Osmosis Jones

Osmosis Jones is a 2001 American live-action/animated action comedy film written by Marc Hyman. Combining live-action sequences directed by the Farrelly brothers and animation directed by Piet Kroon and Tom Sito, the film stars the voices of Chris Rock, Laurence Fishburne, David Hyde Pierce, Brandy Norwood, and William Shatner alongside Molly Shannon, Chris Elliott, and Bill Murray in live-action roles. It follows the title character, an anthropomorphic white blood cell, as he teams up with a cold pill to protect his unhealthy human host from a villainous, highly contagious virus called "the Red Death".

The film premiered on August 7, 2001, and was released theatrically three days later. It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the world building, the animation, story, and voice performances, but criticized the inconsistent tone of the live-action portions and overuse of gross-out humor. The film was also a commercial failure, grossing $14 million worldwide against a $70 million budget. Despite the poor financial response, in 2002 the film was followed by the animated television series Ozzy & Drix, which aired on Kids' WB for two seasons and 26 episodes from 2002 to 2004.

Plot
Frank DeTorre is an unkempt zookeeper at the Sucat Memorial Zoo in Rhode Island. Depressed by his wife Maggie's death, he copes by overeating and foregoing basic hygiene, much to his daughter Shane's concern. Inside his body, which is called the "City of Frank" by its inhabitants," white blood cell Osmosis "Ozzy" Jones is an overzealous officer of the Frank Police Department, the city's center for responses against bodily threats.

Facing an election against Tom Colonic, Mayor Phlegmming doubles down on his junk food policies, ignoring their effect on Frank's health. This causes Frank to eat a boiled egg covered in chimp saliva, allowing Thrax, a deadly virus known as "The Red Death," to enter the throat. Phlegmming instructs Frank to take a cold pill through brain signals. The pill, Drixenol "Drix" Koldreliff, 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 launches an attack on Frank's mucus dam, nearly killing Drix before Ozzy rescues him. Ozzy mentioned to Drix how he once caused Frank to vomit against orders, which led to Frank being dismissed from his previous job and getting a restraining order filed by Shane's teacher Mrs. Boyd. His brother Bob got him a job at the Zoo and Ozzy was suspended for unnecessary force.

The two pay a visit to Chill, a flu vaccine and one of Ozzy's informants, who directs them to Thrax's hideout in a germ-ridden nightclub in a large zit on Frank's forehead. Ozzy goes undercover and infiltrates Thrax's gang, where he learns that Thrax, wanting his own chapter in the medical history books, intends to masquerade as a common cold and use his knowledge of DNA 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. The pus lands on Shane's teacher Mrs. Boyd's lip during a meeting with her and Frank; in response, Phlegmming closes the investigation, dismisses Ozzy from the force and orders Drix to leave.

Unbeknownst to the duo, Thrax has survived the zit's destruction and, after killing his remaining henchmen, launches a lone assault on the hypothalamus where he steals a crucial nucleotide. He then abducts Phlegmming's secretary, Leah Estrogen, and flees to the mouth to escape. His actions disable the body's ability to regulate temperature and Frank develops a dangerous fever. As Frank is hospitalized, Ozzy convinces Drix not to leave and the two catch up to Thrax and rescue Leah. Thrax induces Frank to sneeze him out of the mouth using pollen. Drix shoots Ozzy out of the mouth and he and Thrax both land on Shane's cornea. As the two battle, they end up on one of Shane's false eyelashes. Ozzy tricks Thrax into getting his hand embedded in the lash and escapes just as it falls into a beaker of rubbing alcohol, killing Thrax.

As Frank's temperature surpasses 108 F, he goes into cardiac 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.

Frank commits himself to living a healthier lifestyle. Phlegmming is now a janitor in the bowels, where he accidentally triggers Frank's flatulence.

Cast

 * Bill Murray as Francis "Frank" DeTorri, Shane's widowed father and Bob's brother, in whom Ozzy and his friends live.
 * Molly Shannon as Mrs. Boyd, Shane's science and gym teacher.
 * Chris Elliott as Robert "Bob" DeTorri, Frank's brother and Shane's uncle.
 * Elena Franklin as Shane DeTorri, Frank's 10-year-old daughter and Bob's niece.
 * Danny Murphy as the zookeeper superintendent
 * Jack McCullough as a zookeeper

