The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe: Aladdin
Magic is as deeply ingrained into storytelling as that particular verbal art form is to humanity. Hundreds of thousands of stories told all across the world throughout the centuries utilize this deeply imaginative, freeing, and fantastic element. In our current day-and-age, Disney would perhaps be considered one of America’s greatest tellers of magical stories, and the 1992 film Aladdin presents itself in a unique way. What is it about this movie that makes it stand out amongst the hundreds of other supernaturally-powered films? Quite simply, it is the way in which the physics in that animated world work. In the film Aladdin, gravity, squash and stretch, and the presence of magic appear and affect different characters with great variation in order to tell a richly vibrant, comedic tale that feels both extraordinarily magical yet relatable.
The main human characters Aladdin and Jasmine are the most limited in their interactions with the laws of gravity and squash and stretch. Occasionally though, Aladdin is shown to possess far-above-normal levels of agility when presented as the slick, street-smart hero that he is. In just the the initial scene in which he is introduced, he completes a flawless backflip with ease, moves quickly and with great fluidity, and soars on a regular carpet to soar out of a window and parachute gently to the ground in a cute form of foreshadowing that simultaneously paints him for a moment as practically weightless. However, the manner in which he usually carries himself demonstrates that he has a constant, grounding mass. When Aladdin is caught by the palace guard’s vigorous grasp, or within Jafar’s snake-form’s coils, he does not exhibit much squash and stretch whatsoever. While he is certainly capable of much more physically rigorous actions than most characters, it is quite clear that he also has strict limitations when it comes to gravity and the malleability of his own physique.
If Aladdin was clearly more limited than the rest of the cast mentioned so far, Jasmine is even more so. Although her beautiful hair has a fine, weightless quality to it as it twirls, bounces, and ultimately defies its fullness, her physical up-and-down motion does not bend the real world’s laws of gravity as present in many of the other characters, and she certainly does not show the exaggerated squash and stretch. She remains one of the more realistic, relatable characters of the film, serving as a contrast that aids in blending the magical and the ordinary.
In contrast, comic relief characters take the most notable liberties with the laws of gravity and squash and stretch. Aladdin’s sidekick Abu hangs in the air more than a few times after finding himself in especially compromising situations. One of the more apparent example of how this character defines his own relationship with gravity is during the scene within the Cave of Wonders, when he is overwhelmed by the seemingly infinite number of riches that generously litter the cavern’s floor and pounces uncontrollably before stopping himself in midair. In other scenes, particularly when he is eating, terrified, or experiencing any other extreme emotion, his actions and physical features are wildly exaggerated in such a way that the squash and stretch of his own physique appears almost magical.
Another humorous character with a fantastic amount of examples with the two previously mentioned physics focal points is Iago. Although being a parrot, Iago takes the most entertaining advantage of his ability to fly by flapping with one wing and on occasion, gesturing simultaneously with the other. Iago actually suffers a great deal more physically than any of the other characters. Throughout the film he is squashed within a door, slammed into a wall, and thrown to the ground with greatly exaggerated cartoon vigor before popping back to his usual shape. Additionally, there is one scene in particular where he is accidentally caught in the mechanisms of a magical machine of Jafar’s, which stretches, exaggerates, even temporarily disfigures him without any lasting damage. The extreme malleability of this otherwise solid character knows little limitations for the sake of greatly fun comedy.
Some other incredibly entertaining characters to watch due to their interactions with gravity and squash and stretch is the Sultan and the group of palace guards. The Sultan floats with the ease of a playground ball, which is simultaneously fitting and totally contradictory to expectation based on his rotund shape. In other scenes, particularly the snippet towards the very end of “Prince Ali,” he squashes comfortably and with a neat bounciness into a lavish throne in such a way that is specifically unique to his character. As for the palace guards, they play with the laws of gravity and squash and stretch by their own rules. The most notable examples is during the song “One Jump Ahead” where the audience has the opportunity to witness their full interaction with the world around them. Throughout this single scene, they compress cartoonishly after landing on top of other characters, throw items in an impossibly straight line, and, as a group, take a leap out of a window more-or-less at the same time in a mad attempt to grab Aladdin, yet fall in noticeably different intervals and with exaggerated stretchiness.
As for the most extraordinary aspect of this film’s physics, which also breaks even the most generously lax physical rules for the other characters, is the lavish and practically limitless type of magic presented here. The Genie clearly is the greatest example by taking on the forms and appearances of a whole slew of people and objects found under the sun. While he is clearly tangible and weighted (there are multiple instances of physical interactions between himself and other characters), he is simultaneously ephemeral, unmeasurable, and light as a feather. Each persona and that he recreates follows its own set of rules depending on what it is, such as the heavy pile of baklava he creates out of thin air and pours out of a hat, or the almost weightless Three Amigo-type characters he transforms into that effortlessly slide on top of one another. Similarly, Magic Carpet stays true to its name by floating and soaring through the air, and the Cave of Wonders assembles itself with no perceivable physical force to reveal an immense cavern within the otherwise nondescript desert sands. Although these are perhaps some of the most noticeable aspects of this magic, there are countless other examples which would further illustrate just how extravagant the magic works.
While this film deals in the wildly imaginative and almost infinite forms of magic, it also references and caricatures the laws of physics of the real world. Gravity and squash and stretch is handled in Aladdin in a way that is both fascinating and unique. Interestingly, it is used with a great deal of variety amongst the cast of characters, with the comic relief characters at one end of the spectrum and the human heroes practically at the polar opposite. Although this may sound as though the film would appear inconsistent, it instead adds to the breadth of the film and makes the movie as a whole feel more cohesive and less jarring with the magical aspect of the film. Each character follows a special set of physical limitations, which range from common and realistic to delightfully impossible in order to make almost limitless magic feel significantly less out-of-place. Once the extent of the supernatural powers exhibit themselves in the film in a way that smashes all the physical limitations of the other characters, it not only feels believable, but natural for the movie. Aladdin certainly succeeds in telling a fresh, relatable, yet exciting story through its widely-diverse interpretations of gravity, squash and stretch, and magic.
