CLIP A
CLIP B
CLIP C
CLIP D
And a big thanks to Tobias MacKenzie who helped me make a complete fool out of myself (while being a fool with me) to make these clips happen :D
Monday, March 18, 2013
Monday, March 11, 2013
First Term Paper
Why It's Okay That Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs Makes Not One Damn Lick of Sense
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is a great movie
to study if one was interested in the exaggerated effects of animation and
just how physics are bent in order to create an interesting an entertaining
world for the viewer. The science in this movie is completely
unrealistic and exaggerated; this is to create a dynamic and cartoony world. A world where the characters are free to move about in just as exaggerated
fashions, without the audience thinking the characters are being seriously
injured or hurt. The movie utilizes this through many different concepts, three of
them are exaggerating body proportion and path of action, an inconsistent
application of weight and gravity, and food is given supernatural abilities or
properties. In this essay I hope to point out just how these are utilized in the movie, and how they benefit the story telling.
Body proportions are shifted beyond the natural
allowance of squash and stretch; it goes beyond imitating motion blur or
helping to exaggerate a natural movement, this exaggeration veers right into the territory of breaking bones
completely, bending entire skulls, and just breaking the human body in general.
There are countless examples of this in the movie but I will try to narrow it down to a
few key scenes which exemplify this nicely. Flint’s facial animation, for the most part, breaks his skull, and bends his head into odd shapes.
This is to give a more appealing shape and to fit the composition of the scene more. It can even serve the comedy of a scene; for example, when Sam sits down at the dock and lets her feet fall off the side; her feet actually go INTO Flint’s eyes.
This creates a ballooning effect, which would happen with a water balloon, but not your eyes. Please don't try that at home. Another scene of eyes being thrown off in a way that is not anatomically possible is when Flint has to “look his father in the eye”, and both of his eyes veer off in different directions, with radical facial expressions. This is played up for comedy and laughs, pushing what the feeling of being stared down by your parents in reality is like or even when you are trying to gain a truthful response from someone. There is also a sense of asymmetry to every frame of the movie, despite if it is shot from a distance or a close up of a character’s face. The character’s faces being “off” helps to hold the attention of the audience and create a more appealing picture to look at. Even a character like Sam Sparks, who is not nearly as pushed in most of her scenes, is given a slight asymmetry, much more delicately though.
In contrast to the subtle asymmetry of faces, A scene where the pushing bodies beyond physical limits becomes painfully obvious is when Flynn is holding on to the FLDSMSFR and flying across screen in slow motion. His knees are bent to the breaking point while his legs are stretched far beyond physical limits, as well as his entire head being stretched and squashed into an “unnatural” position. His eye sockets are positioned and shaped specifically for this scene, so that both could be seen and readable to the audience.
However, it fits with the rest of the movie in such a way that the audience does not question it, you are not thrown off by the fact that his face is twisted out of proportion or his legs are broken, it is following the rules of the universe, which is pushed shapes, yet holding the same mass, so the characters are still identifiable. This twisting of anatomy beyond possibility with more characters from Cloudy is when burgers start raining from the sky and all of the townsfolk are shown turn towards the camera in a classic “Steven Spielberg” stare. Each stare becomes more ridiculous and exaggerated, pushed beyond the limits of an actual human body.
This, in a small way, helps push the idea that burgers can actually rain from the sky, because if the people can be so pushed, who can say that food will not fall from the sky? In contrast, this breaking of body limits and proportion is not just limited to quick shots. An example of a more extreme and long term effect is the huge growth that the Mayor goes through, who wanted to be “big”. He goes from being smaller than most of the other characters, to the biggest character by far.
This happens in a short amount of time, and is a rare example of a character’s mass changing completely, however this complete change in mass helps the audience understand that not much more of this movie is going to follow basic rules of science. This just helps solidify the cartoony world being built, establishing that violence or extreme actions do not have to be taken too seriously; So when characters live through seemingly impossible situations we, as an audience, do not question it.
This is to give a more appealing shape and to fit the composition of the scene more. It can even serve the comedy of a scene; for example, when Sam sits down at the dock and lets her feet fall off the side; her feet actually go INTO Flint’s eyes.
This creates a ballooning effect, which would happen with a water balloon, but not your eyes. Please don't try that at home. Another scene of eyes being thrown off in a way that is not anatomically possible is when Flint has to “look his father in the eye”, and both of his eyes veer off in different directions, with radical facial expressions. This is played up for comedy and laughs, pushing what the feeling of being stared down by your parents in reality is like or even when you are trying to gain a truthful response from someone. There is also a sense of asymmetry to every frame of the movie, despite if it is shot from a distance or a close up of a character’s face. The character’s faces being “off” helps to hold the attention of the audience and create a more appealing picture to look at. Even a character like Sam Sparks, who is not nearly as pushed in most of her scenes, is given a slight asymmetry, much more delicately though.
