Osmosis Jones

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Osmosis Jones

Movie poster for "Osmosis Jones"
Directed by Bobby Farrelly
Peter Farrelly
Produced by Dennis Edwards
Bobby Farrelly
Peter Farrelly
Zak Penn
Bradley Thomas
Written by Marc Hyman
Starring Bill Murray
Laurence Fishburne
Chris Rock
Brandy Norwood
Music by Randy Edelman
Distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date(s) August 7, 2001
Running time 95 min.
Language English
Budget $75 million
IMDb profile

Osmosis Jones (2001) is a part animated, part live action film whose title character is Osmosis Jones, an anthropomorphic white blood cell. Unusual for this genre, the live action characters and cartoon characters never meet. The live action characters are people as they appear in the real world, and the animated characters are the cells and germs which live inside a man named Frank, whom the story concerns. A TV spinoff has been created named Ozzy & Drix, which concerns the two characters of the same name.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details about Osmosis Jones follow.

Frank is a slovenly zookeeper. Much to the frustration of his young daughter Shane, he eats and drinks compulsively and has no regard for germs or diseases. Early on, as a follower of the "ten second rule", to Shane's disgust, he consumes a hard-boiled egg that was covered in filth from the straw within the chimpanzees' enclosure. He had earlier been fighting for possession of the egg against one of the apes.

Inside Frank's body, another story unfolds. Osmosis Jones works as a member of Immunity, Frank's immune system, as a white blood cell. He is a rebel cop, rarely doing what his chief tells him to. Meanwhile, Mayor Phlegmming is preparing for re-election, campaigning with the promise of more junk food (much to the joy of the citizens in the Love Handle District). The Mayor's reckless policies are largely responsible for Frank's deteriorating health. However, his re-election hopes are complicated by the arrival of Thrax, a deadly virus that came in with the egg. In an attempt to cover up the severity (after Frank gets a throatache) of the situation, Phlegmming tells Frank to take a cold pill. The pill, Drix (short for Drixenol), arrives in the body and covers Frank's throat with ice to cover the irritation. Osmosis Jones becomes his partner. Soon, they unravel Thrax's plot to masquerade as the common cold while at the same time plotting to overheat Frank's body, killing him from the inside out. Thrax is motivated by trying to become the nastiest new virus, attempting to kill each new victim faster than the previous. His grandiose plan for Frank is death in 48 hours, breaking previous medical records. .

Thrax.
Thrax.

Osmosis and Drix confront Thrax in one of Frank's zits. Drix launches a grenade of medication at Thrax and his cronies, popping the skin blemish, and seemingly ending Thrax's siege. To hide the truth, Phlegmming forces Drix to leave and fires Osmosis, who insists that Thrax was more than the common cold. Osmosis' prediction rings true as Thrax was able to survive the explosion and decides to launch a one-man assault on Frank's hypothalamus.

Frank goes to the hospital because of Thrax. Ozzy and Thrax fight directly. In the process, Thrax escapes and leaves Frank's mouth. Drix launches Ozzy afrter Trax and they are both thrown onto one of Shane's false eyelashes, which she was wearing atop her natural ones. Ozzy and Thrax face in the final battle. Thrax punches Ozzy's gut. Ozzy reveales that Thrax's fist went through him and is able to escape; Thrax accidentley knocks down Shane's false eyelashes falls into a vessel of alcohol below which destroys him. Frank is revived. Phlemming loses position as mayor and is finally ejected from the body via its rectum.

