The laws of physics can be seen in everyday life. Space Jam, for example, is an animated, live action film created by Ivan Reitman and animated by Ron Tippe. Space Jam combines real life and animation to catch people’s curiosity and engagement. In the land of Looney Tunes, a group of tiny space creatures, called the Nerdlucks, land on Earth. The Nerdlucks are sent by their boss, the Swackhammer, to kidnap Bugs Bunny and his friends. The movie takes place on both Earth and planet Looney Tunes where some of the laws of physics are broken.
The Nerdlucks want to take Bugs Bunny and his friends to their planet. In order for Bugs Bunny to stop the Nerdlucks, he challenges them into a basketball game. If the Looney Tunes win, they can stay on Earth, but if the Nerdlucks win, they will have to go to Swackhammer. Bugs Bunny believes that they would win knowing that the aliens are weak and little. However, he soon finds out that the Nerdlucks have the ability to absorb new skills. With these skills, the Nerdlucks absorb the talent from some of the NBA stars in the real world, such as Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, Muggsey Bogues, Larry Johnson, and Shawn Bradley. This allows the Nerdlucks to become very powerful, fast, and big monsters. Realizing what Bugs Bunny has to go against with, he searches for help. He decides to search for Michael Jordan, the most talented basketball player. The Looney Tunes end up catching Michael Jordan to take him to Looney Tunes land, where they explain to him what is the problem. Jordan agrees to help them, but he realizes the Looney Tunes need to practice first.
One of the laws of physics is broken when the Nerdlucks go to Earth. They smash through the ground where they head to Looney Tunes land. In this example, it is clear that in the real world, smashing through the ground would not be possible. Gravity seems to have no effect on the Nerdlucks since they are able to smash the ground with great force. After smashing though the ground, it seems that there is a tunnel connecting Earth and Looney Tunes land. This is unrealistic, and this is where both the real world and the animated world begin to combine. Thinking back to when the Nerdlucks are challenged by Bugs Bunny to a basketball game, they go to the real world to absorb the abilities of five of the NBA stars. The Nerdlucks go to the real world and they go inside the players bodies where they absorb the skills. In this example, we can see that this is not possible since they are animated cartoons. Another example where the laws of physics are broken is when the Nerdlucks transform into super monsters. One of the monsters breaks the ground with the basketball. This is impossible because no one can break the ground with a ball, the ball would end up bouncing off instead of breaking the ground, no matter the pressure. When the Looney Tunes find Michael Jordan in the golf course, they capture him and they suck him in the golf hole, where they transport him into the Looney Tunes land. In this example we see how stretch is used to animate Michael Jordan in order for him to fit in the hole and travel underground. This is obviously breaking the law, because no human can stretch like a cartoon in the real world. If this would follow the laws of physics, Michael Jordan would not be able to fit through a golf hole.
In the next example we see how animation is not affected by gravity. When Jordan meets the Looney Tunes, Daffy Duck sits Jordan on a chair and sends him flying up in the sky. Jordan is then brought down at a high speed but gravity does not affect his free fall. He lands safe with no damage. Later on, Jordan meets the Nerdlucks and discovers who they are. Jordan tells them that he has retired from basketball and the Nerdlucks make fun of him. One of the Nerdluck monsters grabs him with his hands and smashes him turning him into a basketball.
It is clear that this is impossible and can only be done in an animated world. After Jordan agrees to help the Looney Tunes, he sends Bugs Bunny and Duffy to his house to get his basketball gear. In this example we can see how animation and the real world are combined, breaking the laws of physics. Bugs and Duffy are walking underground and they enter Jordan’s house, making the ground move like waves without a trace of damage. In real life, the ground would not be able to move like waves, like an animated scene. After this, Duffy Duck gets attacked by Jordan’s dog and they fight like two cartoon characters. The dog then knocks over a door and grabs Duffy and squeezes him without letting him go. After grabbing Jordan’s gear, they go back to Luney Tunes land where they would start the basketball game.
When Jordan and his team begin to play the game, there are many paths of action that are created in an impossible way. Throughout the game, everyone is jumping creating paths of action without having gravity pulling them down. This allows them to jump from far away and scoring easily. In the real world, this could not be done because gravity would pull the players down without letting them jump long enough. Another example is when the Nerdlucks jump with great power and hang from the basketball rim without breaking it. With that much weight and force the rims would be damage. We can see all kinds of arcs being produced throughout the game where everyone is jumping in a uniform and horizontal motion.
As the game continues, Jordan’s team is getting killed by the Nerdlucks in every way possible. The Nerdlucks are smashing everyone causing them to get injured. All of these animated effects would cause serious damage. With no more players on Jordan’s team, Jordan is forced to put his assistant on his team. When the assistant is put in the game, one of the Nerdlucks squishes him like a bug.
This law of physics is broken with exaggeration because a human is being smashed like a cartoon and does not get physically harmed. When the game is about to end, Jordan breaks the laws of physics and uses animation to stretch his arm from the half court line in order to score the winning point. This is something exaggerated and impossible because only in an animated world can someone stretch their arm that long.
The movie Space Jam breaks all the laws of physics. For this movie, the laws of physics had to be broken in order for the movie to make sense. This movie is an animated/live action movie which requires laws to be purposely broken. The movie is easily understood and the audience responds in a positive way because animation is meant to engage viewers in fictional manner. By including the Looney Tunes, it allowed this movie to be a success, because everyone knows how the Looney Tunes, especially Bugs Bunny, are known for breaking the majority of the laws of physics.