In contrast to the subtle asymmetry of faces, A scene where the pushing bodies beyond physical limits becomes painfully obvious is when Flynn is holding on to the FLDSMSFR and flying across screen in slow motion. His knees are bent to the breaking point while his legs are stretched far beyond physical limits, as well as his entire head being stretched and squashed into an “unnatural” position. His eye sockets are positioned and shaped specifically for this scene, so that both could be seen and readable to the audience.
However, it fits with the rest of the movie in such a way that the audience does not question it, you are not thrown off by the fact that his face is twisted out of proportion or his legs are broken, it is following the rules of the universe, which is pushed shapes, yet holding the same mass, so the characters are still identifiable. This twisting of anatomy beyond possibility with more characters from Cloudy is when burgers start raining from the sky and all of the townsfolk are shown turn towards the camera in a classic “Steven Spielberg” stare. Each stare becomes more ridiculous and exaggerated, pushed beyond the limits of an actual human body.
This, in a small way, helps push the idea that burgers can actually rain from the sky, because if the people can be so pushed, who can say that food will not fall from the sky? In contrast, this breaking of body limits and proportion is not just limited to quick shots. An example of a more extreme and long term effect is the huge growth that the Mayor goes through, who wanted to be “big”. He goes from being smaller than most of the other characters, to the biggest character by far.
This happens in a short amount of time, and is a rare example of a character’s mass changing completely, however this complete change in mass helps the audience understand that not much more of this movie is going to follow basic rules of science. This just helps solidify the cartoony world being built, establishing that violence or extreme actions do not have to be taken too seriously; So when characters live through seemingly impossible situations we, as an audience, do not question it.
Another feature of the
Cloudy animation is the inconsistent application of weight and density and how
a character’s weight will relate to that. Granted this is something which is
not “easy” to tell given that the characters in Cloudy are pushed to the
extreme in design. Flint Lockwood looks to be about above average height, but
weigh as much as a preteen girl given how skinny he is, even compared to the
other people in town. But this does not change the fact that he is able to inexplicably carry, throw, hold, and maneuver large objects, the same with the rest of the
townspeople. The first example would be the “snowball” scene, where it had just
“snowed” ice cream on the town and Flint decides to throw snowballs. He enters
into full-terminator mode able to chuck the snowballs at a velocity which
seems, impossible given the size and mass of an average snowball, even if it
was made of ice cream.
They seem to have the impact of a paintball gun pellet, which is impossible given the fact that the balls are also being thrown by a human being and not a gun in any way shape or form. This, again, is for comedy; if this was taken out of context and given the proper music, this could be a horror sequence, but given the other scenes given to us in this move, instead it is a light hearted moment. A quicker instance of this occurring happens when Flint is first hiding the FLDSMSFR from Earl in one of the earlier scenes, he holds it behind his back to keep it away from prodding eyes. And yet he is not putting his weight into holding it at all, the machine is treated, weight wise, as if it was made out of Styrofoam, or another equally light material.
Granted this could be the case, but given the fact that we see that it has a computer in it with a monitor, as well as the fact that it conducts electricity well so it must be made out of a material at least similar to a type of metal, it cannot be that light. Really, this scene would have been greatly hindered if the laws of science had been obeyed exactly. There would just simply not be as much comedy if Flint did not have to keep track of both Earl in front of him, as well as try to keep this huge and obvious object hidden behind him. And the suspense of the scene would have been lost as well, each piece of this shot is like a domino piece, ready to be pushed over, and the audience is waiting to see which one goes first. Another scene, at the climax of the movie, in which the laws of science are thrown out a window and then laughed at as they plunge all the way to the ground, is the scene in which Earl has to save his family as the foodavalanche comes crashing down into the town. Earl not only manages to lift his entire family on a gigantic peanut butter and jelly sandwich with pizza slice sails—one must also take in note his wife was also helping him lift this boat not a moment before—but once he crashes through a gigantic Dortitos chip, his wife lifts him up, in mid-air, and helps him back flip on to the boat. To say it is difficult to know where to begin with this one small sequence is an understatement. First off, the boat feels as if it weighs as much as an awkwardly sized cardboard box with some books in it given how easily Earl is able to maneuver and fight through the foodavalanche with it.
