Outline for the First Term Paper

In this essay, I will be talking about the physical laws in Chicken Run. As a claymation, it has the best of both worlds: the appearance of reality (since most of the props are real, besides the sculpted characters) and the cartoony feel of animation, which makes for great entertainment.

But which parts are exaggerated for entertainment and which are stretched for the sake of storytelling and animators’ convenience? In this particular feature, where the world of chickens exists side by side with the world of humans, the scenes that obey the factual laws and those that are “tweaked” are intermixed for proper affect.

            First, the laws of gravity are the same as in the real world. We see many examples of it by seeing the farmer and his wife going through the motions much the same way as we would expect any human actors on screen. The car pulling up, heavy machinery falling, resistance when handling heavy objects as opposed to light ones – all show that there is a gravitation pull.

            Second, we see that the reaction is always equal to the action. Things fall down naturally, characters collide when pushed around, etc. (Examples: around the chicken feed, defending against the farmer, building the flying machine - hammering nails, cutting fabric, handling tools, etc)

This established law is broken in more than one scene, primarily for entertainment value and the pacing of the action. For example, several catapult scenes, exaggerated flops, spins, kicks, etc. Some things come too hard, others are too easy.

Third, the flying principle follows the normal number of frames. When objects are tossed around, when characters are thrown through the air, and the final flying machine sequence, all display the eye’s natural perception of flying on screen.

This law is broken as well in a few scenes that emphasize the importance of that moment in the story. There, either the character or the background slows down to a fairly readable rate, where the viewer can easily perceive the action. (Examples include Rockies first entrance, Ginger and Mrs Tweedy hanging by the rope in the end, and a number of small scenes.)

Overall, both following the scientific principles and overlooking them creates a great visual!