Bubble Boy
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| Bubble Boy | |
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| Directed by | Blair Hayes |
| Produced by | Beau Flynn Eric McLeod |
| Written by | Cinco Paul Ken Daurio |
| Starring | Jake Gyllenhaal Swoosie Kurtz Marley Shelton Danny Trejo John Carroll Lynch Verne Troyer |
| Distributed by | Touchstone Pictures |
| Release date(s) | August 24, 2001 (USA) |
| Running time | 84 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $13,000,000 (estimated) |
| IMDb profile | |
- For other uses, see Bubble boy (disambiguation).
Bubble Boy is a 2001 comedy film directed by Blair Hayes and stars Jake Gyllenhaal in the title role.
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[edit] Tagline
Life is an adventure. Don't blow it.
[edit] Cast
- Jake Gyllenhaal as Jimmy Livingston
- Swoosie Kurtz as Mrs. Livingston
- Marley Shelton as Chloe
- Danny Trejo as Slim
- John Carroll Lynch as Mr. Livingston
- Verne Troyer as Dr. Phreak
- Dave Sheridan as Mark
- Brian George as Pushpop
- Patrick Cranshaw as Pappy/Pippy
- Stephen Spinella as Chicken Man
- Ever Carradine as Lisa
- Geoffrey Arend as Flipper Boy
- Beetlejuice as Lil' Zip
- Matthew McGrory as Human Sasquatch
- Bonnie Morgan as Rubber Woman
- Stacy Keibler as Working Girl
[edit] Plot
The story revolves around a boy named Jimmy Livingston, who was born without an immune system. Because of this, he is forced to live in a bubble dome in his bedroom, which earned him the nickname Bubble Boy by the students at a local high school. Also, because of his condition, Jimmy's extremely religious mother, Mrs. Livingston, forbids him to leave the bubble dome, only allowing him to read the magazine Highlights and watch the show Land of the Lost. When the new girl next door, Chloe, moves in, Jimmy is immediately overtaken by her beauty. They immediately become friends, doing nearly everything together (much to Mrs. Livingston's jealousy). Then, one day, Chloe tells him that she is going to get married at Niagra Falls, to Mark, the man who always ridiculed Jimmy. Jimmy becomes irritated, and commands her to leave. Furious and guilty at the same time, Chloe leaves him a present and disappears. Jimmy opens the present, revealing a snow globe that says "I Love You". Guilty of what he had just done, Jimmy builds a mobile bubble suit and sneaks off into the night, determined to stop the wedding.
Throughout the journey to Niagra Falls, Jimmy meets many zany and odd people, such as the Bright and Shiny cult, The Dr. Phreak travelling sideshow circus, Slim the biker and his gang of motorcyclists, Pushpop the Indian ice cream man, and many more. In the end, Jimmy stops the wedding, and takes off his Bubble suit. It was finally revealed that Jimmy had an immune system all along, but his mother wanted to keep him all to herself due to her overprotective nature. Jimmy forgives her, grabs Chloe, and kisses her. Jimmy and Chloe get married, an event so grand that all the characters that were featured attend.
[edit] Criticism
Bubble Boy approaches all the different characters through the use of parody and satirical characterizations. The film was heavily criticized upon its release, partly because it makes light of a real-world condition, and partly because of the way various religions are depicted. Some examples of the latter are: the bubble boy's mother, an extreme Christian who even has a cross shaped cookie cutter; the Hindu ice cream man who attempts an atonement while a cow's carcass is repeatedly run over in front of his eyes; the Bright and Shiny cult, which seems to parody the Heaven's Gate cult, as it involves castration and being taken away by aliens.
[edit] Trivia
- The film is a comedy, but its main character is based partly on Ted DeVita and David Vetter, two boys in the 1970s who were forced to live without human contact and who inspired a film with John Travolta, The Boy in the Plastic Bubble.
- Bubble Boy features two different members of the Howard Stern Wack Pack in supporting roles. Beetlejuice, who is probably the most prolific packer of all, plays the character Lil' Zip. The late, somewhat less known, but more mainstream Matthew McGrory, who was known as "Bigfoot" on the Stern show, plays what must be an intentionally similar named character, Human Sasquatch, in the movie.
- This feature was filmed using Panavision cameras. The type of motion picture film format that was used was Super 35 mm film.[1]