He does not even break a sweat after it is all said and done. And there is also fact that his wife is able to lift him up in midair, this action is ignoring several simple concepts, such as weight shift, the path of action and the law of inertia. If Earl is the character who is motivating the boat forward, and his wife is a “part” of the boat, how is she able to lift him up so easily, and why does Earl not continue to move forward, through the boat? His path of action makes it seem as if he is moving from a position where he is simply standing on the ground, not flying through the air. In short, this scene makes no sense, but it is so completely ridiculous that the audience does not care.
Earl has repeatedly ignored the rules of science, his insane flips, run cycles, and general way of movement were grounded in even less reality than everyone else. In order to save his entire family, we expect him to break those laws even further.
They seem to have the impact of a paintball gun pellet, which is impossible given the fact that the balls are also being thrown by a human being and not a gun in any way shape or form. This, again, is for comedy; if this was taken out of context and given the proper music, this could be a horror sequence, but given the other scenes given to us in this move, instead it is a light hearted moment. A quicker instance of this occurring happens when Flint is first hiding the FLDSMSFR from Earl in one of the earlier scenes, he holds it behind his back to keep it away from prodding eyes. And yet he is not putting his weight into holding it at all, the machine is treated, weight wise, as if it was made out of Styrofoam, or another equally light material.
Granted this could be the case, but given the fact that we see that it has a computer in it with a monitor, as well as the fact that it conducts electricity well so it must be made out of a material at least similar to a type of metal, it cannot be that light. Really, this scene would have been greatly hindered if the laws of science had been obeyed exactly. There would just simply not be as much comedy if Flint did not have to keep track of both Earl in front of him, as well as try to keep this huge and obvious object hidden behind him. And the suspense of the scene would have been lost as well, each piece of this shot is like a domino piece, ready to be pushed over, and the audience is waiting to see which one goes first. Another scene, at the climax of the movie, in which the laws of science are thrown out a window and then laughed at as they plunge all the way to the ground, is the scene in which Earl has to save his family as the foodavalanche comes crashing down into the town. Earl not only manages to lift his entire family on a gigantic peanut butter and jelly sandwich with pizza slice sails—one must also take in note his wife was also helping him lift this boat not a moment before—but once he crashes through a gigantic Dortitos chip, his wife lifts him up, in mid-air, and helps him back flip on to the boat. To say it is difficult to know where to begin with this one small sequence is an understatement. First off, the boat feels as if it weighs as much as an awkwardly sized cardboard box with some books in it given how easily Earl is able to maneuver and fight through the foodavalanche with it.
He does not even break a sweat after it is all said and done. And there is also fact that his wife is able to lift him up in midair, this action is ignoring several simple concepts, such as weight shift, the path of action and the law of inertia. If Earl is the character who is motivating the boat forward, and his wife is a “part” of the boat, how is she able to lift him up so easily, and why does Earl not continue to move forward, through the boat? His path of action makes it seem as if he is moving from a position where he is simply standing on the ground, not flying through the air. In short, this scene makes no sense, but it is so completely ridiculous that the audience does not care.
Earl has repeatedly ignored the rules of science, his insane flips, run cycles, and general way of movement were grounded in even less reality than everyone else. In order to save his entire family, we expect him to break those laws even further.
Finally,
there is the food in Cloudy, arguably the antagonist in the last third of the
movie. Not just in a metaphorical sense, but a very real physical sense. At
first, it is quite benign, as cheeseburgers fall from the sky, they are able to
be snatched without much effort. Granted a falling cheeseburger does not have
much mass or weight, so if one did fall and hit an actual human being on the
street, it would probably hurt and be quite alarming, but it would not be fatal. Yet
in Cloudy, they seem to fall as if they had the air resistance of paper.
This strange supernatural, near floating ability also applies to most other food in the beginning. Even the ice cream falls and accumulates into huge scoops on the roofs of, what look to be, standard built houses, without any cave ins or any other ill effects. These same foods fall, in the beginning, without causing the secondary types of damage to human tissue, such as burns with hot food or even frostbite with colder foods. This does change after Swallow Falls re-opening as Chew and Swallow. A huge spaghetti tornado forms, to start with, and while that is completely impossible given the amount of winds and suction needed to create such a perfectly formed tornado of spaghetti is something which would be entirely destructive on its own, the food after this point becomes impossibly more destructive on its own as well. Granted, Flint is able to navigate in and around the tornado in some of the most ridiculous parkour I ever seen, however this is lamp shaded by even the animators themselves as Flint just shrugs in disbelief at what he was just able to do.
On top of all of this, much of the food gains sentience. The pizza “drones” guarding the mother ship, the gummi bears which try to fight Steve, and the chickens who Brent eventually joins with. Unless that food was given robotics, nanobots, or somehow given a soul by the FLDSMSFR, I highly doubt that any of this is possible in real life. My science is not exact, but I believe it to be sound.
