Suspension of Disbelief - Part 1

I came across this video on a posting over at Cartoon Brew. In which it talks about physics in animation for Dreamworks Studio and that it's being taught at San Jose State by professor Alejandro Garcia. Watch the video below:

At first, some may think... "oh this make sense". But there's a problem... CARTOONS AND ANIMATION ARE NOT PART OF THE REAL WORLD! Let me calm down for a second....

I couldn't disagree more with what was said in this video. I especially disagree with what animator, Cassidy Curtis at minute 1:03, "When something doesn't feel like it is physically capable of happening it pops the audience out of the moment, it reminds them what they are watching isn't real". This is completely false. Maybe that is his preference, but I don't need to believe that something needs to look real for me to believe it or keep me in the film. And neither does the rest of the world. After all, animators have been keeping audiences in the films for many many years! We do not go to the movies to see something real, we want to be taken away into a fantasy, where our imaginations can run wild without the limitations of physics.

I agree that having a better understanding of physics will help the animation look better. Especially if you bend and break those rules to make it more amazing. But the problem is that cartoons are cartoons. They are not part of the real world. I find it funny that so much importance is put into making animation look more real, instead of allowing the animator to be artistic and creative. The argument isn't how to make animation look "real" but how to make animation look natural. What I mean by natural is; every cartoon or animated character has a specific anatomy to how they were designed and created in their universe. They will move and behave accordingly. For example... Spongebob Squarepants, nothing in this world has his anatomy. Nothing moves and behaves as he does in the cartoon world. So the animators have to create new "rules of physics" that apply to him in his world, while keeping in mind that his movements look natural to his anatomy.

Whatever happened to Suspension of Disbelief? Why does everything now have to be overly explained so that it makes "sense". No one questioned anything that Wile E. Coyote did that defied all laws of physics.

There are cases when real world physics do not and can not apply to animation. For example, Art Babbitt's angry walk. The human anatomy does not work the way Art Babbitt animated that walk. But it looks right and awesome.

Here is an example that someone did of Art Babbitt's angry walk, which was taken from Richard William's Animator's Survival Kit book:

Squash and Stretch and smearing inbetweens does not happen in real life as it does in cartoons. But in animation, it's brilliant! In the end try not to over think every little thing, animation is an artistic medium, not everything will be perfect. Perfection is in the imperfection. To prove my point... here is one of my favorite scenes from Disney's Aladdin. The Genie singing "You Never had a Friend Like Me"! The Genie breaks all the real world physic's rules.