Cartoon physics
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Cartoon physics is a joking reference to the fact that animation allows regular laws of physics to be ignored in humorous ways for dramatic effects. For example, when a cartoon character runs off a cliff, gravity has no effect until the character notices and reacts.[1]
In words attributed to Art Babbitt: "Animation follows the laws of physics — unless it is funnier otherwise."
The phrase also reflects the fact that many of the most famous American animated films, particularly those from Warner Brothers and MGM studios, unconsciously developed a relatively consistent set of such "laws" that have become regularly applied in comic animation.
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[edit] History of the phrase
The idea that cartoons behave differently than the real world, but not randomly, is virtually as old as animation. Walt Disney, for example, spoke of the plausible impossible (see The Plausible Impossible, 1956), deliberately mispronouncing the second word so it rhymed with the first.
Specific reference to cartoon physics extends back at least to June of 1980, when an article "O'Donnell's Laws of Cartoon Motion"[2] appeared in Esquire magazine. A version printed in 1994 by the IEEE in a journal for engineers helped spread the word among the technical crowd, which has expanded and refined the idea. Dozens of websites exist outlining these laws.
The situation is so well-understood that it has been used as the topic of jokes for decades, as in the 1949 Looney Tunes short High Diving Hare, in which Bugs Bunny explains, "I know this defies the law of gravity; but you see, I never studied law!"
More recently, the cartoon characters Roger Rabbit and Bonkers D. Bobcat have their own variations on the theme, explaining that toons are allowed to bend or break natural laws for the purposes of comedy. Doing this is extremely tricky, so toons have a natural sense of comedic timing, giving them inherently funny properties. Bonkers also warns that the loss of this sense can lead to unfunny and even dangerous situations, perhaps explaining why cartoon violence, but not the real variety, is always funny.
In 1993, Stephen R. Gould, writing in New Scientist noted that "... new, looney toon analysis reveals that these, seemingly nonsensical, phenomena can be described by logical laws similar to those in our world. Nonsensical events are by no means limited to the Looniverse. Laws that govern our own Universe often seem contrary to common sense."[3]. This theme is further described by Dr. Alan Cholodenko in his article, "The Nutty Universe of Animation"[4]
[edit] Why is it funny?
Adherents of evolutionary psychology have suggested that the humorous effect of cartoon physics is due to the interplay of intuitions between physics (objective) and psychology (self-perception). The physics module predicts that the cartoon character will fall over the cliff immediately, while the psychology module anthropomorphizes the force of gravity and thus see it as vulnerable to deception, as long as the actor is self-deceived[citation needed].
In short, it can lead to the humorous situation where a cartoon's logic is governed by what "makes sense" (is consistent) rather than what "is" (natural law).
[edit] Examples
Commonly cited cartoon physics "laws" include:
- Explosives, even if detonated close to a character's face, will cause only scorching of the skin. (Prior to the efforts of the American Civil Rights Movement, characters would often take on the appearance of blackface and sometimes briefly sing a short song such as Way Down Upon the Swanee River.) Similarly, a gun discharged directly into the face will seldom fire an actual bullet but will instead fire what is essentially a directed explosion with the same properties as above.
- Characters are allowed to "swim" or blow themselves upwards a short distance in the air before falling normally. Sometimes when a character runs off the edge of a cliff, they will not actually start falling until they look down.
- Balloons inflated by mouth float in the air, exactly as if they had been inflated with helium.
- When a toon (normally a villain) tries to separate one edge of the platform, it would cause the main platform to fall down, letting the edge float on air. For example, if a toon saws off a branch of a tree, the tree itself would fall down instead of the branch itself.
- Motion reference frames are arbitrary. For instance, an outboard motor in a pan of water on wheels causes the motor and pan to move together. Likewise, a fan and a sail attached to a wheeled platform will cause the platform to move.
- Holes can be physically picked up and moved. This also applies to tunnel mouths and roadways that might conveniently be redirected off the edge of a cliff or into a wall. Used for both comedic and dramatic effect in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.
- Tunnels and doors can be created merely by painting them on the surface where they are desired. Frequently a train will egress from tunnels, trailing freshly rolled railway tracks behind it.
- On the rare occasions that a character retains injuries into the next scene, he or she will show signs of having undergone significant medical treatment. Great lengths of bandage will be wrapped around them, arms will be in slings, legs are in casts, and the character may be using crutches. The source of these dressings is never addressed. Removal of these items results in the damage being instantly healed. The character will limp when moving, unless another injury is imminent. In this case the character will attempt to escape very quickly (but never quickly enough)
- The reference frame can loop, where a character disappearing into one edge (or door way) can appear from another. A live-action variation was featured in Matrix Revolutions.
- Grappling hooks can be attached to the sky. The term Skyhook has come to be used in many real-world situations where something is lifted into the sky by a hook lowered from aircraft of some kind.
- Magnets do not obey Newton's third law — a tiny mouse can pull an entire car across the street using a sufficiently large magnet — yet the mouse himself feels no opposite reaction. Yellow lightning bolts accompany all magnetic fields — which tend to be highly directional.
