Outline-The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

The Laws of Physics in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

I.      Intro- in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? a parallel reality is created where cartoons and actual human beings exist together in the same universe.  However the cartoons adhere to  different rules of physics than humans do.    

a.     Humans v. Toons on the laws of inertia and acceleration

b.     Humans v. Toons on the laws of gravity

c.     Humans v. Toons on action reaction principle.

d.     Thesis

II.  The Laws of Inertia and Acceleration

a.     When Eddy and Roger are riding in the toon cab they make a lot of fast sharp turns but the characters don’t feel any of the centrifugal force.

                                               i.     However when eddy is chasing Jessica in actual cars we feel the centrifugal of the vehicles

b.     Law of inertia is exaggerated when Eddy enters Toon Town for comedic effect

                                               i.     When Eddy is in the elevator he is squashed against the ceiling when it is going up and is thrown against the floor when it comes to a stop.

c.     Roger is able to break through a wall where as a human being would stop accelerating once they hit the wall.

III. The Laws of Gravity

a.     When Eddy and Jessica fly from the car we see Eddy flip in the air along his center of gravity and land on the ground.  Jessica flies through the air but stays in an upright-seated position while she spins in a circle.

b.     When Eddy fires the toon gun the bullet doesn’t follow the law of gravity and fall back down, it flies into the air, hovers and chops the whiskey bottle in half.

c.      When the judge used spring loaded shoes he doesn’t follow an arc but instead goes up, straight and then comes back down, all the while going at the same speed. 

IV.   The Action/Reaction Principle

a.     Many examples through out the movie show toons firing real guns and feeling no kick back or humans firing toon guns and feeling no kick back.

b.     When Eddy crashes a real car into another real car we feel the reaction of the collision on him.

c.      When Roger smashed the plates on his head there is no reaction from Roger; only the plate gets smashed.

                                               i.     At the end of the movie when Eddy performs all the gags we see proper action/reaction relationships.

V. Conclusion

a.     Thesis

b.     Humans vs. Toons: Inertia/ acceleration, gravity and action/reaction

                  c.   Concluding sentences.