Voices

 * Chris Rock as Osmosis "Ozzy" Jones, a quick-witted white blood cell with an impulsive personality.
 * Laurence Fishburne as Thrax, a villainous and deadly virus.
 * David Hyde Pierce as Special Agent Drixenol "Drix" Drixobenzometaphedramine, a by-the-book cold pill who becomes Ozzy's best friend and partner.
 * Brandy Norwood as Leah Estrogen, Mayor Phlegmming's secretary and Ozzy's love interest.
 * William Shatner as Mayor Phlegmming, the arrogant, incompetent and corrupt mayor of the City of Frank.
 * Ron Howard as Tom Colonic, Phlegmming's rival for the mayor of the City of Frank who promotes good health for Frank in his campaign.
 * Joel Silver as the police chief of the Frank Police Department (uncredited)

Twisted Brown Trucker members Kid Rock, Kenny Olsen, Jason Krause, Joe C., Stefanie Eulinberg, Jimmie "Bones" Trombly, and Uncle Kracker provide the voices of the fictional band "Kidney Rock".

Additional voices are provided by Jonathan Adams, Carlos Alazraqui, Keith Anthony, Eddie Barth, Sally Brooks, Rodger Bumpass, Michael Carvan, Paul Christie, Janis Dadaris, Wendy Dillon, Antonio Fargas, Eddie Frierson, Donald Fullilove, Jackie Gonneau, Shannon Gregory, Richard Steven Horvitz, Rif Hutton, Art Kimbro, Joyce Kurtz, Anne Lockhart, Sherry Lynn, Danny Mann, Mickie McGowan, "Stuttering" John Melendez, Hector Mercado, Paul Pape, Marilyn Paskoff, Chris Phillips, Lynn Redding, Al Rodrigo, Herschel Sparber, Doug Stone, Steve Susskind, Keri Tombazian, Paul Tuerpe, and Robert Wisdom.

Production
Osmosis Jones went through development hell during production. The animated sequences, directed by Tom Sito and Piet Kroon, 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, until Bill Murray was cast as the main character of Frank, and Peter and Bobby 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.

Principal photography on the live-action scenes took place from April 2 to June 19, 2000 in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

Osmosis Jones was originally rated PG-13 by the MPAA 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 on appeal for "bodily humor".

Marketing
The first trailer for Osmosis Jones was released in front of Pokémon 3: The Movie on April 6, 2001, and contains a classical masterpiece from Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Home media
Osmosis Jones was released on VHS and DVD on November 13, 2001.

Box office
Osmosis Jones had its world premiere screening on August 7, 2001, at the Grauman's Egyptian Theatre before being widely released on August 10, 2001, in 2,305 theaters worldwide. Upon its original release, the film was a financial stump and was the penultimate project produced by Warner Bros. Feature Animation (preceded by The Iron Giant and followed by Looney 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. The film was a box office bomb, unable to recover its $70 million production budget.

Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, Osmosis Jones has an approval rating of 56% based on 111 reviews, with an average rating of 5.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "The animated portion of Osmosis is zippy and fun, but the live-action portion is lethargic." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 57 out of 100, based on 28 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B−" on an A+ to F scale.

The animated parts of Osmosis Jones were praised for their plot and fast pace, in contrast with the criticized live-action segments. Robert Koehler of Variety praised the film for its animated and live-action segments intervening, claiming it to be "the most extensive interplay of live-action and animation since Who Framed Roger Rabbit". The New York Times 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." 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."

The use of gross-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 the Chicago Reader described the film as a "cathartically disgusting adventure movie". Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide praised the film's animation and its glimpse of intelligence although did criticize the humor as being "so distasteful". Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment 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. Jonathan Foreman of New York Post claimed Osmosis 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." Michael Sragow of Baltimore Sun praised David Hyde Pierce's performance as Drix, claiming him to be "hilarious" and "a take-charge dose of medicine".

The film also received criticism for its use of the song by Kid Rock, "Cool Daddy, Cool", where he proclaims his sexual attraction to children with the lyrics "Young ladies, young ladies, I like ’em underage see, some say that’s statutory (But I say it’s mandatory).

The film received numerous Annie Award nomin,ations including Best Animated Feature (losing to Shrek).

Soundtrack
A soundtrack containing hip hop and R&B music was released on August 7, 2001, by Atlantic Records. The soundtrack failed to chart on the Billboard 200, but Trick Daddy's single "Take It to da House" managed to make it to number 88 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart.

Television series
Ozzy & Drix, an animated series that serves as a stand-alone continuation of the film, starring Phil LaMarr and Jeff Bennett as the titular characters, aired on Kids' WB for two seasons and 26 episodes from September 14, 2002 to July 5, 2004.