This strange supernatural, near floating ability also applies to most other food in the beginning. Even the ice cream falls and accumulates into huge scoops on the roofs of, what look to be, standard built houses, without any cave ins or any other ill effects. These same foods fall, in the beginning, without causing the secondary types of damage to human tissue, such as burns with hot food or even frostbite with colder foods. This does change after Swallow Falls re-opening as Chew and Swallow. A huge spaghetti tornado forms, to start with, and while that is completely impossible given the amount of winds and suction needed to create such a perfectly formed tornado of spaghetti is something which would be entirely destructive on its own, the food after this point becomes impossibly more destructive on its own as well. Granted, Flint is able to navigate in and around the tornado in some of the most ridiculous parkour I ever seen, however this is lamp shaded by even the animators themselves as Flint just shrugs in disbelief at what he was just able to do.
On top of all of this, much of the food gains sentience. The pizza “drones” guarding the mother ship, the gummi bears which try to fight Steve, and the chickens who Brent eventually joins with. Unless that food was given robotics, nanobots, or somehow given a soul by the FLDSMSFR, I highly doubt that any of this is possible in real life. My science is not exact, but I believe it to be sound.
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs makes no sense at all,
whatsoever, in any sense of the word. It breaks the rules of science more than
follows them, it then proceeds to tap dance on its corpse by breaking them even
further, and honestly, I would not have this movie any other way. It is a fun
movie, where even with high stakes and family drama, the audience can breathe
free because it does not take itself serious. Breaking all of these laws does
not detract from the movie at all, they aid in the story telling and mood,
creating an environment so very similar to older cartoons like Looney Toons.
While this may drive any scientist who takes themselves way too seriously
insane, this movie proves to be an amazing experience to the casual viewer over
all.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Term Paper outline - Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
I – Introduction
a. Hypothesis: The science in this movie is completely unrealistic and exaggerated, this is to create a dynamic and cartoony world. One where the characters are free to move about in just as exaggerated fashions, with out the audience thinking the characters are being seriously injured or hurt.
II – Body
I one – body proportions shifted beyond the natural allowance of squash and stretch, breaking bones and skeletons, exaggerating paths of action a. flints face animation. Period. His face is bent into a more appealing shape, defying how an actual skull can be bent. His eye sockets change in size considerably. Eyes face away from each other. He gets two feet STUCK in them at one point (Looking his father in the eye scene, at the docks, etc) b. Asymmetry pushed in every facial animation in general. One eye will be a circle, the other pushed into a more oval shape, mouths will be off center c. flying across with the FLDSMDFR – body is pushed into noodles d. the Steven Spielberg gasp scene. Where everyone sees the hamburger cloud for the first time. e. the mayors body growth, as well as just the amount he is able to shove into his mouth in general f. electrocution scene. The pushed proportions of that scene alone
Ii two – inconsistent application of weight and density and character's strength (rather, exaggerated strength)
a. SNOWBALL!! scene. The ice cream snowballs have the impact of a paintball gun pellets, not just scoops of ice cream b. Flint hiding his machine from Earl. Moves it around as if it’s made of styrafoam, not metal as it's shown to be by it's conductivity of electricity c. Earl carrying his entire family on a bread boat, and then being LIFTED on to that boat by his wife. Who is also on the boat (WHAT) d. An entire TV camera shoved into Sam’s face with no ill effects other than a silly face—twice e. "Out of Sight" launchers throw food in solid chunks together. Ignoring air resistance completely
Iii three – Food is given supernatural abilities or properties
a. While it’s destructive later on, it’s not until it mutates. Before all sorts of food falls with out causing any damage. i. Huge ice cream falls and accumulates with out causing structural damage ii. Hamburgers and other hot foods fall with out causing burns or general damage. Land in hands feather light b. Spaghetti tornado. Really? To top it off, it’s easily navigated by flint in the most ridiculous display of parkour I have seen c. Much of the food gains sentience? (Pizza, gummi bears, chickens) d. Water and radiation do not work like that. e. While the foodalanche crushes other buildings and even destroys concrete, it doesn’t crush flint’s father to death.
III – conclusion
This clear breaking of scientific laws don't detract from the movie at all, in fact they aid it in creating a fun film, very reminiscent of older cartoons such as Chuck Jones' work, Looney Toons, etc.
Quick question to the professor! Are we allowed to use blog posts from the creators/animators of the movie to help back up our thesis? I happened to find this amazing break down of a few of the scenes of animation in this, which really help support how much science was completely broken just to get the right feel for this film!
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