Character Durability
One thing that the universe of Kuzco
differs in comparison to our own is that the humans of the movies
world are immortal, or to be more precise, they are incredibly
durable in comparison to everything else around them. Early in the
film there is a scene where Pacha and Kuzco fall off a bridge and end
up dangling precariously from rope. Here, a swarm of scorpions crawl
into Pachas back, and in a panic he begins to smash his back against
the side of a cliff. Pacha strikes the rock face with such great
force that the back of his head begins to chip away at the rock face
and even cracks it while suffering no pain or damage what soever.
In another scene, Izma, who is the
emperors adviser, is destroying stone busts of Kuzcos head. She hands
the hammer to her assistant Kronk, but she does this by swinging the
hammer up with the same force she has been using to crush the busts,
and Kronk grabs hold of the handle of the hammer with his bare teeth.
The momentum of the hammer should have ripped Kronks teeth if the
managed to bite down on it as it swung up, and even if his teeth held
in place the force should of tossed his head back.
Near the end of the film, Izma is
turned ito a cat with a magic potion, and while that itself debatable
on whether or not it can be done, while in her cat state she is
smashed between a stone slab of a window cover and a rock wall.
Enough force is applied to squish the cat flat and to cause cracking
in the wall, but Izma suffers no physical damage outside of slight
dizziness.
Gravity: its effects or lack there of
While in our universe gravity is a
force that applies to us all, a gentle force pulling everything
towards the center of the planet, but where our gravity is a constant
force, the gravity of Kuzcos world is delayed to affect things in
free fall, but after a quick second characters in free fall will hit
terminal velocity instantly. When the journey begins for Kuzco and
Pacha, they walk across a rickety bridge held only by weak ropes, and
when the bridge inevitebly collapses right under their feet, both of
these characters are left hanging in mid air without being pulled by
gravity downward. It isnt until a couple of seconds later that the
force of gravity affects them, pulling them down immediately into
terminal velocity without the need of acceleration.
Later, while Izma and Kronk are in hot
pursuit of the two protagonists, they take off in a makeshift flying
contraption to reach across the now bridgeless ravine. Mid way
through their flight, a lighting bolt strikes them, to which they
immediately stop their forward motion (even though it should
technically not affect their momentum), they hang in mid air without
any force to push them forward or downward, and a few seconds later
the worlds gravity finally takes its immediate effect and plunges
down down the cliff at high speeds.
Near the end of the film, Kronk and
Izma become enemies, and Izma opens a trap door right beneath Kronks
feet, and just like every other instance of characters in free fall,
Kronk hangs in mid air for several seconds before plummeting at
terminal velocity downward. The odd thing about this law of physics
in Kyzcos world is that it applies particularly to other characters
in free fall, and not objects. An instance of this is when the cook
at a restaurant quits due to the crazy demands from Kuzco for proper
food, and as he packs his bag everything he throws into the bag fall
slowly and at a constant rate.
Characters out of curves
While on the subject of gravity we can
also look into how everything in motion also retains momentum and a
path of action, but in this particular movie everything moves to
different rules. In this case, things don’t follow such paths of
action, they don't follow through with curves or even obey the
concept of momentum. For example, near the end of the film, Izma (as
a cat) leaps out off a ledge to grab onto a vile filled with some
magical potion. While normally there would be a curved path of action
as the cat falls on an arc, instead, Izma goes forth half way the
arc, reaches the apex, and then stops all motion and while in midair
she plummets to the floor at high speeds, again, at terminal
velocity.
Earlier in the film, Kronk is offered
a cookie, and instead of being handed the cookie it is tossed out in
front of him. Kronk leaps out to grab the cookie with his mouth, and
as he reaches the apex of the curve he stops mid air, ceasing all
forward and downward motion, and after hanging there for a split
second he plummets downward.
Another example of this happens when
there is a group of royal guards who, under the command of Izma,
attack Kuzco and Pacha when they are suddenly turned into animals
with magic. This transformation occurs as the group is sprinting
forward, and once the light clears and the transformation is
complete, it shows them in mid air, motionless, without that forward
motion or coming down from the lunge upward (due to their run
requiring having both feet off the ground, for whatever reason).
After being suspended in this mid air position for a split second,
they fall straight down.
Conclusion
Emperors New Groove is an incredibly
funny and interesting movie, not just in its conception and direction
that is totally strange even for Disney, the fact that it manages to
recreate the laws of physics for its own devices is enlightening. It
has its own laws and rules concerning physics and the things affected
by it to maximize comedy and silliness that is expected and reliable,
allowing us to not simply laugh at strange events and occurrences,
but to predict and totally accept such strange changes in physics as
things that are established and true in this particular world and
thus believe it.
