Science Fact or Cinematic Fiction?
The movie business’s livelihood is based on suspending the belief of its audience so that they can accept a world as real and invest themselves into that world and its story. Movie effects and computers are becoming so advance that it is getting harder to remove ourselves from a film’s world and distinguish reality from friction. What viewers know would never happen in the real world is accepted as real in an imagined world. For some breaking a physics principle works in this imagined world and is accepted as normal. Set principles such as weight, balance, arcs and path of action can be bent for entertainment value. This idea is quite predominant in the CGI animated movie, Bolt. If one observes carefully they can see many examples of physics inconsistency within the reality of a film.
The beginning sequence of Bolt is all about the impossible being possible. The main character, Bolt, is a tiny white German Shepard, that the audience is lead to believe has been genetically altered by some unknown science to be literally a “super-dog” built like a tank. The entire first sequence is an action high speeds chase designed to show off Bolt’s abilities when he is on his television show. However, the viewer is not told that this is a television show at first so the audience believes that this is truly how the world works in this film.
The dog fights against impossible odds all for the sake of his family. Bolt is especially close to his human, Penny. Penny, who is the daughter of a genius scientist, is constantly under threat of capture by villains who wish to use her as a bargaining chip for information from her captured father. Penny’s father altered Bolt to protect her from such attacks.
In this small creature there appears to be an unlimited supply of power that Bolt taps into to accomplish “super-dog” feats. He breaks through hard solid objects and it seems his very flesh is stronger and heavier than most substances. He knows no fear. He never seems to tire and his genetically altered muscles give him the ability to run faster than most vehicles.
In the Bolt universe what is accepted as real but is really science fiction, is Bolt’s ability to shoot laser beams from his eyes. Although it is called heat vision in the movie, it has more of the characteristics of a green laser so it will be referred to as a laser. Bolt can shoot a concentrated green laser from his canine eyes. This beam is not only viewed as visible light but can also be directed to far distances with enough intensity to melt holes through metal structures such as helicopters. A green laser’s entire beam, although more powerful that other conventional lasers, is not visible to the naked eye in broad daylight. An entire green laser could only be seen in the dark.
Furthermore, the anatomy of the eye is not a mirror it is a lens so Bolt could not bring enough light into his eyes to create so concentrated a beam. A laser is created by bringing in light and concentrating it into an energy beam by aid of a gain medium. Lasers are made by repeatedly reflecting light through a gain medium, which amplifies it, but an energy source is need and a large one for such a concentrated beam. The eyeball is simply not set up to produce lasers, even if it had a way to produce its own light the best that could be hope for is a magnifying glass type effect. One can over a time slowly melt or burn objects with low ignition temperatures when you hold a magnifying glass over on object to intensify the heat from the sun. If Bolt had heat vision he would not be able to use it with such an instantaneous effect and his eyes would need some form of alignment with the sun for optimum use. Everyone knows that looking directly at the sun causes eye damage. His eyes would also have to be very powerful magnifying glasses to melt its way though metal.
Bolt has a “Super-Bark” which is basically a huge sound wave that he can shoot in any direction he is pointing when he barks. It kicks up dirt, damages earth, and throws people and their vehicles, be they on the ground or in the air, shooting backward in an unavoidable shock wave. The devastation caused by this bark rivals that of the explosive pressure of a bomb, but seemingly with less fatal results and more property damage. One can assume that Bolt would have to have very strong vocal cords to create such a loud and large sound but the vocal cords would only be half of it. The mouth functions as a resonance chamber, which could actually amplify the sound coming from his throat. His head and specifically his mouth would have to be very specially designed to create such a loud sound that is usually made with the aid of giant speakers. However, the equipment needed to produce that kind of sound energy would never fit in a dog. Even if it could it would be quite short range since sound waves dissipate or rather scatter quickly with distance.
In the chase scenes it is hard to believe the actions of the motorcyclists chasing Bolt. It is very difficult to ride a motorcycle at high speeds to begin with, but the way they jump from high heights and land seamlessly on the ground at high speeds without causing damage to the bike or driver is hard to swallow. Jumps like that usually break the bike in two or cause the driver to skid out of control. They would all have to be very skilled drivers with the strongest bike frames around. Jumping off an over pass and landing on concrete would at least knock the wind out of cyclist and at worst break bones.