- A toon's tongue can be stretched to almost any length — and when released it may either roll up like a tape measure (with a similar sound) or just land in a large pile at the characters' feet.
- Many characters are able to produce any object from behind their back at will (See also: Hammerspace).
- Objects can enter a character's head from one ear and exit from another ear. The object will be visible through the character's eyes in some of the cases.
- Realizing the flaws of these physics is extremely dangerous. This is exemplefied in an episode of Ed Edd 'n' Eddy, in which the titular characters attempt to understand their universe, and, in the end, cause reality to collapse on itself.
- A gun may be fired any number of times without being reloaded unless it is at the most inopportune time and the shooter is a villain.
- A watch will instantaneously appear on the wrist of any character as soon as one is needed. It will disappear as soon as it is not needed anymore.
[edit] Anvilology
Anvilology[1] is the study of (cartoon) physical principles of anvils, as studied at "Acme Looniversity" in the animated series, Tiny Toon Adventures.
- Everything falls faster than an anvil (so that the evil character can hit the ground first and then be crushed, but not killed, by the anvil).
- Anvils are readily available.
- Anvils have mass but not much weight, so that they are very hard to push around, but it is possible to jump out of a plane with an anvil instead of a parachute and not notice until the parachute is opened while airborne.
- Anvils can stay in the air until noticed by a character, at which point they fall on the character.
- If a character moves out of the way of a falling anvil, the anvil will shift its position over the character before falling, so that it crushes (but does not kill) the character. The anvil's shadow may not reflect this shift and could stay in its original position until the anvil strikes the character.
- The item in question does not necessarily need to be an anvil; a safe or a grand piano would also follow the laws of anvilology.
It is to be noted that, in the Taz-Mania series, a recurrent joke is that all anvils weigh 16 tons. Also, in one supplement, it is explained that the reason for the anvils to have 16 tons is that this is the exact amount determined to make audience laugh (to the point that the drop of a 15.99999... ton anvil was demonstrated and brought a near-happy expression to the watchers, who then fell in sadness). This recurrent joke may be a cartoon parody of the Monty Python favourite way of ending sketches -- to drop a cartoonish "16-ton weight" on a character.
[edit] Cartoon collision physics
Cartoon collision physics are a subset of cartoon physics regarding the laws of collisions.
For a given cartoon character C:
- If C runs into a wall,
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- a: If the wall is too thick, C will strike it and flatten out like dough, often regardless of clothing.
- b: If the wall is thin enough, C will leave a hole in the wall in the shape of his full silhouette.
- If C runs into something made of metal, C will dent it in the shape of his or her body.
- If C runs off a cliff, the impact crater C leaves will conform with Rule 1b.
- If C has a fragile body,
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- a: Running into any wall will cause C to be squashed into a musical instrument (usually an accordion), or
- b: Any collision or fall will fracture C into a zillion pieces. This is especially true when said character is frozen and hits said collision.
- c: If C collides with a mesh barrier such as a screen door, C will appear to pass through said barrier unharmed, only to fall apart shortly afterward into a pile of cubes.
- If C runs into a wall which has been painted to look like part of the landscape or a tunnel:
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- a: If the "camera" angle blends the painting with the actual landscape, C will enter the landscape or tunnel as though it were real.
- b: If C was the one who painted the wall, C will just run into the wall — see Rule 1.
- c: If the "camera" views the painting at an angle such that it is, without doubt, a painting on a wall, C will just run into the wall — see Rule 1. There are exceptions to this rule.
- d: Trains or large trucks are often known to drive out of walls painted in this way, usually just after the painter has slammed into the wall and is feeling sheepish for having fallen for his or her own ruse. However, if the view of the oncoming vehicle is blocked, then the vehicle will apparently stop.
[edit] Laws of Cartoon Dynamics
The Laws of Cartoon Dynamics are physical laws in the cartoon universe identified by Trevor Paquette and Lt. Justin D. Baldwin and popularized by film critic Roger Ebert. They overlap greatly with the older concept of "laws of cartoon physics".
- Any body suspended in space will remain in space until made aware of its situation (plus an interval for live falling bodies to express an appropriate emotion).
- Any body in motion will tend to remain in motion until solid matter intervenes suddenly.
- Any body passing through solid matter will leave a perforation conforming to its perimeter.
- The time required for an object to fall twenty stories is greater than or equal to the time it takes for whoever knocked it off the ledge to spiral down twenty flights to attempt to capture it unbroken.
- All principles of gravity are negated by fear.
- As speed increases, objects can be in several places at once, a situation similar to the ones described by quantum mechanics.
- Certain bodies can pass through solid walls painted to resemble tunnel entrances; others cannot.
- Any violent rearrangement of feline matter is impermanent.
- Everything falls faster than an anvil.
- Guns, no matter how powerful, or no matter where aimed, will do nothing more than char flesh, blow away feathers, or rearrange beaks. In certain occasions, they leave a perfectly circular hole that goes completely through the body of the character being shot, but this does not affect his/her health in any way.
- Any given amount of explosives will propel a body miles away, but still in one piece, charred and extremely peeved.
