprise factor, and it definitely succeeds in being hilarious.
There are some inconsistencies in the film that mostly are done for story-telling purposes as well as to prevent shock on the part of the audience.
Toward the beginning of the film, Gru’s plane gets shrunk by Vector. He and the minions are the only things aboard that do not get any smaller, and furthermore, they are not crushed by their shrinking surroundings. The latter part is easy to explain: Despicable Me is an animated kid’s film in which the characters do not die painful deaths. But the part about the minions and Gru not shrinking with the plane is a troubling case. One could argue that perhaps the shrink ray does not shrink living things. However, their clothes also remain fitting, and in a later scene, a minion is shrunk by that same device. It is understandable that this inconsistency should happen since the introduction of the shrink ray is a vital part of the story, but Gru and the minons getting back to normal size would cause a far worse inconsistency. However, this is one of the most notably distracting parts of the film.
At the end of Despicable
Me, there is smaller distraction, but equally confusing to the last. In Vector's
plane, the shrunken moon starts to grow back to its normal size. At about the size of a softball, it crushes a
mug, but at the point where it grows larger than Vector and rolls over him (multiple
times, I might add), it does not kill him. I suppose this could go under
advanced materials too in the case of extraordinary flesh and bone (or
maybe the mug was extraordinarily fragile.)
There could be an explanation using any of the three theories listed
above, but the scene and concept of the shrink ray remain a mystery. It is easy to say that the writers should
have fixed these issues, but I think that providing explanations of how the
shrink ray and other things function would detract from the story more so than
just leaving them a little inconsistent.
Despicable Me is the story of a supervillain who adopts
three orphan girls to aid in his plot of stealing the moon. This summary alone
would tell you that the laws of physics are not followed in the movie. But with this particular plot, pushing
physics beyond the limits of the natural world would be the only way to succeed
in making a fantastic movie; and that can only be achieved through animation. Exaggeration is the backbone of animation. Whether
it is exaggeration of character, story, or physical movement, it is the reason
why animation has retained any relevance when such great technological
advancements have been made in the film industry. The challenge of creating a world with
physical laws that deviate from our own is deciding which things must remain
the same in order for the film to be relatable to its audience. The world of Despicable Me is very
unlike our own, and yet it is so easy to relate to the story and its characters
(even the little yellow freaks of nature).
Just as Alan Moore puts it, believing in a lie can teach you something
true about yourself.
