Jay Hasrajani's Physics of Animation Blog, Yall.: March 2010

A Gentleman's Duel is a beautiful short animated film created by the amazing Blur Studios. This short film is about a comedic-turned-epic duel between two gentlemen, A British man and a French man, for a lovely and graciously endowed young woman. This short film is executed with amazing art direction and, in turn, a wonderful disregard to the laws of physics in the real world. In A Gentleman's Duel, Entities do not follow the laws of gravity, Forces do not react correctly with each other and the durability of objects and surfaces fluctuate through the film. Furthermore it can be said that although these rules are broken, hey are broken to aid in delivering comedy, and accomplishing a well paced story.

One major flaw that, if applied to the real physical world, would be inexcusable is the fact that some entities do not follow the laws of gravity. This is seen throughout A Gentleman's Duel. In fact, this is established to the audience in the very first scene in the short movie. Before the main title shows up, there is a sequence where a butterfly enters the scene, and is seen by two frogs. These two frogs then suddenly and simultaneously lunge towards the butterfly passer-by, miss, and instantly collide with each other. When they collide they hang in the air for some time and then suddenly fall. Despite this action being physically impossible, it prepares the audience for an animation that will definitely break some rules of physics.
There are several more instances where the law of gravity is shattered. A few of these of these instances is in the scene that introduces the main characters: The two dueling gentlemen, and the beautiful-big-breasted woman they are fighting over. This scene is basically the two men trying to out do each other and convince the woman that she should go with one or the other, and is also chalk full of gravitational inconsistencies. Firstly, when the French Gentleman pulls out a chair for the lady and proceeds to impossibly spin it on one of its legs incredibly fast and stop it at an instant, thereby breaking rules of centrifugal force. Secondly, there is a small physical altercation between the British and French Gentlemen regarding who she should have breakfast with. Due to events that happen within this scene a plant ends of falling on the woman from the roof of the castle they are in front of. The plant should fall at a pretty fast speed, but due to film editing, the plant falls a lot later.

The laws of gravity are not only broken in the early part of the film, they are also broken when the film gets more “real.” In the second act of the short where the duel actually occurs, the mood of the animation changes from a playful cartoonie feel, to a action-packed mech battle. The Gentlemen decide to duel over the woman in giant robotic armor. One of the throws in this scene is especially confusing. The British Gentleman Swings the French Gentleman's Robotic armor around and around and then lets go of it into the Woman's castle. The French Gentleman's Robot is too easy to swing around, and flies to the air too slowly. In fact all of the throws in this act, for the most part, are slowed down for dramatic effect.
One of the last times the rule of gravity is broken is when the French Man decides to launch his tiny pet dog out of his robot and on to the British man. The dog is shot out of the robot at an incredible speed and takes a while to hit it's target. When the dog finally does his it's target, it is largely unaffected. In reality the dog would have been dead on impact and so would the British man.
Officially stated, Newton's Third Law of motion states, “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.” This is a very common law that we witness everyday, with physical actions we make, and everything we witness. Despite this very obvious fact, A Gentleman's Duel bends this rule several times. One simple example is when the British man initiates a duel with the French man with a swift smack of his British glove. In this scene he peels off the tightly fitted glove with the opposite hand, and lightly slaps it across the French man's face, causing the French man's face to react as if it was actually slapped. Despite the fact that the glove was light and could impossibly cause such a physical reaction, the reaction occurred.

Newton's Third Law is broken a few times in the set of scenes that encompass the battle between the two gentle men's Robotic suits of armor. Before the duel the two Gentlemen run in the forest. The camera angle changes and the audience hears giant foot steps returning from out of the thick of the forest and sees the floor shaking, only to be introduced to the menacing weapons of destruction that are the Gentle men's crazy armored robotic suits. This scene not only build up anticipation and wonder within the audience it also establishes the weight of the robots. If the robots are able to shake the ground from a far distance just by walking, it can be assumed they weigh a lot, and therefore they will be able to create powerful physical actions and cause equally powerful reactions.