- Arms holding large falling weights are infinitely elastic, but will eventually drag the holder along.
[edit] Anime physics
Anime physics can be considered a subset of cartoon physics. These are commonly seen in anime, Japanese cartoons, but not so common in cartoons from other parts of the world. Normally, these are referenced from popular series in the past. More properly speaking, this is anime cliches, as it includes other points such as stereotypical characters in a mecha show (usually an angsty teenager)
Note that many of these laws only apply to shounen genre.
Examples include:
- Dramatic moments tend to distort time, either by slowing it down (usually long enough to call out the name of an attacker or the name of the "special move" used in the attack, or for bystanders to comment on the situation), or by looping three times.
- Similarly, transformations (especially those animated with stock footage) also seem to stop time until completed, allowing them to be used to counter attacks, or not allowing the person to be attacked while performing them.
- Death is not instantaneous to significant characters.
- Sorrowful crying with much feeling can force tears to gush out like waterfalls. Usually used only during humorous situations, while in dramatic situations, the tear flow is more realistic.
- Angry scolding to another character causes the scolder to enlarge and the person being scolded to shrink.
- Attacks strong enough to shred entire planets will not destroy anyone's clothes or hair. Conversely, certain explosions can destroy a female character's clothing without significantly harming her body—in some cases, without her initially noticing this.
- Any fire-based attack on a character will not completely burn his/her clothes but will leave black stains instead.
- A single cut can be made swiftly, cleanly. This is possible with any object, particularly with hands, paper, swords, and even air.
- A sword, especially a katana, can cleanly cut through anything, even including large objects (such as ships) and hair, but not through other swords. There is a slight loophole in this law - if an expert fighter (even if using hand-to-hand techniques) wishes to end a duel with an obviously lesser opponent in an appropriately dramatic way, he can execute an appropriately dramatic attack that destroys his opponent's weapon-often without their knowledge; after completing a seemingly successful attack, they will notice the expert is unharmed and look at their weapon quizzically, at which point it will either fall into two cleanly cut pieces (in a dramatic battle) or shatter like glass (in a comedic battle).
- Wooden katanas (bokken) can cut just as well as the real thing (and are almost never destroyed by the aforementioned loophole), if not better (see Tatewaki Kuno from Ranma ½ or Twilight Suzuka from Outlaw Star)
- Faster than light travel is possible with many characters, particularly those engaged in martial art battles; and so a vehicle is not required.
- Trains and other unlikely forms of transportation can fly, through either technology or magic. And the bigger it is, the faster it moves.
- Any female can, if angered by someone, pull out a wooden rice mallet, of any proportions, from hammerspace and hit the offender with it to let go of some aggressions. It should be noted that, no matter how large the mallet is, or how flat the offender gets after the pounding, he/she will always revert to original shape without having to experience any lasting health detoriation from the whole ordeal.
- Death can be suspended until it is appropriate, suspenseful, or ironic. During the end part of some battles, characters may opt to charge at one another with their sword, meaning to chop the other in half. At the point of contact, all that will be seen is a bright white slash going across the screen, but it will remain unclear who is hurt. The two characters will then stay, kneeling on the floor, facing away from each other, until the evil character falls into pieces, having been killed minutes earlier.
- For added dramatic effect, the good character will clutch the area that they were hit or cough up blood, after the two have performed their attacks and are facing away from each other, making it appear as though they lost. A few moments later, the evil character will fall to the ground, defeated.
- Also note, death is never, under ANY circumstance, certain, a character can be impaled, literally from navel to nose and come back later, unscathed (See Bleach Soul Society Arc)
- Every human body contains 16 gallons of blood under high pressure-a familiar term used is 'to make it rain blood'.
- This will not occur if whatever inflicts the wound is left in it, which allows the attacker to withdraw it, turn, wipe it clean and put it away-blood may begin spraying from the wound like a firehose after any one of these actions. Alternatively, the mortally wounded character may pull it out himself and use it to execute a final attack.
- Non-impaling wounds, such as being crushed or falling from a great height, usually do not cause these geysers of blood, but nosebleeds will often fountain impressively immediately upon a character's recognition of appropriate portions of an attractive female body.
- Loud noises, such as screams of anguish and explosions, can be heard from space.
- Band-aids heal anything and everything.
[edit] Notes
- ^ In a neologism contest held by New Scientist, a winning entry coined the term "coyotus interruptus" for this phenomenon—a pun on coitus interruptus and Wile E. Coyote, who fell to his doom this way particularly often.
- ^ O'Donnell's Laws of Cartoon Motion", Esquire, 6/80, reprinted in IEEE Institute, 10/94; V.18 #7 p.12. Copy on Web
- ^ Stephen R. Gould, Looney Tuniverse: There is a crazy kind of physics at work in the world of cartoons (1993) New Scientist
- ^ Dr. Alan Cholodenko, "The Nutty Universe of Animation, The “Discipline” of All “Disciplines”, And That’s Not All, Folks!" International Journal of Baudrillard Studies Volume 3, Number 1 (January 2006)