Interlaced with the main plot are several live action sequences that detail Frank's troublesome relationship with Shane outside the body. Her mother died at an early age, and we might speculate Frank has deteriorated as a result of depression caused by attachment. Frank humiliated Shane's teacher, Mrs. Boyd, during a science fair, in which after he ate another student's oyster experiment, Ozzy, patrolling the stomach at the time saw a nasty germ that had come along with the swallowed oysters and pressed the "puke" button. Mrs. Boyd is humiliated again later on in the film, when the popped blemish landed on her lip. Shane is ashamed of her father. Seeing him facing a terminal virus creates an epiphany in both of them. Frank needs to start caring for his body, and Shane learns to stop blaming Frank's apathy for her mother's death.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Characters

[edit] Live Action Characters

  • Frank (Bill Murray) is the setting for almost all of the animated portions of the film. Frank is a middle-aged man with no regard for his health. He enjoys fast food and a lack of activity. His disregard for his health extends to the point that he would unquestioningly put enough salt on an egg for the salt to be able to be blown off, and eat it after it had been in a chimpanzee’s mouth and on the floor of its enclosure. Ultimately, he is a kind person with Shane’s interests at heart, but is unable to realize or understand those interests.
  • Shane (Elena Franklin) is Frank’s daughter. Due to her father’s shortcomings, health is very important to her. She has become somewhat depressed after her mother’s death, and as a result her grades and relationships with other people are suffering.
  • Mrs. Boyd (Molly Shannon) is Shane’s teacher in school. Mrs. Boyd is a rather fierce woman. Having had her reputation and those of her three children ruined after being humiliated by Frank, she has a restraining order against him to prevent any further embarrassment.
  • Bob (Chris Elliot) is Frank’s friend and coworker, who, when Frank lost a job at a pea soup factory, got him his job at the zoo. Bob is also the person Frank entrusted Shane’s future to when becoming feverish from his illness.

[edit] Animated Characters

  • Osmosis Jones (Chris Rock) is an over-zealous white blood cell on the FPD, or “Frank Police Department.” Just as Frank’s puking in public discredited Frank himself, it also effected Ozzy’s reputation, as he had been the only cell to actually see the pathogen. Ever since, he has been placed in out-of-the-way patrols, so he seizes any opportunity to be able to make a difference. It is because of this that he is not believed about Thrax’s infection. Ozzy, lacking bones, is able to contort his body drastically, including splitting it down the middle, oozing through cracks, and combining his two eyes into one. This seems to be unique to him.
  • Thrax (Laurence Fishburne) is a tall, deadly virus, who claims loudly: “Ebola is a case of dandruff compared to me!” He is red-skinned and, unlike native inhabitants of Frank, angular in design. His left index finger is a longer claw than his others, which can become hot enough to melt the cellular equivalent to steel and, on contact with other organisms, causes them to be consumed by fire. He appears to be resistant to heat. He can also glide using his trench coat. Thrax is suave, and prone to humming jazz.
  • Drix (David Hyde Pierce) is a cold pill, and his red-and-yellow boxy design reflects this. His right arm is a cannon used to shoot an assorted variety of medication, including one that freezes anything shot at. He is very by-the-books, and compensates for his doubts about being a lesser medication by acting superior. He is book-smart, rather than street-smart. He disagrees with Osmosis’s methods, but respects Osmosis for continuing to fight illness despite the lack of faith in him, and so supports him.
  • Leah Estrogen (Brandy Norwood) is Mayor Phlegmming’s assistant, and greatly relied upon by the Mayor for her skills. She is one of few inhabitants of Frank who realize the flaws of the current administration, and one of the few grudgingly willing to believe Osmosis’s claims of a large-scale infection. She seems to be adept at chasing away men.
  • Mayor Phlegmming (William Shatner) is the short, overweight mayor of the City of Frank during the majority of the movie. He is either the cause for or a reflection of Frank’s negligence, and is constantly preoccupied with everything but his job, except when it concerns planning his reelection. Even in the midst of disaster, his concern is more about who will answer his phone than the wellbeing of Frank.
  • Tom Colonic (Ron Howard) is Mayor Phlegmming’s opposition in the election. He is a tall, thin cell, and supports a healthier Frank.
  • The Chief of Police (Joel Silver) is an extremely large, somewhat gelatinous cell with a short temper. He is evidently used to Ozzy’s adventures. Ultimately, he becomes supportive of Osmosis’s theory about Thrax when more severe symptoms appear.

