Physics
plays a big role in creating an animated film or television show to
make it inherently realistic. Movements of characters and objects
must be animated to mimic how it would move in real life, to make it
seem believable. Although realistic movements are necessary in
animation, animators will often also use exaggerated action to
enhance the experience of watching the animated movie or television.
Many animated films and television shows exaggerated motion of
characters to mimic each characters persona or characteristics. In
particular DreamWorks movie The Croods shows this exaggeration of
character movements and action to mimic the characters
characteristics and creates familiar animals but yet different from
real life creates to make the movie much more interesting for
children and adults to watch.
The
Croods story plot is about the early homo sapien/ neanderthal family
named the Croods who meets a guy, named Guy after their cave home
gets destroyed due to the tectonic plates shift that divides the land
called Pangea into the seven different continents that exist today.
The Croods along side Guy embarks on a journey to follow the sun and
into the new world. During this journey they encounter many different
land structures and species that the family have never seen before.
These creatures that they encounter can seem very familiar to viewers
and some seems to be a hybrid of two species that exists today. Such
example can be seen in the first scene when the Croods hunt for food
and they fins what seems to be an ostrich egg. First and fore most
though the Croods family themselves have features of humans traits
but can seem different especially the father, Grug who has a bigger
upper body with small waist and small legs. His body proportion is
similar to that of a gorilla. Furthermore the family in different
scenes can also move in all fours or walk with two legs which obeys
physical characteristics of humans and gorillas. Going back the bird
that looks like an ostrich with horns like a ram in the first food
hunt scene follow that same idea of hybrid mixtures that the
animators were going for. The way the bird runs is similar to an
ostrich, but also has characteristics of a ram. It uses its spiral
horn to charge and attack its prey. This multi hybrid characteristics
of these characters follows movements from real life creatures so
they seem familiar. But the animation aspects of creating two
familiar creatures and combing them into one creature pulls back
viewers from that familiar creature they see in real life and back to
the animated creature that the animators have created.
Furthermore
in analyzing the Croods family, they have a fast paced movement to
them that seems to defy the laws of physics of human characteristics
in real life. This can be seen in the first scene that the movie
opens which is the hunting scene. Specifically when they run with the
other animals. All of which seems to be moving at the same pace as
the other animals as they run on two legs. If physics is followed
there is no way that real humans can run at the same pace as an
ostrich, leopard, and a mammoth. Another example of speed that does
not follow the laws of physics is the scene when Grug and Guy gets
into a fight and rolls off the cliff. When they roll off the cliff
they are suspended in air for a longer period of time than they
should actually be. This was a way to to dramatize the falling action
of the characters as they fall of the cliff. These characters fast
paced movement is necessary tough to balance the fact that the there
is not a whole lot of movements in the background. The background all
seems to be still, but it isn't noticeable because there is a lot of
movement in the characters themselves.
Another
law bending rules of physics that can be seen throughout the movie is
the super human strength that the Croods family posses specifically
Grug and Eep. Grug in many several scenes throughout the movie would
lift heavy boulders of rocks and would throw them in the air and he
would catch them. A very good example of this is the scene where Grug
lifts three rocks like it was nothing and he gets thrown in the air
and get struck by lighting. When Grug falls a boulder rolls on top of
him and he still manages to stay alive after the incidence. If the
laws of physics is followed Grug shouldn't have been able to lift the
boulders and getting struck by lighting should have killed him or
knocked him out unconscious. On top of that the boulder that rolled
on top of him should have crushed him and Grug should have died
instantly. Another Croods member of the family with super strength is
Eep. Eep has strength, grace, and agility that a normal human being
cannot posses. The scene that show cases this law bending physics is
when she climbs up the cliff to catch the few rays of the sun before
heading back into the cave. Eep climbs up the cliff with such ease,
grace, and speed it really seems so impossible. If the laws of
physics is followed in the movie Eep should have fallen if she
climbed up that cliff that fast. She would have had to think every
move she would make before even deciding where to grab hold or where
to put her feet on the rocks.
Word Count: 1028
this shows the features of the Croods family gorilla like posture
the hybrid ostrich/ram
The fast movement of the Croods they can run just as fast as the other creatures.
The speed and the strength Eeps shows in the scene when she goes up the cliff to catch the last sun ray of the day.
The scene when Grug and Guy gets into a fight and they hang in mid air for a few frames before falling.
These last few scenes shows the super human strength that Grug has. He is able to lift huge boulders. He also gets struck by lighting and a boulder rolls on top of him him and he still manages to live.
