The Laws of Physics in an Animated Universe- Madagascar I

The Laws of Physics in an Animated Universe- Madagascar I

Madagascar is a 3-d full-length animated movie released in 2005. The movie follows several zoo animals as they find their way from the New York zoo to the shores of Madagascar. DreamWorks Animation, who created the film, wanted to see how far they could push the limits when it came to squash and stretch animation. Borrowing from the style of early Disney animators such as Chuck Jones, the DreamWorks team achieved and new level of success pertaining to this style but within the realm of 3-d. Most viewers will not notice the extreme style when it is done correctly. Other standout effects that are prominent throughout the movie deal with gravity and action and reaction. The movie takes place on earth, within the physical laws of it, but scene after scene the movie breaks properties of these physics to exaggerate and create a visually pleasing experience.

The first example where an extreme usage of squash and stretch is shown is in the New York subway. The gang of zoo animals is in search of their runway friend Marty the Zebra who is headed north to Connecticut. As the animals depart from the subway, the giraffe gets his head stuck in between the closing doors. The train goes on its way leaving half the animals body on the platform. As the car accelerates and moves off screen we see the giraffe’s legs understandably struggling for footing, yet is somehow successful in not being pulled along with the cart. By the time we see the giraffes head snap back and entire car has passed his body. Knowing that a subway car is 75 ft long and that a giraffe’s neck is on average 6ft long, the amount of stretching occurring to the neck would be about roughly 70ft in length. If this followed the laws of physics, the giraffe would be stuck in the doors and pulled along to his eventual death.

Another example of squash and stretch is seen when the animals wash up on the shores of Madagascar. Alex the Lion notices the giraffe still stuck within his shipping crate. Excited to free his friend he grabs the giraffe by his ears and begins to vigorously pull. The first tug extends the giraffe’s neck by about 9ft longer than his neck would be normally animated. Without enough strength Alex is pulled back to the opening as the neck retreats like a rubber band. On the second pull the head leaves the shot for about twice as long as the first time, with even more neck being pulled from the crate like it was a tape measurer. Knowing that giraffes are not elastic beings the viewer must accept this effect as merely a comical effect and to ignore the fact that in actuality this would never be possible.

Another good example of the usage of squash and stretch is after Alex realizes he’s going savage. He loses his balances on top of a steep hill and proceeds to tumble down it. At every point in which he comes into contact with the hillside he is sent roughly 10 ft into the air where his body twists and contorts like it is made out of rubber. Regardless of the surface being shale or grass the effect continues all the way down like he is rubber ball with no intention of slowing down. The stretches and pulls of his body seem amusing in full speed, but when slowed down frame by frame his body flails into some extreme contortionist positions.

The laws of gravity are broken time after time during Madagascar. The first example that is obvious of this is in the beginning of the movie. Alex the Lion is jumping back and forth and spinning cartwheels around Gloria the Hippos tank. Alex is trying to get her excited for their daily show at the zoo and once he has finished decides to hurl himself into the sky to meet up with another animal. Alex winds up by pulling his leading hind leg back behind himself and proceeds to take 2 steps before jumping to the top of a light post roughly 20 ft away and close to a story tall. Knowing that most full grown lions weigh about 550 lbs and that Alex only crouched down about a ft, the jump magnification formula can be used: 20ft/1ft= a jump magnification of 20. Because of Alex’s weight, he would be pushing off the ground with a force of 11 tons. The movie does not give any special powers to their animals; they cannot fly, although they can leap incredibly around in order to add a fun style to the animation.

Another example of the random absence of gravity occurs just after Marty and Alex reunite on the shore. Alex is so upset at Marty for putting him in the situation they are in he throws a fit. In the midst of it he hurls himself about 15 ft into the air and manages to stay in the air for roughly 20 frames. This jump does stay consistent with his first big leap into the sky as far how the animators manipulated real life physics, but in this case the hang time was much longer. In order to show Alex’s extreme frustration they keep him in the air longer to allow him to flail about in anger, while also contributing to the bouncy elastic theme that carries through the entire movie.

Another example of altered gravity is when the New York animals first come in contact with the Lemurs. The king lemur is dancing on a branch that appears to be about 2-stories tall and he takes large leap off of it where he begins to slowly fall downward towards the dancing lemurs below. The fall lasts a total of 45 frames for about 21/2 seconds. At this rate the lemur would be falling at 18 frames per second whereas if it were a real fall it would happen at about twice that rate.

A very fundamental aspect of physics pertains to action and reaction. When a force interacts with another force, an equal and opposite force is applied back. In the beginning portion of the movie there is an example of this rule being broken. Gloria the Hippo, wants to help her friends find Marty the Zebra. The only problem is they are contained within the walls of the zoo. Wrong, Gloria comes crashing through the brick wall like it was made of Styrofoam. The film does not show her run up, but some math will prove this as impossible. A very strong brick construction can handle 15,000 psi before breaking. I will assume Gloria is a standard female weight of 3,000 lbs and can only move at a top speed of 30 mph. Also I will assume she is 6ft tall and 4ft wide which is another standard hippo size. Since she is colliding with her entire body into the wall, she would not meet the requirements to break through it. 3,000 lbs x 30 mph= and impact force of 45,000. Since Gloria came to a stop after moving 2 ft past the wall we use that number to find her force, 45,000/. 002, which is 22.5 tons. Gloria would need to be double her size and have bones of steel for this to ever be physically possible.

Another example of action and reaction being portrayed incorrectly is when Gloria the Hippo’s crate washes up on the shore. Alex puts his head up to crate to see if it is really she inside of it. All of a sudden the siding of the crate explodes outwards sending Alex flying upwards into the sky. Alex reaches the height of at least a 1-story building before he comes crashing down onto the giraffe. By the size of the crate that Gloria is in suggests there might have only been a foot at most of space. Without any momentum other than the movement of her feet would have made such an exit impossible, not to mention sending a 550-pound animal a story into the sky. The amount of force applied to the crate door would have to be exponentially more.

Once the animals realize they are in the wild, and not a really realistic zoo, Alex and the giraffe freak out and start scrambling about. The giraffe proceeds to thrust his head downwards into the sand to cover his eyes out of fear. Considering his neck appears to be about 9 or 10ft long and that he goes about 2ft deep into the sand over the course of 3 frames would suggest that his downward velocity would be (12 ft/ 3fps= 4ft ps )or 156 mph, a speed unattainable for such an animal.

Another example of the action reaction effect being exaggerated is when Alex starts running in the open field with Marty. At first Alex seems to be running at about 20 mph and slowly increases his rate to about 30mph. within a few frames Alex is blurred trail of super speed. In another 2 frames he manages to come to a complete stop and turn around to block Marty’s path. At this point it appears that Marty’s speed has increased from 20mph to 40mph and careens out of control trying to avoid Alex. They end up colliding and tumbling at a speed of 10mph but for the next 140 frames. Considering they are not tumbling very fast the effect was heavily drawn out to exaggerate the impact of the two colliding animals.

In every scene of this movie some aspect of the earth’s physics is being broken. As viewers we understand that none of these animals can fly, shape shift, or have superpowers of any kind. The movie allows these pieces of physics to slip by for the shear sake of amusement. Since the movie breaks their universes rules so consistently and often as viewers we begin expect such outlandish movement. If the movie did not consistently break the rules they chose to break we might be left a bit confused. It uses the worlds physics as a general guide line, and then intentionally ignores parts of it to create a more animated fun world that plays into the over style and them of the movie.