[edit] Film production

Osmosis Jones went through a troubled time in production. The animated sequences, directed by Tom Sito and Piet Kroon, went into production as planned, but acquiring both a director and a star actor for the live-action sequences took some 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.

Upon its original release, the film lost a considerable amount of money, and was the second-to-last production for Warner Bros.' feature traditional animation department (following The Iron Giant, and followed by Looney Tunes: Back in Action, which both also lost money upon their original releases). While Osmosis Jones was not a box office success, it fared well with critics. One of the producers on the film's commentary also adds how it was a number one selling DVD.


[edit] Alternative versions

  • In the original script and in early cuts of the movie, a scene was featured when Osmosis and Drix go to the Gonad's Gym. It involved them talking to the "exercising" sperm cells. In order to stay family-oriented, the scene was cut from the final film, but may be on the DVD.
  • Gonad's Gym logo appears on Drix's suitcase during a scene in police station locker room. In an earlier "cut" of the film, Ozzy and Drix visit an amusement park behind Frank's eye, called "See World".
  • One of the trailers went through mild & trivial but noticeable censorship. Here is what the scene in the trailer went. Bob: "OK so your body is going to need fluids now." Frank: "Is soda a fluid?" Bob: "Yeah sure". (And here is how the actual scene in the theatrical release of the movie went.) Bob: "OK so your body is going to need some fluids now." Frank: "Is beer a fluid?" Bob: "Yeah sure."
  • The DVD release contains three extended (and half-animated) scenes, all of which appear in cut-down form in the final edit:
  • Drix and Jones visit the eyes, while Drix complains that he has to visit the nose and the throat. Jones gets donuts and calls the infodesk on his cell phone while at the eyes.
  • Frank picks his nose during the dam-bursting sequence, and Jones saves Drix from ending up on Frank's fingertip. In the end, they're snorted back up into the sinuses.
  • The race to catch Thrax on his way to the uvula is extended; we see Thrax leap from his car and glide away. Then, after Jones takes the wrong turn, he takes a "shortcut" to the uvula by way of the esophogus, riding a massive acidic Frank-belch up the throat.

[edit] Taglines

  • Every Body Needs A Hero.
  • It's the comedy that gets under your skin.
  • He's one cell of a guy, and his partner's a real pill. (referring to Osmosis and Drix, respectively)
  • She's got a jones for Osmosis. Leah. One hot hormone. (Leah)
  • The bug who's a thug. Thrax. He's infectious. (Thrax)
  • The medication with dedication. Drix. Every body needs a hero. (Drix)
  • He's a cop with a cold to stop. Ozzy. Every body needs a hero. (Ozzy)