To protect his owner from a speeding car, Bolt charges at the menacing vehicle and rams it with his head. This causes a sizable dent in the car and it flips over. Obviously the car and dog do not act as normally expected. Many have had the unfortunates of witnessing a small animal, quite possibly a dog, being hit by a vehicle. Although the animal does not necessarily have to put a large dent in the automobile the results are usually the same, the animal hit by the vehicle is either thrown forward, run right over, or thrown off to the side of the road. This usually results in some minor damage to the car and extreme injury or death of the animal. Perhaps it the movie’s revenge for all the animals hit by cars but usually smaller things are thrown by larger thing barreling over them. Bolt not only plays a reverse role but he does not seem to be affected by the car at all. It is as if the car was made of tin foil. This scenario violates the action-reaction principle of physics. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction in force and there seems to be no force acting on Bolt at all he does not even seem to slow down, he just keeps run through as the car flies out of his path.
A similar incident with the action-reaction principle happens when bolt used his head to smash through a wall. He barely slows down at all and his head does not even seem to jerk back after hitting the wall. A little dog’s head would smash against a cement wall not break it. It would be impossible for a dog to even make a dent in that wall without smashing his brains in. Whatever bolt’s head is made of its harder than concrete.
Even stranger is after Bolt’s head hits the car it follows an odd path of action. The car flips like normal but then it appears to be flung forward and flies yards away over Penny’s head before landing on the ground. The car slows down mid-flight before speeding up again but this is probably slowing down the camera for dramatic purposes. The car does not even skid on the ground after flying so far forward it lands as if it had fallen directly from over head. Bolt’s head is the pivot point and the car’s arc should stay true to that.
Even more outrageous is Bolt’s unbelievable air time when he jumps. Bolt is able to jump over a helicopter tens of feet above his head with a single jump and land several yards away after clearing the helicopter. He did not take enough time to crouch down for a decent push force to throw him up to such heights even if a little dog could have enough muscle power to do so. To make matters worse Bolt is by no mean following an arc as he seems to be almost flying over the helicopter after his jump.
Bolt and Penny both seem to have super being qualities because they are able to travel at incredible speeds without protective covering. The wind resistance and dirt particles in the air would hurt their eyes. Bolt seems unfazed by super speed. Penny needs a few minutes to adjust, but is afterwards fine and opens her eyes wide again.
The smaller the mass, the greater the acceleration. Bolt is small and should be light weight so a viewer would believe that he could be able to accelerate very quickly. However other feats he accomplishes would suggest otherwise: Bolt is small but is able flip a car with his head, break down walls and when he lands he puts dent on pavement and metal surfaces. He is even able to lift a car in his mouth. The visual hints would lead the viewer to believe that Bolt is a very heavy and very strong animal, perhaps his mass is denser than a normal dog. However if this were true Bolt would need a significantly longer time to accelerate than the audience are lead to believe. He does split second acceleration and these sudden rushes of speed do not even give Penny whiplash when she is being pulled along for the ride by Bolt.
As mentioned earlier Bolt picks up a car with his mouth. He then suspends it over a bridge showing no signs of struggle and he does not seem to need to counter the weight of the car at all. The car seems to weigh nothing in comparison to Bolt’s mighty muscles. Realistically even if Bolt could hold up the car he would need to lean back more to counter the weight.
If one observes carefully they can see many examples of physics inconsistency within the reality of a film. Although live action movies must have some aspects that hold true to physics, a CGI animated film can decide whenever it wants to obey physics or not. Bolt specially breaks the laws of physics for the sake of proving just how unbelievable the world that Bolt lives in is. The audience is made to see how fantastic Bolt can be on his TV show. That way when he is reduced to the level of a normal dog later in the film, the viewer sees just how much of a fall it is from what Bolt thinks he normally is capable of. Breaking physics hence can be used as a vital tool for stretching the limits of a reality and adding to entertainment value and emotion.
It is unfortunate that the pictures came out so blurry. But here is myself and Ryan (also in your class but I cannot recall how to spell his last name) at the Disney Family museum. Sorry the picture looked readable from the preview screen and I have a blurry picture of the building. We should get 20 points for just finding the place. We were suppose to go at 11am but we got lost and didn't arrive until 2pm. Its on an old army base and we never would have found it on Saturday because apparently there is no shuttle to the building on weekends! Oivey! I eventually hailed a cab and even he had to use GPS to find the place! And they didn't allow photography as these museums never do. I would have had an easier time finding the lochness monster having tea with big foot! Ryan and I really earned this extra credit of that I am certain.
Okay here is a picture of me in my dorm on campus in 3D!
2 point lighting
