The film I
will be dissecting for its laws of physics is, “George of the Jungle”. “George of the Jungle” is a live-action film directed
by Sam Weisman in 1997. It is based on the American animated series that aired
throughout 1967. The film stars George, a man referred to as “the king of the
jungle”, who lives with a talking ape, a toucan, a small capuchin monkey, and
an African elephant. Though this film is live-action, it possesses a
combination of real-life physics and cartoony physics in order to achieve a
unique entertaining style that is reminiscent of animated films. “George of the
Jungle” is a film that takes place in our world but with a Tex Avery sense of
timing and exaggeration in acting and movements.
The first
law of physics in this film’s universe is the principal of unbreakable bodies.
The running gag in the film is that George swings from vines and constantly runs
into trees. Hence the well known phrase on the movie, “watch out for that
tree.” During the film, George can be seen slamming into the trees at such a high
velocity that it leaves an imprint of his body on the actual tree. Because his
body hits the tree at such high force, his body sticks to the surface for a few
seconds after for comedic timing. Every
time George hits a tree, he is dizzy but otherwise completely fine. Another
example of the law of unbreakable bodies is when a tour guide is thrown off a
bridge and falls down a 1,000-ft ravine and survives with minor cuts and bruises.
The law of unbreakable bodies also
suggests that characters poses super human strength. Near the beginning of the
film, George gets into a fight with a lion. He is able to kick and throw the
lion as if its only 30 pounds. At the end of the scene George uses his super strength
to spin the 500-pound lion on the tip of his finger like a basketball. Realistically,
that wouldn’t be possible, but in this film where they are trying to achieve
comedic movements, it is believable.
The second
law of physics in this film is the cartoony sense of gravity. Throughout the
movie there is no consistent law of gravity. When George falls from the trees after
hitting it, there is a dely. When George swings from the vines, the timing is
very even. In some scenes where George is swinging from the vines, his arcs do
not seem to have a distinct pivot point so there seems to be no arc at all.
These examples demonstrate that the film’s universe also breaks the physics of
circular arcs.
Another property to notice is that
when George is swinging on the vines, there is very little to no indication of drag
on his body or the flexible vines either. Because the vines are flexible and
organic, it shouldn’t be straight. The vine should have some offset of
amplitude from the top of the vine versus the bottom. The broken law of gravity
is also very noticeable at the start of George’s swings from his tree house to
the jungle. His body does not show a sign of gravity pulling him down toward
the earth and the vine acting upon his path of action.
Lastly,
“George of the Jungle” has an exaggerated cartoony timing similar to the style
of Tex Avery animations. Falling times are consistently slow and there is no
sense of slowing in or out. The film uses a lot of blurs and increased frame
rate to sped up the movement during fight or action scenes. There are also
moments in the film where time seems to slow in order to catch a reaction shot
in anticipation of an action. For example, In the scene where Shep, George’s
African elephant dog, is shooting coconut cannonballs out of his trunk, the
timing is significantly sped up to increase comedic timing. However, when the
coconuts finally reach their target, the timing slows so that the audience can
relish the moment where the henchmen get hit. This also applies to the timing
of how George reacts after he hits trees, sticks, and then falls to the floor.
Another example of the exaggerated
movements and timing is how the characters move. Shep also has his own sense of
timing and weight. He is a large 5,500 kg African elephant who acts like a dog.
He romps around and fetches sticks around the jungle. However, in the real
world that you and I live in, an elephant would not be able to move around that
quickly. His body weight and proportions would not physically allow for that
type of quick movement.
Later in
the film, George travels to San Francisco and has an incident where a
paraglider is tangled in the lines of the Golden Gate Bridge. To save the man’s
life, George must create the world’s biggest “vine” swing on the bridge in
order to reach the man and untangle him. This is the one time in the film where
the circular arc looks completely realistic. During this part in the film, the
film takes a more realistic approach on physics. There are correct paths of
action with drag and weight. This scene stands out from the rest of the movie
because of how much more realistic it is compared to the rest of the film. My
hypothesis is that the physics of the jungle differ from the physics of the
urban world on purpose. That way, the two different worlds are easily
distinguishable.
“George of
the Jungle” is a cartoony live action film with its own laws of physics. I
believe that the cartoony physics are done with wise intent as homage to the
animated series. However, I did find that throughout the movie, the director
would constantly change the laws he established from shot to shot. Nonetheless,
the movie is so goofy that it is not too noticeable and the audience buys into
the physics because of the humor and timing of the gags. Overall, I believe
that the director of this film was successful in capturing the cartoon
inspiration in a live-action medium.