[edit] Trivia

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.
  • In the movie, Frank is excited to attend a fictional Buffalo wing festival in Buffalo, New York. An actual festival, the National Buffalo Wing Festival, is now held every Labor Day weekend since 2002 in downtown Buffalo, inspired from the movie.
  • A running joke in the movie is that Leah is called Brandy, who provided the voice for the character, various times throughout the movie. In addition, on her desk in the brain her nameplate says Brandy in at least one shot.
  • A draft of the script reveals that when Osmosis went to a family reunion when he was young. At that time Frank went to the doctors to have some blood taken out. The needle drew out all of Ozzy's relatives, leaving him all alone. The alternate ending has Frank getting a blood tranfusion to save his life, with his own blood prior. It would have his family and relatives returning to Frank in a parody of the returnes in Close Encounters of the Third Kind[citation needed].
  • The "protein packs" used by the mouth workers use the same sound effects as the proton packs from Ghost Busters (1984).
  • The signs in Franks body read "Slow - Sore Throat", "Ulcer Repair", "Danger - Open Nerve" and many more like it. In the stomach, Arrivals signs like "Booger" can be seen.
  • Various famous movie scenes are copied: - The Godfather (1972) (Big Boss in armpit), The Matrix (1999) (fight between Ozzy & Thrax), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) (Ozzy's halfway mitosis & Thrax dissolves), the Titanic (1997) (the orchestra). Thrax also shows some similarities to Laurence Fishburne's appearance in The Matrix.
  • Kidney Rock, the band playing at The Zit, is rapper Kid Rock and his back-up band, including rapper Joe-C, who died shortly before the film's release.
  • The name of the song that Thrax keeps humming is called "Fever".
  • Drix often recites what we would read on a pill box or see on a medical commercial. When he introduces himself, he includes "may cause drowsiness, do not operate heavy machinery, pregnant woman should not handle broken tablets etc... During the throat scene he is humming the Drixenol jingle: "when your body's full of aches, a Drixenol is all it takes."
  • A running gag is that Osmosis Jones unintentionally refers to Drix as "Drips".

[edit] Goofs

  • After germs invade Frank's body a voice on the patrol car's radio states "all units report down to the stomach." when in fact the germs were shown missing the entrance to Frank's stomach and being blown down his windpipe. Furthermore the chief is using a screen tracking the germs that shows them approaching the lungs not the stomach.
  • In a close-up of a map of Frank's body, the word collarbone is misspelt "collerbone."
  • The area of Frank's cramp kept changing.
  • Continuity: The length of Frank's beard changes from scene to scene.
  • Revealing mistakes: When Osmosis comes back from "The Zit" he greets Leah by saying "Brandy- oh I mean Leah". Brandy Norwood was the voice of Leah. The error was left in because the director thought it was funny.
  • Continuity: When Frank is talking to his daughter by the monkey cage, his lunch box is lying on its side. In the next shot, the bag is standing up.

[edit] Merchandising

There was very little merchandising for the film. Trendmasters planned on releasing a toys line of the characters from the film. Including but not limited to action figures, "flingable snot" and the like. However, they claimed they would only release the toys if the film exceeded 65 million at the box office. Unfortunately the film failed to do so and the toys were never released. The one of a few products released was a video game based on the series "Ozzy & Drix". Hats, posters, soundtracks and presskits for the film can be found on ebay.

[edit] Soundtrack Listing

Please note that songs listed here (and in the movie credits) cannot always be found on CD soundtracks. Please check CD track details for confirmation.

  • "Turn It Out"

Written by Kelvin Mercer, David Jolicoeur and Richard Morninglane Produced by R. Thentic and De La Soul Performed by De La Soul featuring Elizabeth "Yummy" Bingham De La Soul appears courtesy of Tommy Boy Music

  • "Hot Blooded (Philip Steir Remix)"

Written by Mick Jones and Lou Gramm Performed by Foreigner Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.

  • "Here We Go Again"

Written by W. Hughes, V. Tisdale and James Chambers, III Produced by James "Groove" Chambers Performed by Nappy Roots Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.

  • "Fever"

Written by John Davenport and Eddie Cooley

  • "Rider Like Me"

Written by Ezekiel Lewis, Nicholaus "Fury" Loftin, Terran "Shawn Blaze" Mitchell, Mari Ben Ari and Johntá Austin Produced by Fury Performed by Ezekiel Lewis Courtesy of 143 Records

  • "Fill Me In"

(Part 2) Written by C. David and M. Hill Produced by Mark Hill Performed by Craig David Courtesy of Wildstar Records Ltd.

  • "Big Ball"

Written by T. Cook and Jazze Pha Produced by Jazze Pha Performed by Drama Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.

  • "Open"

Written and Produced by Mike City Performed by Brandy Norwood (as Brandy) Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.

