To start with, motorcycles in this universe have very high momentum. In one scene, Edgar’s (the butler’s) motorcycle goes under an arched bridge and then does several loops, traveling underwater and then around the underside of the bridge and back again. His motorcycle is able to overcome the friction of water and maintain enough speed to do the loop several times.
The minimum speed required to do a loop can be calculated with v = √(rg), where v is velocity, r is radius of the loop in meters and g is the acceleration of gravity. Assuming Edgar is about 6 feet tall (~1.83 meters), this means the radius of the arch is about 3.5 Edgars, or 21 feet (~6.4 meters). So the calculation is √((6.4 m)*(9.8 m/s2)), which comes out to about 7.9 m/s, or 17 miles per hour. This seems like a reasonable speed, but this calculation doesn’t account for the water, which creates additional drag that the motorcycle must overcome. (Unfortunately, it is outside my current skill set to calculate the forces on a loop that’s half-underwater.)
Immediately after this scene, the motorcycle comes out of the river and goes uphill, launching into the air and landing back on the road. Not only does the motorcycle escape the water with enough momentum to make it uphill, it also launches about 18 feet (~5.5 meters) into the air before landing. Given that the height of the apex is about 5.5m, and the angle of the hill is roughly 30 degrees (as shown in the previous shot), we can plug these numbers into the internet and calculate that Edgar has to be leaving the edge of the hill at about 20.77 m/s, or 46 miles per hour. To be traveling this fast uphill from water means that the motorcycle must have immense horsepower.
In a later scene, the motorcycle collides with a giant windmill, pushing it about 66 feet, which is about 20.1 meters, or 11 Edgars. Now, there are many variables here, such as the mass of Edgar and the motorcycle, the mass of the windmill, and the friction of the possibly wet dirt the windmill is sitting on. However, it’s pretty clear that, at least in our universe, there would be no way a small motorcycle could push a large windmill that far without either an immense amount of force, or some extraneous circumstances.
One competing theory would be that motorcycles in this universe are affected by gravity non-uniformly. When Edgar launches off the hill, the timing of the arc is mismatched — he is slower on the way up and faster on the way down. This could mean that the motorcycle is affected by gravity differently depending on the direction of its velocity. That is to say, when going up, gravity affects it less, and when going down, gravity affects it more. This could also explain how the motorcycle could easily clear the loop coming out of water.
The next difference in this universe is that suspenders are made with ridiculously high tensile strength. When Georges, the old yet chipper man, trips on a flight of stairs and catches onto edgar’s waistband, he is able to fall a bit before rebounding back up. Since the average weight for a 70-year-old-man seems to be around 160 pounds, the suspenders have to be able to carry that much weight without snapping. They also need to have enough strength to retain its elasticity, as Edgar’s suspenders don’t appear stretched out or loose later on. The more extreme example of this is when, during a chase sequence, Edgar’s suspenders get caught between the motorcycle and its carriage as they move in opposite directions. This is essentially double the force of the motorcycle, and the suspenders still manage to slow the carriage down completely without snapping or becoming loose.
Finally, air resistance appears to have different properties in this universe. While normally, the force of air resistance increases the faster something is going, in this universe it appears that the opposite is true. During the chase sequence, one of the dogs is launched, rebounds off a tree, and hits edgar with enough force to dead-stop right over the motorcycle. Edgar is then flung through the air at, assumedly, roughly the same speed as the motorcycle in the opposite direction. When he pulls out his umbrella, the force of air resistance on the umbrella is enough to slow him down, but no enough that is causes the umbrella to collapse. Later, when Edgar and one of the dogs fall off the top of the windmill, the umbrella is able to slow them both down without collapsing. However, in both cases, once Edgar is already slowed down, the umbrella then turns inside out. This implies that the force of air resistance in this universe could be less when an object is going faster and more when an object is going slower.
While this film is relatively realistic compared to other animated films, it still occasionally breaks the laws of physics for comedic and story purposes. This is however, the nature of animation. It’s allowed to do what it does because it can deviate from the limitations of live-action. Even then, animated films have to stay rooted in some kind of reality similar to our own, in order to “feel right” for the audience. While animation can break the laws of physics, as long as they are consistent, the animation is allowed to do anything.
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