The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

            When watching any movie, an audience member wants to be transported from the real world to the universe within the film. As a spectator watching this world we need to be entertained, relate to characters, and believe the world that has been shown to us. The film’s universe can take place in our world, a world where explosions do not blow out our ears, or an animated cartoon world; it has to feel believable. An audience should feel immersed in this world and should not question the characters, relationships, and especially the physics. However, in the animated world there are fewer restrictions that must be followed under the rules of believability.

            Walt Disney Studio’s Tangled is a story based on the fairytale Rapunzel. A story of a girl with extremely long hair locked away in a tower. With Disney’s twist on the story of course it did well but in an animation medium how do you take advantage of the length of Rapunzel’s hair? Not only was her hair defying laws of physics a lot of animation tricks were breaking some rules in return of entertainment as well. This essay will discuss some of those moments in the film that break some rules of our world and how it was fit into the world of Disney’s Tangled.

            Starting with the beginning of the film Rapunzel is trapped in a tower and to get her mother up and down the tower she uses her hair as a rope. Her mom hangs on to the hair and Rapunzel pulls on the end to raise her up. Most people would not believe that a person is able to stand and have their weight propelled into the air is impossible. The filmmaker’s say that Rapunzel’s hair is 70 feet long, now the hair in the film from the beginning is used as a rope and has many rope like features. So showing the features and functions of Rapunzel’s hair in the beginning establishes to us that its “rope like”. Having Rapunzel pull Mother Gothel up by her “rope” makes perfect sense at a logistical standpoint. However, assuming Mother Gothel is about 100lbs ( 45kg ) and if we are on earth gravity is -10m/s^2, about 500 newtons of force is required from Rapunzel’s end to pull Mother Gothel up the tower! Not knowing the height of the tower is difficult but to be able to apply a force of 500 newtons seems improbable.

            Jumping ahead in the story Rapunzel escapes her tower is being lead to town by Flynn Rider. At this moment in the story Flynn is being chased by the royal guard and by association Rapunzel runs away from them as well. They come up on a gorge and to get from the cliff to the floor Rapunzel throws her hair to attach to a water system and leaps into the air swinging from her hair. First of all it seems highly unlikely that Rapunzel can throw her hair with any type of accuracy with air resistance, gravity, and that her strands of hair are not stuck together so each one will have hit different pockets of air and will fall at different times, as well as knocking into each other. Again, treating Rapunzel’s hair like rope we can apply tension again to Rapunzel’s hair holding her own weight up swinging.

            In the same scene Rapunzel tosses her hair to Flynn so that he can also swing across the gorge. Flynn is a pretty fit guy if he is around 150lbs with out any tension from Rapunzel standing on the ground, Flynn’s weight being swung would launch her from the cliff she’s on and causing her to fall down. In this world tension still exists and is shown through out the film its just a matter of how it is utilized. Of course not all the aspects of tension are present but what is important about it is shown and emphasized.

            Lots of aspects in this film are emphasized for entertainment and storytelling. With that an exaggeration in action/reaction can be found in various scenes in the film. Throughout the film a frying pan is used as a weapon and hits several people in the face. With Newton’s Law if a force is applied onto an object it will accelerate. In this case, the force of the frying pan is being applied onto a guards face and his face stays in one place showing the reaction. In our world, if someone got hit with a frying pan they would fly back and follow the force of frying pan hitting. For what happens in the movie to be possible the guard’s head would have to have almost five times the mass of his body. This happens throughout the film and happens for a reason. We show the expression on the people that have been hit and it is a moment for entertainment.

            Couple times through out the film Flynn ends up on a plank and gets propelled in the air with weight being dropped on the other end like a seesaw. With the reaction and speed that Flynn flies there would need to be about ten times more weight applied onto the other end. With the action someone simply stomps on a plank of wood and springs Flynn into the air at an unexpected speed. The action/reaction does not match up in terms of physics but the unexpected speed of the reaction helps with the comedic timing. With animation a lot of things get pushed aside for entertainment including gravity.

            In an early scene from the movie the palace guards and Maximus the valiant horse are chasing Flynn. The guards fall behind and Maximus is left chasing Flynn. They struggle on the side of a cliff trying to achieve the satchel and unfortunately they fall off. Now they are clearly seen falling at the same rate. As per gravity laws, however, when we see Maximus land, safely I might add, he is still searching for Flynn. A few moments pass and we see Flynn ahead of where Maximus landed and hiding behind rocks. There is no possible way that Flynn landed before Maximus with enough time to get up and run a few feet ahead to hide behind a rock.

            The hang time in this film is also extended in certain parts. Near the end of the film Flynn escapes a prison with some help. He gets flung from a board again, the same way in an earlier scene however we see him get flung a great amount of distance and stay in the air maintaining the same position and finally landing perfectly safe onto Maximus. With the amount of speed Flynn had leaving the board, he would come hurling down the same amount of speed. Landing on Maximus perfectly would kill him; there was no force slowing his acceleration and in the scene he seems to be gaining speed as he lands. In the same prison escape we see some guards get pummeled by a bigger person and their helmets magically stays in place of where they got hit regardless of the bodies being propelled forward. The helmets hang there and spin and then drop.

            This film breaks a lot of physics in our world but with such successful storytelling and world building; the breaks in our rules can be excused. Most films excuse real physics for storytelling and entertainment. I believe it is how things get established and how it works within the film itself can make all the difference and to take me to a new world that I believe can truly exist.

All clips provided belong to Walt Disney Animation Studios. 

All clips provided from Walt Disney's Tangled.