| Osmosis Jones | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | |
| Written by | Marc Hyman |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Mark Irwin |
| Edited by |
|
| Music by | Randy Edelman |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. Pictures |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $70 million[1] |
| Box office | $14 million[2] |
Osmosis Jones is a 2001 Americanlive-action/animatedbuddy copactioncomedy film directed by theFarrelly brothers and written byMarc Hyman. The film stars the voices ofChris Rock,Laurence Fishburne,David Hyde Pierce,Brandy Norwood andWilliam Shatner, alongsideMolly Shannon,Chris Elliott andBill Murray in live-action roles. It combines live-action sequences directed by the Farrelly Brothers and animated ones directed by Piet Kroon andTom Sito. It follows the titular protagonist, an anthropomorphicwhite blood cell police officer, as he teams up with acold pill to protect his unhealthy human host from a deadlyvirus he unintentionally contracted.
The film premiered on August 7, 2001, and was released theatrically three days later. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the worldbuilding, animation, story and voice performances, but criticized the inconsistent tone of the live-action portions and overuse ofgross-out humor. The film was also acommercial failure, grossing $14 million worldwide against a $70 million budget. Despite the poor financial response, the film became a success on home video and was followed by the animated television seriesOzzy & Drix, which aired onKids' WB for two seasons and twenty-six episodes from 2002 to 2004.
Frank DeTorre is an unkemptzookeeper at the Sucat Memorial Zoo inRhode Island. He copes with his wife Maggie's death by overeating and foregoing basic hygiene, much to his daughter Shane's concern. Inside his body,white blood cell Osmosis "Ozzy" Jones is an overzealous officer of the "Frank Police Department," the body's center for responses against bodily threats.
Facing an election against Tom Colonic, Mayor Phlegmming doubles down on hisjunk food policies, so he could go to a food festival inBuffalo, New York, ignoring its effects on Frank's health. This causes Frank to eat aboiled egg covered in chimp saliva, allowing Thrax, a deadlyvirus known mainly as "The Red Death," to enter his body and inflame his throat. Phlegmming instructs Frank to take a cold pill, Special Agent Drixenol "Drix" Drixobenzometaphedramine, who proceeds to disinfect the throat, covering up evidence of Thrax's arrival. Ozzy is told to assist Drix in his investigation, much to his displeasure. Thrax assumes leadership of a gang of sweat germs and breaks down Frank's mucus dam, nearly killing the duo and causing a runny nose. Ozzy tells Drix how he once caused Frank to vomit on Shane’s teacher Mrs. Boyd at a school science fair after Frank ate a contaminated oyster which led to Frank's dismissal from his previous job and Mrs. Boyd filing arestraining order against him; Frank’s brother Bob had gotten him his job at the zoo and Ozzy was suspended for unnecessary force.
Ozzy and Drix visit Chill, aflu vaccine and aninformant, who directs them to Thrax's hideout in a germ-riddennightclub in a largezit on Frank's forehead. Ozzy goes undercover and infiltrates Thrax's gang, where he learns that Thrax intends to masquerade as acommon cold and use his knowledge ofDNA to kill Frank. When Ozzy is discovered, Drix comes to his aid, causing a brawl which culminates in the zit being popped by a grenade. Itspus lands on Mrs. Boyd's lip during a meeting between her and Frank when he attempts to have the restraining order temporarily lifted so he can attend a school trip with his daughter; in response, Phlegmming closes the investigation, dismisses Ozzy from the police force and orders Drix to leave Frank’s body. Back in the real world, Frank prepares to go to Buffalo, much to Shane's disapproval.
Unbeknownst to the duo, Thrax has survived the zit's destruction and launches a lone assault on thehypothalamus where he steals a crucialnucleotide. He then abducts Phlegmming's secretary, Leah Estrogen, and flees to the mouth to escape. His actions disable the body's ability to regulate the body's internal temperature and Frank develops a dangerousfever. As Frank is hospitalized, Ozzy convinces Drix not to leave and the duo catch up to Thrax and rescue Leah. Thrax induces Frank to sneeze him out of the mouth usingpollen. Drix shoots Ozzy after him and he and Thrax both land on Shane'scornea. As the two battle, they end up on one of Shane'sfalse eyelashes. Ozzy tricks Thrax into getting his hand embedded in the lash and escapes just as it falls into a beaker ofrubbing alcohol, killing Thrax.
As Frank's temperature surpasses108 °F (42 °C), he goes intocardiac arrest. Clinging onto one of Shane's tears as she mourns her father, Ozzy falls back into Frank's mouth with the stolen nucleotide, reviving him just in time. Ozzy is then welcomed back into the police force as he begins a relationship with Leah and Drix stays as Ozzy's new partner, and Frank commits himself to living a healthier lifestyle. Phlegmming is reduced to a janitor in the bowels and is ejected from Frank’s body by flatulence after ignoring a notice not to trigger it.