There is an instance where the British robot is thrown into the castle court yard, and slides to a recovery stance only to have made need tracks in the ground. In reality the damage to the court yard should be much more significant. In fact, there is another instance where the French robot is kicked into the air, falls onto a fountain, and slides to a recovery. During this action sequence the fountain is completely destroyed, and the garden is torn to pieces. This seems to be a much more believable, on the account of the force outputted by the French man's machine.

Despite this, there is another scene where the British robot hurls the French Man's Robot into the castle, making it slam into the castles facade and fall to the ground. The British Man's Robot then proceeds to run towards his fallen foe, jumps off the castle, and preforms and epic suplex-like maneuver which ultimately positions him to slam his foe into the ground with The British Robot's back. This action entails the French Robot smashing into the castle and then falling to the ground, and the British robot also smashing into the castle and then falling on top of the French Robot. In reality the Castle would have been decimated due to the assumed weight that was illustrated to the audience with the footsteps of the robot that shook the ground. Even if the castle were to have been able to withstand the two blows, the ground and the French robot would have been destroyed.

The Last Major Mistake that this short film executed is the fact that the durability of surfaces fluctuate through the film. One of the major surfaces that debuts this heresy is the castle, which was pointed out before. The Castle, is basically not effected despited suffering robots careening into it, using it as a surface to jump off of, and ultimately blowing up in front of it.
A more specific example of the examination of the durability of objects will bring the statues in the initial fight scene between the dueling gentlemen into question. When the robots are introduced, the first blow is given to the British robot from the French Robot. The British Robot is punched and Flies back destroying some cupid statues. The scene cuts to the woman's butler deflecting pieces of the statues that flew in their direction with an umbrella. In the next scene the audience sees the British Robot flinging a piece of the statue within the French Robots Cockpit. So in once instance the statues are heavy enough to shatter and fly through the air but be deflected by a simple umbrella, and at another instance it is able to pierce metal.

The most significant example of the fluctuating durability of surfaced is the robotic suits of armor themselves. These incredible suits of armor are put through the paces through out the film, and it is only the last scene, before they explode, that they debut all the damage that they should have progressively developed. In one instance the British Robot electrocutes the French Robot with out being effected itself despite any hint of the British Man having any grounding whatsoever.
All in all there are many more physics inconsistencies throughout this short film that range from the blatant obvious to the minuscule details. To state that the short film or all films in general should be more realistic and stick closer to the real world physics is to destroy any artistic freedom that aids to tell a story. A Gentleman's Duel is supposed to be fantastical, it is supposed to be absurd, and it is supposed to be funny. The creators of this short would be unable to portray and push their story without having inconsistencies with physics. Even through the gravitational laws are broken, they are broken to provide suspense, pacing, and comedy. If this film was to follow every rule, the outcome would more likely be that of a dumbed down comical experience of the audience.
The fact that this film does not follow how objects should react to each other only give objects character that would not normally have it, and it also enables objects to help with the aesthetics and layout of the scenes. It is a good thing that the ground was not town apart when the British robot slides to a recovery, because then the artists wouldn't be able to show an interesting pose or introduce the environment in the background that will ultimately be the new battle ground for the dueling men. Even if the environment gets destroyed after, it was important for it to be intact initially to appreciate the destruction that followed.
The inconsistencies with the strength of various objects also follow the same trends, in that they are inconsistent because they are simply there to aid the main action, or story. It is comical to see a statue of cupid being flung into a robot's face. It is epic to see a giant metal robotic armor to use a castle as a jump off point to execute an appealing physical action. It is gratifying to see a beautiful organic garden getting destroyed by battling mechanical monsters.
In the end, it is almost as if it is better to break rules rather then follow them to the T. It can be said that to not break the rules of physics is to not write fantastical novels, or screen plays. Pushing the rules is very important in art. For example, when one is figure drawing it is likely to push the pose to debut emotion or character within a random pose. To create artificial lighting within a scene or to change the color scene within a whole movie is executed to push the story or emotion.
A Gentleman's Duel is a short animation that is beautifully executed and also a short animation that break many real-world physical rules. In this short, Entities do not follow the laws of gravity; Forces do not react correctly with each other and; The durability of objects are surfaces fluctuate through the film. Despite this, It is essential for the laws of physics to be broken to push and exaggerate a story to accomplish what this short is aiming for: Comedy.