  • "Take it to Da House"

Written by Funk Boogie, Money Mark, J.V., Trina, Co, Trick Daddy, C. Bobbit, F. Wesley, J. Brown, C. Wayne, H. Casey and R. Finch Performed by Trick Daddy featuring The Slip-N-Slide Express Courtesy of Slip 'n Slide Records/Atlantic Records Contains excerpts from "The Boss" by James Brown, used courtesy of Polydor Records Under license from Universal Music Enterprises and sample recording from "Boogie Shoes" as Performed by KC & The Sunshine Band, included courtesy of EMI Records Ltd. and used under license from Warner Special Products

  • "Fire"

Written by James Williams, Clarence Satchell, Leroy 'Sugarfoot' Bonner (as Leroy Bonner), Marshall Jones, Ralph Middlebrooks, Marvin Pierce and Willie Beck

  • "Alone Again (Naturally)"

Written and Performed by Gilbert O'Sullivan Courtesy of Grand Upright Music Ltd.

  • "Cool, Daddy Cool"

Written by Robert J. Ritchie, Bob Crewe and Frank Slay, Jr. Produced by Kid Rock Performed by Kid Rock featuring Joe C Courtesy of Lava/Atlantic Records

  • "Run On"

(Sharam Instrumental Mix) Written by Moby (as Richard Hall) Performed by Moby Courtesy of V2 Records, Inc./Mute Ltd.

  • "Groovejet (If This Ain't Love)"

Written by C. Spiller, S. Ellis Bextor, R. Davis, V. Montana, Jr. and R. Walker Performed by DJ Spiller and Lead Vocals by Sophie Ellis-Bextor Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp. By Arrangement with Warner Special Products, JT Company (Italy), Blanco y Negro Music (Spain), Scorpio Music (France), EMI Records Ltd., Kontor Records (Germany) and F&G Management Contains a sample from Carol Williams "Love is You" Courtesy of Salsoul Records

  • "Back That Thing Up"

Written by Juvenile, Lil Wayne and Mannie Fresh

  • "Break U Off"

Written by Mike Bradford and Matt Shafer Produced by Mike Bradford Performed by Uncle Kracker Courtesy of Lava/Atlantic Records

  • "Key to My Heart"

Written by C. David and Zachary Jaydon (as J. Paull) Produced by Kowan Paul Performed by Craig David Courtesy of Wildstar Records Ltd.

  • "My Name Is"

Written by Labi Siffre

  • "Solo Star"

Written by Kandi Burruss, Talib Kareem and Beyoncé Knowles Produced by Talib Kareem and Kandi Burruss Performed by Solange Courtesy of Music World Music/Columbia Records

  • "Pump and Snap"

Written by Dennis White, Richard Vission, David Schommer and Sam Hollander Performed and Produced by CONTROL FREQ

  • "Summer In The City"

Written by John Sebastian, Steve Boone and Mark Sebastian Produced by Jason "Jay E" Epperson Performed by St. Lunatics Courtesy of Fo' Reel Entertainment/Universal Records

  • "I Believe"

Written, Produced and Performed by R. Kelly Courtesy of Jive Records

  • "Fill Me In"

Produced by Mark Hill Performed by Craig David Courtesy of Wildstar Records Ltd.

  • "Don't Be Mad"

Written and Produced by Mike City Performed by Sunshine Anderson featuring Rayshawn Sherrer Sunshine Anderson appears courtesy of Soulife Entertainment Holdings, Inc./ Atlantic Recording Corp. Rayshawn Sherrer appears courtesy of Soulife Entertainment Holdings, Inc.

  • "Why Did You Have to Be"

Written by Diane Warren Produced by Keith Thomas Performed by Debelah Morgan Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp.

[edit] Cast and crew

[edit] Directors

[edit] Voice cast

In addition, Ben Stein, Joel Silver, John Melendez and Kid Rock's band (including himself, Joe C., and Uncle Kracker) have cameo voice roles.

[edit] Live action cast

[edit] External links

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