The Design of Whoville
The Christmas Season is a great time for traditions. I hope you have a few and if you don’t, you should.
One of the traditions our family has is watching “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Not the remake, or the new remake, but the animation of the classic, original, Dr. Seuss book of the same name, along with some very memorable songs.
Some would say that animated movies and films, after multiple viewings, become repetitive and boring, like the 10th time watching Frozen. But I disagree. At least in part. If one watches these films in the exact same way each time, they can become repetitive. But when watching from a new angle, or with new eyes, as it were, one can enjoy the same film multiple times, even if it’s a cartoon.
When it comes to “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” I’ve already watched it for the message, the comedy, the lessons, the plot holes, the lyrics, and the blunders. Lately, I watch it through the eyes of a designer and engineer critically assessing the designs of the toys of all the small, Who-children, and pondering on how many laws of physics are broken in the short half-hour movie. I appreciate the creativity and innovation that the animators demonstrated through some really neat drawings, which sometimes only last a few seconds. Finally, contemplating how the directors, animators, and producers reused the same animated frames to compose and assemble a sequence of clips is fascinating. I’ve never taken a formal course in animation video production but it’s fun to think about how they put the movie together many decades ago, before advanced computer software tools. Back in the day, I think cleverness was more desirable, which has been replaced with the current strategy of throwing more computational power at a problem.
Regardless, I think there is still more to notice and watch before I move onto the Grinch remakes. Based on the trailers, which I have seen, I remain content with the original. At least for now.
So, in celebration of the Christmas Season, and through the lens of a design engineer, I share a few thoughts from this short film which you may or may not have completely appreciated before.
1. I’ve been able to dive a little deeper into understanding mechanisms these last few months: cams, followers, beveled gears, bearings, brakes, etc. In “How the Grinch stole Christmas” there is a daydream the Grinch has of a number of (noisy) toys that the Who Children might play with on Christmas morning. There are some really weird ones, but a few caught my eye and I started trying to figure out if the mechanism could be made in the real world. One of them is a bicycle that fits six people. In the film, the four middle Who-children are bounced, or translated, up and down in their seats as the little boy in blue at the back does all the work to push the bicycle forward. The big red kid at the front just sits there the whole time. There isn’t a lot of gearing (okay, none that I can see) so the Who-in-blue would have to pump many times for the front tire to rotate once. Furthermore, the apparent rotational motion, translated into up-and-down motion for the middle group, might apply a cam of some sort but there isn’t a lot of volume for such a device. Also, I have no idea how the rotary motion from the back wheel is projected up to the four bouncing seats. There is no mechanism to convert it from the front wheel either.
2. Another Who-toy is a complicated, multi-musical instrument tricycle with two wheels up front like a Slingshot motorcycle (see below). It’s hard to see in this still image (It’s fairly low resbut the instrument holds five musicians and the conductor in the front, on three fairly small wheels. Based on the apparent size of the bell of the Tuba-like instrument, it seems the center of gravity would be to the left of the front wheel set. The moment arm and mass would result in a torque which would drop the music director into the ground. But this makes assumptions about the density of the instrument and the weight of all the Who-children which might make this feasible. What seems highly infeasible, though, is that four musicians are blowing into the same apparatus. I’m guessing the pressure would have to be just perfect at each of these locations for a pleasant sound to emerge. However, that sound would be at only one tonality. Why? Because I see no method for them to change the size or length of the tube. Last time I check, that’s an essential element for different frequencies coming from the same tube or pipe. Maybe there are some internal values that make it all possible… But, if there is just one tone that’s produced from this, why have the conductor? I might agree with the Grinch on this one: that one frequency or tone would be an annoying noise after a few minutes. Think of listening to fog horn all Christmas Morning. Oh, and the drum and triangle would be a short-lived distraction, too.
3. The great feast in which the Whos partake (at least in the Grinch’s daydream) has some creative platters and methods of serving the food. (Not many are very efficient…) You should rewatch them all but the following one stuck out in my mind as quite dangerous and almost completely dysfunctional. There is a massive Jello tower on top of a unicycle-esque device, not completely unlike an inverted pendulum. Yes, the whole system is sitting at an equilibrium point, but it’s not at a stable equilibrium point. It’s kind of like a segway. That Jello tower would be tipping over in micro-seconds based on how much it’s shaking (in the animation). There is a little “wire” that the server is using to control the motion, but it would only reduce the degrees of freedom by one (assuming it was strong enough). The left to right motion would be hard to control. In reality, this little chef would have Jello all over his face before he reached the table. And yes, his eyes are closed. The hubris!
4. It’s no surprise that physical laws are often broken in cartoons and other non-natural responses make their way into animations, especially before the advent of physics engines in computer renderers. The following stack of cans, literally thrown together by the Grinch while cleaning out a fridge s one of my favorites. There is another unlikely equilibrium found with the top can balancing precariously on top of an arch of cans. But that’s not the biggest problem. I take issue with the geometry of the arch of cans itself. The lid of one can (the red one) is completely visible and yet it appears below the edge of the yellow can. Take a look. It’s a small detail but as an engineer and someone who uses CAD and has some spatial intelligence, the infraction is fun to notice. I wouldn’t even require the animators to fix it. It’s a problem that hardly anyone notices or even cares about, but those that have an engineering design eye to see it will enjoy it.
5. This last one is included because even as a little boy I laughed at the silly physics even before I knew what physics was. In this scene the sled is full to overflowing of all things Christmas from Whoville and is sliding down the peak of Mount Crumpit (to dump it). You’ll have to watch the animated version to appreciate my comments, but there are a lot of impossible events that occur including the sled not falling (even though the Grinch is nowhere near the peak), the Grinch catching the sled and then holding onto it while sliding down for many seconds, the Grinch’s heart growing three sizes, and then Grinch caps it off with superhuman strength by lifting the sled over his head. It’s humorous - preposterous, yes – but humorous.
Even though my experience and education have allowed me to notice the inaccuracies and Newtonian- law-breaking animation sequences in movies and films, the animators and designers of Whoville did a fabulous job. Now I can enjoy it even more. It’s rare that a movie can be watched so many times and still let an engineer enjoy it.
Regardless of which movie you watch this Christmas Season, with a cousin, a child, a friend, a spouse, I hope it brings joy and a little laughter to your designer’s mind.
Merry Christmas!
