Term Paper: The Laws of Physics in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is an
animated film by Sony Pictures Animation about a young inventor who develops a
way to turn water into food in order to feed a town with no former food options
other than sardines. While at first glance the world of Swallow Falls appears
to be a world very much like our own, there is actually a great amount of
physics manipulation to achieve the effects of the world. In this film we see
fantastic scientific devices, Jell-O structures, a suspension of gravity, and –
of course – raining food. Cloudy with a
Chance of Meatballs is set in a world that understands a different
fundamental science than our own, and Sony further manipulates the laws of
physics in order to use it as a storytelling element within the film.
Tired
of eating sardines every day, Flint Lockwood invents the Flint Lockwood
Diatonic Super Mutating Dynamic Food Replicator, or FLDSMDFR for short. The FLDSMDFR
absorbs water molecules and creates food by manipulating and rearranging the
structure of the molecules. By simply typing in his meal order, Flint is able
to produce any kind of food imaginable using the FLDSMDFR. In the film he makes
foods such as hamburgers, steak, hot dogs, and spaghetti and meatballs, among
many others; however, in the real world this machine is scientifically
impossible. A water molecule is made up of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen
atom, while most foods are made up of much more complicated combinations. Even
if the FLDSMDFR absorbed an infinite amount of water molecules, it would still
only be able to make combinations of hydrogen and oxygen. While these are two
very common elements, other elements are required to make the wide variety of
foods that Flint does in Cloudy with a
Chance of Meatballs. Figure 1 shows how the film gets around this issue –
rather than food being made up of complex combinations of atoms, the hot dog is
simply made up of “hot dog molecules.” In this way, the FLDSMDFR just has to make
one new kind of molecule in order to produce an entirely new food.
(Figure 1: Normal hot
dog molecules and mutated hot dog molecules)
Another aspect of physics that is
highly distorted in Cloudy with a Chance
of Meatballs is the physics of falling. Falling objects are an important
motif in the film, and these objects typically fall a very long distance with
no reaction upon impacting the ground. One of the earliest examples of this is
near the beginning, when Flint and the FLDSMDFR destroy Sardine Land. The park’s
giant glass fishbowl is knocked off its stand and begins to roll through the
town, bouncing like a ball until it hits an exploding building; then, it is
thrown into the air before coming crashing back down onto the concrete.
Throughout all of this, the glass bowl stays intact, something which wouldn't
happen in reality. The bowl doesn't break at all until – after all of that
action – Flint touches the side of the bowl with his head and it shatters
around him. This is obviously done for the comedic effect, but nevertheless it
greatly deviates from standard laws of physics. The destruction of this scene
was caused by the FLDSMDFR flying throughout the town and being projected into
the air, where it remains for the duration of the film. From its position in
the clouds, the FLDSMDFR absorbs the surrounding water molecules and rains food
down onto Swallow Falls; however, the constant “rain” of food never causes any
harm or damage. From the height that the food falls, it would hit the ground at
such a high speed that it would most likely break something or hurt someone, or
at least the food itself would break apart. In the film, though, the cascading food
only causes real damage as the film reaches its climax, and the destruction is
added for dramatic effect. The only instance of food-related destruction
previous to the danger of the climax is seen in the Roofless restaurant. Giant
steaks fall down from the sky, shattering wine glasses as they hit the tables;
however, the wine glasses are the only objects affected by the falling food. No
people are hurt, no tables broken, and even the plates – which are made of a
similar material to the wine glasses – remain perfectly intact (Fig. 2). During
Flint’s dinner with his father, the steaks begin to grow and mutate but the
gigantic steaks cause the same amount of damage as the regular-sized ones.
(Figure
2: Roofless)
The
laws of gravity are also flexible in the universe of Cloudy with a Chance of
Meatballs. In one scene, Flint creates a Jell-O house for Sam the weather girl
(Fig. 3). Inside the Jell-O house, Flint and Sam bounce all around with very
little regard to gravity. Despite having walking through the walls to get
inside the house, they are able to walk up stairs to upper floors of the house
and interact with furniture without the same relationship as they had to the
walls. Due to gravity, Flint and Sam should be falling through the floors of
the Jell-O house in the same way they slipped through the walls, as humans are much denser and heavier than Jell-O.
(Figure 3: Jell-O
House)
While the Jell-O house obviously demonstrates a skewed sense of gravity, most of the gravity manipulation within the film deals with the FLDSMDFR.
During the tornado created by the FLDSMDFR, Flint is able to “swim” through the
air, moving in all directions, maneuvering around other flying objects to avoid
them, and manipulating the speed of his fall. True physics would dictate that
after being flung into the air, Flint should be falling right back down to the
ground without the ability control his fall. During this scene, the cause of
the tornado, the FLDSMDFR, remains suspended in the sky as it does throughout
the majority of the film (Fig. 4). This makes no sense. While the FLDSMDFR is
high up in the atmosphere, it is not high enough to be released from Earth’s
gravity and into a state of orbit, which would be required for it to float in
the air the way that it is. Even though a great force propelled the FLDSMDFR
into the air, it is a large, heavy object that should have come crashing back
down to Earth when its upward-pushing energy ran out.
(Figure 4: FLDSMDFR)
With
all of these strange laws of physics operating in the world of Cloudy, there are actually many
instances of inconsistencies. As stated, some falling objects are destructive
while others do nothing. This is a clear example of a manipulation of physics
for storytelling effect, because when the food is a good element in the film it
is not harmful; however, once the FLDSMDFR begins to malfunction and create giant, mutated meals, the food begins to destroy the town as things begin to
look bleak for its future. The FLDSMDFR also displays an inconsistency in the
laws of gravity in this world, as it is able to float freely in the air while other
characters are typically affected by gravity normally. Throughout the film, the
biggest derivations from the presented laws of physics are done in a way that
they advance the story, and the film is better with these broken laws.
The story
of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is fantastical in itself. In the real
world, someone couldn't make the weather “rain” food. As artists we aim
primarily to tell a story the best we can, in any way possible. While the
artists infused the story into the design of the film's characters, environments,
etc., they also pushed it into the physics of the film's animation. Many times
that the natural laws of physics were broken throughout the film was with purpose
to exaggerate specific storytelling elements, such as the danger the FLDSMDFR
posed to Swallow Falls at the film's climax. When a story is as oddball as
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, the manipulation of physics does not
distract the viewer from the story being told; rather, it actually enhances the
story by allowing the audience to be completely transported to a new world where
events such as giant raining foods are both plausible and enjoyable.
