The universe can be portrayed in
many ways, and is vital to the look and feel of any film. Every film’s universe can have its own unique
qualities and use of physics to help get the story understood better by the audience. The animated film, Kung Fu Panda is about a
Panda bear with dreams of becoming one of the Kung Fu masters. He is portrayed as talentless and clumsy, but
is chosen as the hero and inheritor of the Dragon Scroll, which holds the
secrets of Kung Fu. The universe portrayed in this film takes place in a world
very similar to earth. The laws of
physics apply to a majority of objects and characters, but the laws of physics
is stretched and slightly exaggerated to give the film its unique feel and
aesthetic. The animators used
exaggerated actions and reactions, as well as playing with the effects of
gravity, and the use of squash and stretch. These things have made Kung Fun
Panda more entertaining and fun.
According to physics, for every
action has and equal and opposite reaction.
In the universe of Kung Fu Panda, this is not always so. Near the beginning of the film, Poe’s father
is able to pick up and throw six bowls filled with noodle soup at Poe, who then
catches them all neatly on his arms seemingly without a problem. In the real world, this would most likely be
impossible, especially when the view considers how clumsy Poe is portrayed. Later on, Poe is trying to go see the festival
and the furious five. He is slow
climbing the stairs and does not make it in. He then tries to find ways to
watch. In one of his early attempts, he
catapults himself into a wall, cracking it.
Later, he smashes into the same wall when attached to a chair of
fireworks, but does not crack the wall at all.
This is interesting because, the wall should show the same effects of
Poe’s body since the two impacts are so similar. If anything, there should have been a larger
effect on the wall the second time, since the force of fireworks should have
been greater than that of Poe’s earlier attempt. Another example of an exaggerated reaction is
when Poe tries to use a tree as a catapult, it does not move, so he gets off
and it releases very quickly, snapping back and hitting him with a much larger
force. This same exaggerated reaction occurs later on in the film when Poe hits
a punching dummy. He punches the dummy
causing it to swing back and knock him over.
This is unrealistic because the force in which he hit the dummy was not
enough to give it that kind of reaction.
All of these exaggerated actions and reactions were done on
purpose. They create a fun and laughable
scene which then creates a more entertaining world and movie.
Another rule of physics that is
broken in this film is that of gravity.
During a lot of the kung fu scenes, characters who should not have the
ability to fly can. An example of this
is when the furious five are training, Snake is able to launch herself into the
air, an ability snakes are not suppsed to have in the real world. This also happens when they fly into a scene
seemingly from the sky, which would be impossible for all but the crane. This also happens when Tigress is
demonstrating her ability to break two ceramic pieces. When Master SiFu throws
these two ceramic pieces in the air, she jumps up and kicks her legs out into
the splits, breaking both pieces. When
she reaches the apex of her jump, tigress pauses in the air for a slight bit
longer than an object should. This not
only lets her complete her movement but also lets the audience see what she is
doing and process that movement. This
also helps give the film its cartoony feel.
This decision to let characters have more hang time than an object
normally would have is used a lot in the movie, not only in this scene, but also
in others. This technique is mostly used
when the characters are fighting or doing things midair.
Lastly, The use of squash and
stretch are used a lot in this film. The
animators use it to show what a character is feeling and push the
expressions. This makes the characters
emotions readable. This push of expressions also helps create comical moments.
For example, there is a moment when Tigress is telling a story to Poe about Tai
Lung, who was not picked as a dragon warrior so he tore everything apart. While she is telling the story, Manitis is in
the process of using acupuncture on Poe.
He ends up hitting a nerve that makes Poe make a funny face right after
the story. This creates a comical moment
and lightens the mood of the film. In
order to create that face, the animators stretched his facial controls and
pushed his expression further than normal to create that look. They do this again with Poe during the final
fight scene between him and Tai Lung.
They slow down certain parts, like when Poe and Tai Lung are falling down
the stairs The sequence slows down to show Tai Lung’s face being squashed by
Poe’s butt. This again creates a comical
moment as Tai Lung seems to be squished down beyond physical ability to create
the bounce back up and a more expressive and hilarious scene.
Like most Kung Fu films, this film
uses these exaggerated movements to bring a more magical feel to Kung Fu. In many live Kung fu films, like Hero and
Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. These same techniques are used when characters
fly through the air and seem to defy gravity. Most Kung Fu films also have exaggerated
reactions and actions to make the characters seem more powerful when using Kung
Fu against their enemies. These traits
can also be seen in Kung Fu Panda as explained previously.
Overall, though this film takes
place in a world similar to ours, there are certain things that the animators
push and change to create a fun and humorous universe. They use exaggerated actions and reactions to
create compelling and quick scenes. They
also defy gravity a bit to make characters actions more readable and
expressive. They also use squash and
stretch to bring wacky comedy to their animation. By pushing the laws of physics beyond that of
earth, the animators make the film convincing, successful and fun.
