For the second term paper, I will be considering the classic principle of Action-Reaction, specifically of how exceptionally large and heavy objects seem unnaturally light in their behavior, and how small and light things seem to do unbelievable amounts of work for their size and weight.
Take for instance the Iron Giant. The animation is flawless, moreover, exemplary, so that our disbelief is suspended almost throughout the entire time. However, there is more than one sequence which makes us doubt as to how a creature that size could move with such facility. The scene that comes to mind in this case is about two thirds of the way through the film, where the giant dives into the lake after the boy, Hogarth. A metallic monster of that size is not likely to jump that quickly, hover through the air that slowly and then make a splash that would only occur after a really big fish. If that is not enough, there are plenty of car chases and people chases through the unharmed streets that would support the same idea.
In the second place we have the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, which is mostly all battle scenes, and most of those are falling heavy objects. However, it’s the scene where the two hobbits are carried on the shoulders of the ent (tree person) that doesn’t make sense visually: the background is too slow, and the survival of the poor hobbits is questionable.
Continuing with the family genre, we see a similar thing happening in Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, where a mighty warrior in the shape of a mouse is able to knock down several grown men and more in the space of a few seconds, being about five times less their size and weight. In this case, the action reaction principle is reversed, as it applies to a smaller object having by far the superior power: legendary as he may be, the mouse would never be able to defend against an army in this world or Narnia.
In short, the action reaction principle is there, whether we take time to look for it or not. It is the thing most of us love to criticize in animation as well as live action, no matter how enjoyable the film.
Outline looks good but it sounds like the principle that's being violated in your examples is Newton's second law, the Principle of Acceleration, that tells us about how the timing of motion depend on the force. The action/reaction principle typically describes the motion of *two* objects, one receiving the action force and the other object the reaction. Re-read the lecture notes on those topics before you start your paper.
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