Twisted Brown Trucker membersKid Rock, Kenny Olsen, Jason Krause,Joe C. (His final public performance), Stefanie Eulinberg,Jimmie "Bones" Trombly, andUncle Kracker provide the voices of the fictional band Kidney Rock.
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Osmosis Jones went throughdevelopment hell during production. The animated sequences, directed byTom Sito and Piet Kroon,[3] went into production as planned even being completed ahead of schedule, but acquiring both a director and a star actor for the live-action sequences took a considerable amount of time, untilBill Murray was cast as the main character of Frank, andPeter andBobby Farrelly stepped in to direct the live-action sequences. As part of their contract, the Farrelly brothers are credited as the primary directors of the film, although they did no supervision of the animated portions of the film.Will Smith was interested in the part of Ozzy, but in the end, his schedule would not permit it.[4]
Principal photography on the live-action scenes took place from April 2 to June 19, 2000, inPlymouth, Massachusetts.
Osmosis Jones was originally rated PG-13 by theMPAA for "crude language" and "bodily humor" in 2000. However, Warner Bros. edited the film to make it family-friendly; and in 2001 when it was released, the film was re-rated PG for "bodily humor".[5]
The first trailer forOsmosis Jones was released in front ofPokémon 3: The Movie on April 6, 2001, and contains a classical masterpiece fromStanley Kubrick's film2001: A Space Odyssey.
Osmosis Jones was released onVHS andDVD on November 13, 2001, byWarner Home Video.
Osmosis Jones had its world premiere screening on August 7, 2001, at theGrauman's Egyptian Theatre before being widely released on August 10, 2001, in 2,305 theaters worldwide. Upon its original release, the film performed poorly, and was the penultimate project produced byWarner Bros. Feature Animation (preceded byThe Iron Giant and followed byLooney Tunes: Back in Action, which both also failed at the box office upon their original releases). The film opened at #7 in its first opening weekend at the U.S. box office, accumulating $5,271,248 on its opening week. The film soon grossed $13,596,911.[1] The film was abox office bomb, unable to recover its $70 million production budget.[6]
OnRotten Tomatoes,Osmosis Jones has an approval rating of 55% based on 112 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The animated portion ofOsmosis is zippy and fun, but the live-action portion is lethargic."[7] OnMetacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[8] Audiences polled byCinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.[9]
The film's animated sections were praised for their plot and fast pace, in contrast with the criticized live-action segments. Robert Koehler ofVariety admired how the animated and live-action segments intermingled: "most extensive interplay of live-action and animation sinceWho Framed Roger Rabbit".[10]Michael Atkinson ofThe Village Voice wrote its "genre satire" was "almostSwiftian": "disastrous physiopathological stats are fodder for glib newscasts." He thought the denouement surrendered "to the big sleep (in an amazingOrdet kind of way)", concluding "not sinceDavid Cronenberg’sRabid has a movie used biological vulnerability to such resonant and anxious profit."[11]NYT wrote "the film, with its effluvia-festival brand of humor, is often fun, and the rounded, blobby rendering of the characters is likable. But the picture tries too hard to be offensive to all ages. I suspect that even the littlest viewers will be too old for that spit."[12]Roger Ebert gave the film 3 out of 4 and wrote: "Likely to entertain kids, who seem to like jokes about anatomical plumbing. For adults, there is the exuberance of the animation and the energy of the whole movie, which is just plain clever."[13]
The use ofgross-out humor in the film's live-action sequences, as seen in most films directed by the Farrelly brothers, was widely criticized. As such, Lisa Alspector of theChicago Reader described the film as a "cathartically disgusting adventure movie".[14] Maitland McDonagh ofTV Guide praised the film's animation and its glimpse of intelligence although did criticize the humor as being "so distasteful".[15] Lisa Schwarzbaum ofEntertainment Weekly felt that the film had a diverse premise as it "oscillates between streaky black comedy and sanitary instruction"; however the scatological themes were again pointed out.[16] Jonathan Foreman ofNew York Post claimedOsmosis Jones to have generic plotting, saying that "It's no funnier than your average grade-school biology lesson and less pedagogically useful than your typical Farrelly brothers comedy."[17] Michael Sragow ofBaltimore Sun praised David Hyde Pierce's performance as Drix, claiming him to be "hilarious" and "a take-charge dose of medicine".[18]
The film also received criticism for its use of theKid Rock song "Cool Daddy, Cool", the full version of which contains lyrics promotingstatutory rape.[19]
The film received numerousAnnie Award nominations includingBest Animated Feature (losing toShrek).[20]
A soundtrack containing hip hop and R&B music was released on August 7, 2001, byAtlantic Records. The soundtrack failed to chart on theBillboard 200, butTrick Daddy's single "Take It to da House" managed to chart to number 88 on theBillboard Hot 100 singles chart.
Ozzy & Drix, an animated series that serves as a stand-alone continuation of the film, starringPhil LaMarr andJeff Bennett as the titular characters, aired onKids' WB for two seasons and 26 episodes from September 14, 2002, to July 5, 2004.
